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A review by jessrock
Which Witch? by Eva Ibbotson
5.0
In elementary school, I read so voraciously that I regularly picked out books from the library based just on their cover art or title or alluring book jacket. One such book that I borrowed from my elementary school's library had a plot that stayed with me, but I hadn't been able to remember the title until one day in the paperback section of the children's library of the main Chicago Public Library branch when, quite by chance, I found the book. It was called Which Witch? by Eva Ibbotson and I instantly made note of the title.
I purchased it from Amazon as part of a boxed set of three Eva Ibbotson titles, acting on the strength of my memory and the Amazon reviews, and I must say I'm even more pleased than I expected to be. Which Witch? is tremendously fun, along the lines of Roald Dahl in that the whimsical story is so well-written that it appeals to young children even while causing adults to smile at a particularly clever turn of phrase.
Which Witch? tells the story of Arraman the Awful, a powerful dark wizard from the far north of England, who becomes a bit tired of all the smiting and blighting and decides to take a wife in order to produce an heir to take over for him. Thus, he arranges a contest among the witches of his area to see which is the blackest. From the beginning the reader is on the side of Belladonna, a charming witch who wants nothing more than to be the blackest of black witches, but is most unfortunately a very white witch, full of healing and happiness and surrounded by flowers and sweet fuzzy animals. Ibbotson populates her story with fantastically silly characters, from an elderly witch with a habit of turning herself into a coffee table to a three-headed sea lion who talks like he's straight out of Monty Python. ("He cometh not from the north," said the Middle Head. "He cometh not from the west neither," said the Left Head. "Nor from the east doesn't he cometh," said the Right Head. "And our feet are freezing." "Our feet are blinking dropping off," said the Left Head.)
The book manages to be both silly and smart. It's written for a relatively young audience (I'd say mid-elementary school, definitely a lower reading level than most YA books I read) but manages to be witty in ways that surprised and delighted me throughout the book. I do think Roald Dahl is a good comparison, although without the twisted dark side. I'm very much looking forward to the other two books in the set.
I purchased it from Amazon as part of a boxed set of three Eva Ibbotson titles, acting on the strength of my memory and the Amazon reviews, and I must say I'm even more pleased than I expected to be. Which Witch? is tremendously fun, along the lines of Roald Dahl in that the whimsical story is so well-written that it appeals to young children even while causing adults to smile at a particularly clever turn of phrase.
Which Witch? tells the story of Arraman the Awful, a powerful dark wizard from the far north of England, who becomes a bit tired of all the smiting and blighting and decides to take a wife in order to produce an heir to take over for him. Thus, he arranges a contest among the witches of his area to see which is the blackest. From the beginning the reader is on the side of Belladonna, a charming witch who wants nothing more than to be the blackest of black witches, but is most unfortunately a very white witch, full of healing and happiness and surrounded by flowers and sweet fuzzy animals. Ibbotson populates her story with fantastically silly characters, from an elderly witch with a habit of turning herself into a coffee table to a three-headed sea lion who talks like he's straight out of Monty Python. ("He cometh not from the north," said the Middle Head. "He cometh not from the west neither," said the Left Head. "Nor from the east doesn't he cometh," said the Right Head. "And our feet are freezing." "Our feet are blinking dropping off," said the Left Head.)
The book manages to be both silly and smart. It's written for a relatively young audience (I'd say mid-elementary school, definitely a lower reading level than most YA books I read) but manages to be witty in ways that surprised and delighted me throughout the book. I do think Roald Dahl is a good comparison, although without the twisted dark side. I'm very much looking forward to the other two books in the set.