Title: Bog Child
Author: Siobhan Dowd
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Genre: Young Adult
Age level: 12+
Themes: Solving mysteries, discovering the unknown
Synopsis: Digging for peat in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she's been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.
Synopsis: Digging for peat in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she's been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.
About the author: Siobhan Dowd was born in 1960. She was brought up in London, but spent much of her youth visiting the family homes in County Waterford, then Wicklow town. She attended a Catholic grammar school in south London, and went on to receive a BA in Classics from Oxford University and an MA with distinction in Gender and Ethnic Studies from Greenwich University. On her return to the UK, Dowd co-founded English PEN’s readers and writers program. The program takes authors into schools in socially deprived areas, as well as prisons, young offender institutions and community projects. Siobhan Dowd died in August 2007 age 47 from breast cancer.
Pre-reading activities: Since the book is set in Ireland and the Irish have their own words to represent people and other things, have the students write down the words that are confusing to them and go over the words at the end so the book will be much easier to translate.
Post-reading activities: While reading the book, have the students write down questions they would like answered by the text. If there are questions that need to be answered by making an educated guess or by using an outside source, those questions will be put aside.
Reflection: The first chapter of this book definitely lays out the structure of the text and the language on the first page indicates that it is going to have an eerie feel to it. When they find Mel's dead body, I imagine this might be a little disturbing for some students, so they would have to be warned beforehand that some parts may be a little disturbing for them. Overall, I thought the book was very mysterious and induced a lot of questions.
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