Literature / The Enchanted Files

The Enchanted Files is a series of children's novels written by Bruce Coville. Each tells the story of a being from the Enchanted Realm, recorded through a series of diary entries from the main non-human character, but also mixes in assorted papers from other characters, such as letters, memos and other diary entries.

The series consists of:

• #1: Cursed (2015; originally released as Diary of a Mad Brownie)
• #2: Hatched (2016; working title Diary of a Runaway Griffin)
• #3: Trolled (2017; working title Diary of a Terrible Troll)

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This series contains examples of:

General

• Scrapbook Story: Each of the books in the series consist mainly of diary entries from the main non-human character, but also mixes in assorted papers from other characters, such as letters, memos and other diary entries.

Cursed (2015)

• Adapted Out: In "Clean as a Whistle", Jamie's grandmother Harriet "Hattie" Hortense MacDougal is the one who sent the brownie to her, after the last of Jamie's relatives in the U.K. died and Hattie goes to close up the house, finding the brownie and telling him about her granddaughter. In Diary of a Mad Brownie / Cursed, Grandma Hattie is never mentioned, and said deceased relative, Sarah McGonagall (Alex's many times great-aunt), is the one who tells Angus to go live with Alex shortly before she passes.
• Adaptation Expansion: Diary of a Mad Brownie (later retitled Cursed for its paperback edition) is expanded from the short story Clean As a Whistle, first published in the 1994 anthology Oddly Enough and republished in Bruce Coville's Book of Magic II).
• Adaptation Name Change: A couple of characters from "Clean as a Whistle" are given different names in Diary of a Mad Brownie / Cursed.
  • Jamie Carhart is renamed to Alex Carhart.
  • In the original story, the brownie is bound to the MacDougal family. In the novel, the family name is McGonagall.
  • Jamie's cat Mr. Bumpo is renamed Bubbles.
• Adaptational Location Change: In "Clean as a Whistle", Jamie and her family live in Minnesota. In Diary of a Mad Brownie / Cursed, they live in Connecticut instead.
• Amphibian at Large: Toads in the Enchanted Realm are noted as being far larger than in the human world, big enough for a foot-tall brownie to ride on comfortably (size-wise, at least — the hopping is rather uncomfortable).
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: More like "was at least half Elvish", actually. Angus remarks in his diary at one point that William Shakespeare is actually of Enchanted stock (Angus personally thinks he's part Elf), and the general belief in the Enchanted Realm is that he was half human at most.
• Berserk Button: Brownies, including Angus, take considerable offense at being mistaken for or compared to other species, such as elves, humans or trolls (as evidenced when Alex claims to her brother that he's like one of her old Troll Dolls, not realizing what she's actually referring to... not that he's any happier when she actually shows him one). He also hates being called a pet, and absolutely flips out when Alex calls him hers.
• Cassandra Truth: Destiny Carhart freely talks about her friend Herbert the Goblin. Her family and schoolmates chalk it up to an Imaginary Friend (and even Angus thinks she was making him up, since he hasn't found any goblins in the house since he arrived), but he, Destiny's siblings and her teacher Ms. Kincaid all later learn that Herbert was Real After All when they meet him in person during their trip through the Enchanted Realm.
• Cats Are Mean: Bubbles, the Carhart family cat, is notorious for his viciousness — when he's first mentioned, it's in a letter from the vet's office saying they can no longer accept him as a patient because he tends to badly injure the employees, and three have threatened to quit on the spot if he ever comes back. He becomes somewhat better behaved after Angus manages to ride on him and reveals he can speak cat language.
• Curse: Naturally, given the paperback edition's title. Said curse is carried by the eldest male of every generation of Cairns (passed on to them at the previous elder Cairns' death — so far, only Seamus Cairns and his son Angus have carried it) and causes any male of the McGonagall family that a Cairns is living with to try and make beautiful poetry, rhymes or lyrics, to the exclusion of all else (thereby severely messing up their lives), but their creations always come out wretched. It's eventually revealed that the curse was placed on the Cairns family by Greer M'Greer, Queen of Scotland's Enchanted Realm (also known as the Queen of Shadows) in retaliation for Seamus helping Ewan McGonagall by carrying messages between he and the Queen's daughter, who fell in love with him, began wasting away, and ultimately left the Enchanted Realm to be with him as a result, since she felt she could not live without him.
• Curse Escape Clause: The only way for the Cairns family to break the curse laid on their family line is for a male of the McGonagall line to retrieve the Queen of Shadows' lost daughter and return her, not just to the Enchanted Realm but directly to her mother.
• Exiled to the Couch: Thanks to Mrs. Carhart discovering the silverware drawer rearranged, when they've kept it the same way for twenty years, she starts to wonder if Alex was telling the truth about someone sneaking in and cleaning her room. When she tells this to her husband, he asks if she's been sniffing dishwasher soap... and she promptly threatens to make him do the dishes by hand and then sleep in the doghouse. When they don't have a dog.
