#90 in Children’s books
The Spook's Apprentice
- 340
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
- Hampshire Book Awards
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Our view
“The Spook’s Apprentice” is dark fantasy for young readers with a genuinely eerie atmosphere, and it lays the ground for a long series. Its world of witches and ghosts is the main attraction. Some readers find the first half slow, busy with setting things up, before the pace picks up midway. Adults can enjoy it too, provided they keep the age of its characters in mind.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Spook's Apprentice, published as The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch in the United States, is a 2004 children's dark fantasy novel by Joseph Delaney. It was published by The Bodley Head and Red Fox in the United Kingdom, and by Greenwillow Books in the United States. It is the first book in The Wardstone Chronicles, the first arc of the Spook's series. The book has sold more than 3 million copies and won the Sefton Book Award, the Hampshire Book Award and the Prix Plaisirs de Lire. It was adapted into a play script, the feature film Seventh Son, and a French graphic novel.
Reading order · The Wardstone Chronicles
Full order & progress →- The Spook's ApprenticeThis book
7.97.9 / 10 - The Spook's Curse
8.08.0 / 10 - The Spook's Secret
7.97.9 / 10 - The Spook's Battle
8.08.0 / 10 - The Spook's Mistake
7.97.9 / 10 - The Spook's Sacrifice
7.97.9 / 10 - The Spook's Nightmare
7.97.9 / 10 - The Spook's Destiny
–Not ranked yet - I Am GrimalkinI Am Grimalkin–Not ranked yet
- The Spook's Blood
–Not ranked yet - Slither's TaleSlither's Tale–Not ranked yet
- Alice
–Not ranked yet - The Spook's Revenge
–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.9 across 190 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 56% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Children’s books average of 7.9. That is how 7.9 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.3 | 24 | 13% |
| Hardcover | 7.9 | 166 | 87% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Spook's Apprentice for?
The Spook's Apprentice sits on the Children shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 5–10. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 340 pages — shorter than 90% of the ranked books in Children’s books.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Children’s books — with scores between 7.9 and 8.3, closest to this book.
