Changes

|title=The Curse of the Bogle's Beard

|sort=Curse of the Bogle's Beard

|publisher=Scholastic

|date=May 2012

|summary=A deceptively intelligent frolic for eight-to-twelves, with a disgusting granny to a nervy young lad, and someone's well-kept secrets.

}}

This is the book that takes the disgusting granny stereotype to its farthest lengths. Barnaby's gran is fond of purple to look queenly, digs her nose in his ear when she talks to him, and is rather hairy, very burpy and incredibly bossy. She also has nothing good to say about her daughter's choice of husband - Barnaby's father - who has decided to ignore the invitation to inherit the family's pickled vegetable factory and has in fact vanished. Could an old diary Barnaby's found of someone's very brave and very beetrooty life hold a clue? Will Barnaby overcome his nerves to explore Nan's mansion on his own? And quite how far will she go at preserving certain things?

So while there is common ground here with lots of similar wacky frolics (bodily functions, peculiar science, multiple fonts) this series opener is a flashing bright advert for what might come, while being a self-contained bounty of its own. The plotting is very clever, and even the first two pages alone were able to suck me onto a very different path to the surprising pleasures I was to find later on.

Another boy solving mysteries through writing - not reading - about old things can be had with [[Dead End In Norvelt by Jack Gantos]].