• Faint in Shock: Ms. Kincaid (Destiny's teacher) passes out moments after she touches Angus's hand and confirms that he's real.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Teacher, rather. Destiny Carhart's teacher, Ms. Lorna Kincaid, is initially a mild case, thinking children claiming to have Imaginary Friends is mostly harmless, but also considers it unhealthy at Destiny's age (she's a first-grader) and disruptive, due to Destiny insisting that Herbert have his own seat next to her, asking the Carharts to suggest that Herbert stay home from now on (when they do though, she tells them he already went back to his own home). Later though, Ms. Kincaid tries to convince Destiny that Herbert was never real, which makes Destiny cry and infuriates Angus when he overhears it. She later learns they're real, and admits that she'd reacted this way because her mother was always talking about the "fair folk" and the Enchanted Realm for years as if they were real (having heard the stories from her own mother and grandmother), but never presented any evidence beyond the stories. Lorna herself was so confused by them as a child that she thought it was bad for Destiny to believe in the same kinds of things.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Angus, at least, initially thinks the family cat is a case of this, as he reacts incredulously when he finds out the animal's name is Bubbles and writes in his diary that Lucifer or Bloodclaw Reddifang would be more fitting. Eventually subverted after they become friends and Bubbles becomes nicer.
• Gender-Blender Name: When Angus is initially told that he must move on to a new member of the family, he's horrified when Sarah McGonagall tells him their name is Alex, saying it's a boy's name and he's supposed to go to the youngest female of age (ten or older). Sarah patiently explains that Alex is a girl, short for Alexandra.
• Haggis Is Horrible: Angus actually likes it, having lived in Scotland for so long, but when he describes it to Alex, she cuts him off and starts acting like she has to vomit from the description alone.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Angus is rather short-tempered (and admits it's a problem), which is part of why the book's original title refers to him as a "mad brownie". Justified in most cases — his job is to keep the house clean, and he's angered when Alex (and her family) won't do much to help in that regard; he also absolutely flips out over being called the wrong species, over being called a pet, and by Destiny's teacher trying to tell her that her "imaginary friend" was never real.
• Hereditary Curse: The Cairns family of brownies have carried one for a few hundred years, ever since Seamus Cairns helped Ewan McGonagall and the Queen's daughter, the Princess of Sunshine, send messages back and forth until they fell in love, causing the Princess to leave the Enchanted Realm to be with him until he died. It affects the human family each brownie is living with, bringing misery on them, but only if a male human is living in the house.
• Hollywood Midlife Crisis: Alex Carhart's father undergoes one when he quits his job to focus on writing song lyrics. Which are terrible. It turns out to be a side-effect of the curse that Angus Cairns, the titular mad brownie, carries with him — any male of the family he's living with is bound to try to make beautiful poetry, rhymes or lyrics, but it'll always come out wretched (one intern finds the lyrics he wrote and sent to the company she worked for to be so bad that she outright quits her job after reading them). Once the curse is broken, the afflicted turn back to their original selves, and Mr. Carhart reclaims his job and gives up trying to write song lyrics.
• House Fey: The plot kicks off when Alex Carhart gets a brownie, a small humanoid creature who's been bound to her mother's line for generations, as a caretaker for her room. She's not amused by this, since her room is naturally messy and she likes it that way.
• Human Mail: Well, he's not human, but the principle is the same — Angus suggests that Sarah put him in a box and mail him to America, but she says it wouldn't work. He later tries to shut himself in a package to be mailed, but finds that taping up a box from the inside is harder than it looks, and ultimately gives up on the idea.
• I Choose to Stay: After her great-grandmother returns to the Enchanted Realm and to her mother, the Queen of Shadows, Ms. Kincaid decides to stay in the Enchanted Realm herself.
• Masquerade: Brownies are not allowed to show themselves to humans, aside from the ones they're bound to. Angus breaks this rule when he reveals himself to Destiny Carhart's teacher, Ms. Kincaid, to give her a chewing out over trying to convince Destiny that her Imaginary Friend, Herbert the Goblin, was never real.
• Meaningful Name: Alex Carhart's younger sister Destiny. She wasn't planned, but Mr. and Mrs. Carhart gave her her name when they decided it was simply their "fate" to have a third child.
• Named by the Adaptation: A couple of cases.
  • In "Clean as a Whistle", the brownie was a case of No Name Given. In Diary of a Mad Brownie / Cursed, he's given the name Angus Cairns.
  • In "Clean as a Whistle", Jamie's parents are simply known as Mr. and Mrs. Carhart. In Diary of a Mad Brownie / Cursed, they're given the first names Dennis and Ellen.
