The Last of the High Kings

"Jenny had never had a friend before . . . There was the púka, of course, but he was more like a teacher or a kindly old uncle than a friend." When the púka-a large, shape-shifting goat-asks eleven-year-old Jenny to befriend a ghost, she agrees; after all, the ghost is sad and lonely. For thousands of years, the ghost has guarded a mountaintop beacon from horrible monsters . . . such as the púka, Jenny begins to suspect. So, she wonders: is the púka actually kind or just using her to get to the ghost? Glossary.