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A review by ashleylm
The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes
4.0
A charming, odd little book, one whose main oddity will likely sail over the heads of its audience. With a six-year-old protagonist, this is clearly intended as a read-aloud, and I suppose the adults will get some pleasure out of this, even if the children miss it—in an early bit of post-modern writing, Estes is essentially crafting a well-written novel out of the kind of stories the central figure is telling herself and her friend, rather like the film version of Adaptation, say, where the film is a filmed version of the script being written by the central character of the film. It gets twisty!
But one can read this a good-natured, basically gentle story about some witches and their very low-key adventures, and I'm sure most kids will experience it that way. Nonetheless I got a kick out of how Estes handled it. Whatever Amy said, happened (it would have to, she's making up the story), and some events were clearly dreams, and Amy's friend Clarissa conveniently has a poor memory of the incidents she's supposedly drawn into.
A real charmer.
Oh, and illustrations by Edward Ardizzone, who is one of my top favourite illustrators of 20th century childrens' books. When I see him, I think "oh, it'll be that kind of book," and I'm in a great frame of mind even before I begin.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
But one can read this a good-natured, basically gentle story about some witches and their very low-key adventures, and I'm sure most kids will experience it that way. Nonetheless I got a kick out of how Estes handled it. Whatever Amy said, happened (it would have to, she's making up the story), and some events were clearly dreams, and Amy's friend Clarissa conveniently has a poor memory of the incidents she's supposedly drawn into.
A real charmer.
Oh, and illustrations by Edward Ardizzone, who is one of my top favourite illustrators of 20th century childrens' books. When I see him, I think "oh, it'll be that kind of book," and I'm in a great frame of mind even before I begin.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)