Old Black Witch by Wende and Harry Devlin, 1963.

A boy called Nicky and his mother are looking for a new place to live somewhere in New England.  The mother wants to buy an old cottage with the idea of turning it into a tea room.  At first, they have trouble finding a place, but finally they buy an old house that badly needs fixing up, not knowing that there is an old witch living there.

The witch (whom they call Old Black Witch, since she’s dressed all in black and sooty and doesn’t seem to have any other name) has been sleeping in the chimney of the house for about a hundred years, and they wake her the first time they try to start a fire in the fireplace.

The witch is furious to discover that the house has new owners and worried about where she’s going to live because she needs an old house to haunt.  Nicky and his mother invite her to stay and live in the attic, which has enough dust and cobwebs to satisfy her tastes, while they clean up the lower part of the house for the tearoom.

The locals have heard stories about the house being haunted, but the nice tearoom soon becomes popular with ladies in the area, especially after Old Black Witch decides to help out Nicky’s mother in the kitchen.  Old Black Witch’s blueberry pancakes are wonderful and win many fans for the tearoom.

Then, one night, a couple of burglars break in.  Since Old Black Witch is kind of evil herself, she can’t really fault them for wanting to rob the place . . . until she suddenly realizes that they’re stealing from her, too, and uses her magic to fix the burglars for good and give herself the pet toads that she’s been wanting.

This book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

One of the things that I like about this story, which was a favorite of mine when I was a kid, is that Old Black Witch isn’t particularly evil although she isn’t too nice, either.  She’s as bad and disagreeable as a cranky old witch who’s lived in a chimney for over 100 years ought to be, but not so bad that she can’t make some new friends and help them out once in a while.  Friendly enough for the kids, but not too sweet to be a real witch.  It’s part of a short series, although I haven’t managed to find any of the other books yet.  Some of the pictures are in full color and some are in black and white.  Don’t ask me why she has a spoon in her hat because I’ve never been completely sure, either.  Somehow, on her, it looks good.

The back cover of the book has the recipe for the blueberry pancakes.

There was a short film version of this story from 1969 called Winter of the Witch.  It follows the book fairly well, but with some variations (there were no burglars).  In the film, the pancakes have the power to make people happy, and that’s what gives Nicky’s mother the inspiration to open a pancake parlor in their house.  The witch finds a new sense of purpose, although she still plans on going back to her old, wicked ways once the world is happy enough to need a good, old-fashioned scare.  I don’t think that it was ever released on dvd, but it is possible to see it on YouTube and Internet Archive.