• Neat Freak: Brownies in general have this as a trait of their species — part of their "Great Oath" every brownie swears when they come of age is that "We will maintain order and cleanliness in the households we inhabit, as is good and right." Angus Cairns, the titular mad brownie), having been bound to serve the youngest of-age female in the McGonagall family, is subsequently sworn to keep Alex Carhart's room spic-and-span whether she likes it or not.
• Nice Guy: While Angus is out in the yard one day, he nearly gets beaned by a soccer ball, and has to zig and zag to avoid getting hit by it, finally diving into a rabbit hole. The rabbit is startled, but quite understanding when Angus explains and invites him to stay inside until it's safe.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Alex Carhart's little sister Destiny has an invisible friend, Herbert the Goblin, who later supposedly disappears some time before her teacher tries to convince her he isn't real (angering Angus, the titular "mad Brownie"). Later on, when the protagonists (including said teacher) travel through the Enchanted Realm, they meet Herbert and learn he's a crewman on a ship there — he met Destiny while he was on shore leave, and left with a promise to keep in touch when his time was up.
• Older Than They Look: When Ms. Kincaid asks Alex how old the girl thinks she is, Alex guesses she's thirty. Ms. Kincaid then reveals she's actually sixty-five, and that the women in their family have always aged slower than normal.
• Our Goblins Are Different: Goblins in the Enchanted Realm are about three feet tall, with big noses, big feet and flopping ears. The ones the Carhart siblings and their traveling companions meet are pretty friendly. They're also strong enough to pummel a sea serpent when it attacks their ship.
• Passed in Their Sleep: Elderly Sarah McGonagall, whom Angus had served before Alex, simply falls asleep in front of the television one afternoon, starts snoring and dies without ever waking up.
• The Prankster: Brownies, as part of their "Great Oath", have to swear that "We will do a modest amount of mischief every day, mischief being an important part of a life well lived." Angus's idea of mischief is things like rearranging the silverware drawer.
• Selkies and Wereseals: Selkies exist in the Enchanted Realm, and have the traditional selkie feature of appearing to be seals who can remove their skins to assume a human form. It's also noted that a human woman can summon a male selkie by shedding seven tears into the sea at high tide. Angus has to hide the skin of one in order to make a bargain with her so she'll take him across the Shadow Sea once her skin is returned.
• Separated by a Common Language: Angus, having lived in Great Britain for so long, is confused by some of the terminology he runs across in America — for instance, he doesn't recognize the word "soccer", at first, but soon notes in his diary that he's learned it's what the British (or as he puts it, "any sensible person") would call "football". He later remarks in another diary entry that "I am amazed that though we speak the same language, we have so many different words for things. Sometimes it makes communication quite difficult."
• Super-Speed: Brownies have the "scurrying" ability, which lets them move so fast that they appear to only be a blur. It doesn't work for long distances, but it helps them get out of sight of humans who aren't supposed to know about them.
• Tempting Fate: At the end of one diary entry, Angus writes of his next home that "I also hope it will not have a cat." The very next page reveals that the Carhart house does have a cat, and a rather vicious one at that.
• Toilet Humour: Discussed briefly — goblins, in this setting, "think farts are the most hilarious things in the world".
• Toy Disguise: Angus has to pretend he's just a doll a few times when someone who isn't in on his secret comes into a room where he's out in the open.
• Trash of the Titans: Alex Carhart's room is a disaster area (it includes clothes strewn all over, moldy food and a glass with three dead flies in it), as is her desk at school, to her parents' and teacher's consternation. When the family brownie is sent to take up the job of cleaning her room, Alex is not amused (in fact, her first reaction is to call the police and tell them someone must have broken in, as evidenced by the sudden cleaning, only to get laughed at), and does her best to keep the room a mess. They eventually compromise.
• Ugly Cute: Discussed In-Universe when Alex shows Angus a Troll doll, describing it as "something that's so ugly it's cute".
• Unfortunate Names: Alex Carhart thinks her teacher's last name is unfortunate, as evidenced by one of her journal entries. To quote:
  I think our teacher has a strange name. Winterbotham. What kind of name is that? It makes me think she must have a cold butt.
  I wonder if she sits on ice cubes when she goes home.
• Unishment: Throughout the book, Angus has violated the "Great Oath of the Brownies" many, many times in just a few months (including revealing himself to other humans, insufficient mischief and bringing humans into the Enchanted Realm)... yet he also played an important role in the return of the Princess of Sunshine. Consequently, he is permanently branded a "rascal", and is sentenced to five years of service to Alex, after which he'll be free to attach himself to any family he wants.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: When the Carhart siblings, Angus and Ms. Kincaid and her great-grandmother travel into the Enchanted Realm, they set up a time peg they've been given at the point where they enter to ensure that they'll return at the same time they left, as otherwise far longer may or may not have passed in their absence. It works, to Alex's relief.