The Spook's Apprentice
by Joseph Delaney
★ Top 25 book of 2004 · #17 on Best Books of 2004
Old Gregory, the county's Spook, is nearing retirement, and Thomas Ward is the last apprentice left after many others failed. Thomas must learn to tell witches apart, and a mistake could unleash a terrible evil.
Best for: Younger readers who enjoy spooky tales of witches and monster-hunting apprentices
The Spook's Apprentice is #17 on BookWard's Best Books of 2004, out of 48 2004 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Spook's Apprentice is about
Tom Ward is a twelve-year-old farm boy in the County, a made-up place modelled on Lancashire. Being the seventh son of a seventh son gives him a rare gift: he can see ghosts, boggarts, ghasts and other creatures most people never notice.
That makes him useful to John Gregory, the County's Spook, who takes Tom on as his apprentice. Gregory has already trained twenty-nine others, and many failed or died. Among his rules is a warning about girls in pointy shoes, a sign of witchcraft. Then Tom meets Alice, who wears them. The tale has a shadowy, gothic mood, with the Spook's house at Chipenden watched over by a boggart and a witch locked in a pit in the garden. It is the first of the Wardstone Chronicles, written for children who like their fantasy dark, and it was filmed as Seventh Son.
The Spook's Apprentice on the Best Books of 2004
The Spook's Apprentice came out in 2004. Of the 48 books first published in 2004 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #17 on our Best Books of 2004 list.
Why it made the list: 204 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (24 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2004 list
- Cloud Atlas David Mitchell, #15
- The Enemy Lee Child, #16
- The Walking Dead, Vol. 1 Robert Kirkman, #18
- Collapse Jared Diamond, #19
See all Best Books of 2004 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2003 Best Books of 2005.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 160 want to read it, 13 are reading it now and 31 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.1 out of 5 from 24 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 46 | 55% |
| Reader love | 71 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 67 | 20% |
Questions about The Spook's Apprentice
When was The Spook's Apprentice published?
The Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney was first published in 2004.
Was The Spook's Apprentice one of the best books of 2004?
The Spook's Apprentice is #17 on BookWard's Best Books of 2004, out of 48 2004 books that cleared our data bar. 204 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (24 ratings).
Why is The Spook's Apprentice on the Best Books of 2004 list?
204 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (24 ratings).
More of the best books of 2004
- Darkly Dreaming Dexter Jeffry P. Lindsay, #1
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Teens Robert T. Kiyosaki, #2
- The Ruins of Gorlan John Flanagan, #3
- Alexander Hamilton Ron Chernow, #4
- Blink Malcolm Gladwell, #5
- She Comes First Ian Kerner, #6
See the full Best Books of 2004, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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