Enchanted Files 3 – Trolled

Bruce Coville's Trolled is a funny and surprisingly tender fantasy for 8 year olds about a troll keeping his head down in New York City.

What happens

Ned Thump is six feet eleven and his nose is as big as a dill pickle. He works nights as a security guard at Grand Central Terminal and lives in a secret cave underneath it. He loves long words, he eats rats (his favourite recipe is a rat stew he calls ratatouille) and his farts are world-class by human standards.

He's also terribly lonely. That's why, in his one hundred and ninety-eighth year, he starts a diary.

Cody Takala is eleven and has just started sixth grade. His teacher has set a year-long biography project, and Cody's dad happens to be Ned's boss. You can probably guess who Cody decides is the most unusual person he knows!

The book is put together from bits and pieces. Ned's diary sits next to Cody's notebook, old school reports, a doctor's letter, text messages and extracts from scholarly books about trolls. There are even rules for troll poetry (every poem must contain at least one fart). It's great for a reader who likes to dip in and out, and you always know a bit more than either of them does.

Under the jokes there's real feeling. Ned had to leave Troll Mountain because of something he's too ashamed to talk about, and he has a soft spot he'd never admit to. He takes food and colouring books to Martha, a little girl who lives in the tunnels with her mum.

Cody has his own troubles. He tells tall stories (he calls it skying) and grown-ups don't always believe him, even when he's telling the truth. His great-granny clams up the moment he asks about the family's past in Finland. There's also a very honest page where he writes about the day he watched another boy being bullied and did nothing. Would your reader be brave enough to write that down?

If you've got a child who likes their funny books with plenty of heart, this should go down well. The toilet humour is constant, so it helps if that makes them laugh rather than groan!

What to read next

Cody's cousin Alex pops up by text message in this one, and she has an adventure of her own with a magical houseguest who's obsessed with tidying. You'll find it in Diary of a Mad Brownie.