Witch

Witch by Finbar Hawkins (HarperCollins) PB RRP $16.99 ISBN: 9781800245907

Reviewed by Dannielle Viera

When Evey witnesses her mother being bludgeoned by witch-hunters, she is torn between trying to save her and protecting her little sister, Dill. Reluctantly, she heeds her mother’s last words to ‘look to Dill’ and takes her sister to their aunt’s coven. But a fire seethes within Evey, and she seeks revenge for her mother’s death. Can she control her growing anger before it overwhelms her with dark ‘magick’? And will the bond of sisterhood shine a light on the path to peace for Evey and Dill?

A fictional tale based on the real-life witchfinders that roamed seventeenth-century England, Witch enfolds its audience in an ancient realm of spells, scrying stones and savagery. Finbar Hawkins employs first person to place the reader right in the middle of both the action and the anguish, ensuring that the reader feels every jolt during Evey’s fervent journey to vengeance.

Finbar’s use of language is intriguing, as he often utilises a more rustic turn of phrase to augment the historical ambience. While this may be jarring to the book’s teen audience at first, the skill with which Finbar paints his world with words soon enables readers to fly through the pages like a majestic owl, ‘the feathers of her wings brushing the moon’.

Bold, brutal and beguiling, Witch is a mesmerising exploration of life’s enduring dualities: love and hate, good and evil, light and dark. As Evey searches the hostile land for those who wronged her family, she unwittingly discovers her true self – a powerful witch who strives for balance in an unstable world.

Jinny and Cooper: Revenge of the Stone Witch

Jinny and Cooper: Revenge of the Stone Witch by Tania Ingram (Puffin Books) PB RRP $14.99 ISBN 9780143308997

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

This is the fourth in a series of chapter books suitable for readers 7 to 10 years. The narrator of this book is Jinny (short for Jinnifer) while Cooper is her scruffy, teleporting and talking guinea pig – a very greedy one at that with a preference for junk food.

During the school holidays too-polite Katie comes to stay next door to Jinny which is nice at first but soon Jinny is feeling jealous. Even brother Tyrone (who calls himself Super Booger) thinks Katie is ‘super awesome’. More trouble arrives when Miss Morgan moves into the nearby house last occupied by a witch: is the new neighbour a witch, too? (In the previous book, there is an adventure about a teacher who is a witch living in this house.)

Suspicions are aroused when a cloaked woman is seen digging in Jinny’s front garden at night. Who is the woman? Jinny and Tyrone discover a series of knotted strings where the woman dug. This is a clue which they follow – only to find that Miss Morgan was the culprit. She reveals much information to the children about a coven of witches and lets it be known that there is mischief afoot. Who is the real witch?

With Cooper’s help, the children find themselves in the home of elderly Mrs Goodfellow, Katie’s grand-mother. Females are turned to stone! Can the salt and potatoes – said to ward off witches – help save the day? And how does Cooper work to prevent more trouble?

There are lots of possibilities in this story which are sure to have young readers guessing, and too there is a lot of humour. The action moves quickly and the characters, especially Cooper, are idiosyncratic and engaging. 

A Most Magical Girl

A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee (Allen & Unwin) HB RRP $19.99

ISBN 9781848125742

Reviewed by Daniela Andrews

Imagine a perfectly proper girl, Annabel Grey, living in London in the Victorian era. She attends ‘Miss Finch’s Academy for Young Ladies’ where she learns how to walk demurely, how to feign a smile when discontent and how to display a ‘graceful countenance’ at a dinner party.

Remove her from that world.

Send her to live with some long-lost aunts, who inform her she’s a witch. Explain that she needs to go on a quest to retrieve a powerful wand in London’s underworld. And that she needs to do it quickly, before the evil Mr Angel turns the city (and its inhabitants) to dust. Tell her she’s a most magical girl – a Valiant Defender of Good Magic.

Imagine her disbelief, her reluctance to assume the role, the personal journey she must undertake before she can succeed … and you will have the premise of this book. 

Karen Foxlee, author of Ophelia and the Marvellous Boy, has written another terrific middle grade story about an unlikely hero. Another magical girl, Kitty, and an unusual troll named Hafwen join Annabel in her journey. Together, they must defeat Mr Angel, a villainous, power-hungry wizard who has created a machine to build an army of evil ‘Shadowlings’. The machine has been fed with items of sadness for almost 13 years – booties and bonnets of dead babies and feathers from extinct birds. He created the machine with the grieving tears of Annabel’s mother … and now he wants Annabel herself. 

The story is divided into three parts. Each new section features a stunning double-page, three-dimensional, black and white illustration by Elly MacKay. We also note the level of the dark-magic gauge in Mr Angel’s machine – a creative way to build suspense!

The writing is beautiful, evoking all the senses – especially in its descriptions of Under London. The chapters open with a lesson from Miss Finch’s Little Blue Book (1855), creating a wonderful juxtaposition between Annabel’s former life and her new one. Annabel’s self-acceptance is cleverly illustrated in the final chapter, which opens with a lesson from a different role model. It also begins with the same line that opened the novel, along with another one of Annabel’s puddle visions … but it’s a much stronger, likeable Annabel who closes the story.

Escape From Wolfhaven Castle: The Impossible Quest #1

Escape From Wolfhaven Castle: The Impossible Quest #1 by Kate Forsyth (Scholastic Press)

PB RRP $7.99

ISBN 978-1-74362-406-7

Reviewed by Jenny Heslop

Tom is a kitchen hand, trained to scrub pots in Wolfhaven Castle under the watchful eye of his mother, the castle's cook. But after Lord Wolfgang ignores a wild man’s warning the castle is attacked, leaving Tom on the outside alone with Elanor, the lord's daughter, Sebastian, a knight in training, and Quinn, the witch’s apprentice. It soon becomes clear that it is up to these four children to fulfil an old prophecy to save Wolfhaven castle with their friends and family who are held prisoner inside.

Escape from Wolfhaven Castle is the first book in a series of five which mixes fantasy and adventure in an action-packed quest, which will enthral both boys and girls in equal measure.

The characters are strong, likeable and believable. They don't know each other at the beginning of the journey and often have disagreements about the best way to achieve the quest - or even if it is actually a quest - but it is this newness that helps the reader get to know the characters as the children grow into their relationships.

Medieval in feel, and darkly ominous, the story follows these four children as they desperately try to outrun frightening bog-men and pursue treasures held by griffin, unicorn, sea-serpent and dragon – even though they do not fully believe in the existence of these mythical creatures.

Although dark and a little scary in some places, the structure of the traditional quest, and the age and motivations of the characters makes this series suitable for nine year olds and up.

This fast-paced adventure is hard to put down and I was eager to pick up the next one as soon as I closed this first book.