Summary

Enter a world of magic and mayhem.

In the world of the Grey Witch anything can happen, and often does. What happens when a witch tests her spells on her unsuspecting cat, or casts spells to oust unwanted intruders? She turns toys into real creatures and sometimes they are not what she expects. She grows candy apples on trees and turns her cat blue by mistake. One witch makes an unusual flying machine for a little boy’s Halloween treat. Another enjoys water-skiing with her dog and cat. She upends the Coast Guard and confuses the police, but all is well when the blue witch creates magic for the children she loves.

Review

The author, Dianna Mitchell, of The Grey Witch, beautifully crafted the perfect bedtime story for young children. We are taken through the lives of many different colored witches, each presenting the challenges they go through as a witch with their trusty cat sidekicks. It was a great, short chapter book for children who are learning to read, or as a bedtime story read by adults to children. I know it was always my favorite thing to read a chapter a night, and this would be the perfect book for that sort of scenario.

The story starts out with one witch, and progresses through the trials and errors in her witch craft and relationship with their cat before moving off to the next witch. Stories involving witches are captivating to all audiences, and the unique aspect of Mitchell’s writing is the characteristics of the witches. The witches are good people who interact with the local children and who appear to be loved by the community. It was a refreshing point of view, to have the witch be viewed in a positive light, as compared to many stories where the withes are the antagonist.

Besides the captivating stories intertwined with each witch, the art work in this story is simply lovely. It truly expressed the messages of the story. The images were so whimsically drawn, the fun and joy within the story was expressed through the illustrations. It is obvious that each picture was extremely well thought out and accurately expressed the events occurring within the stories.

The Grey Witch is a joyful story with many components that young children would love to listen to or even attempt to read themselves. The illustrations allow for a visual interaction with the audience. Young children would be enchanted by these stories as well as older children first learning to read, it is a great bed time story for all children.

Reviewed by Rachel Keane

Publisher: Outskirts Press, Inc.
Publication date: 11/2/2013
Pages: 52

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