The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes, 1960.
Amy and Clarissa are best friends. They’re about 7 years old and live in Washington, DC. They like to draw pictures and play games of imagination, and one day, they banish Old Witch, who is the head of all the witches, to a house on a glass hill by drawing a picture of the Witch House on the glass hill. They banish her to the hill for her meanness and for eating rabbits (her favorite food), but they relent a little when they consider that Halloween won’t be the same without a scary old witch. Amy writes a letter to Old Witch to tell her that, if she can learn to be good, she can leave the glass hill on Halloween. As soon as Amy is done writing the letter, a bird snatches it up and flies away with it, to the amazement of the girls. Amy is sure that this must mean that the letter will really be delivered to the Old Witch.
Old Witch doesn’t like living on the glass hill because it’s too bare and shiny, and she doesn’t want to learn to be good. She’s also lonely because she only has Tom, her cat, for company. Then, she gets another letter from Amy, saying that she will have company if she casts a spell. When the Old Witch casts the spell, she is joined in the Witch House by a Little Witch girl named Hannah and her cat, Little Tom.
Hannah likes the Witch House on the glass hill because she thinks it’s pretty and has an amazing view. Old Witch uses her match to summon a new bed and a rocking chair for Hannah. She also summons a brush and comb for her, which is a violation of witch rules because witches usually leave their hats on all the time and never brush their hair. Still, Old Witch is fascinated by Hannah’s lovely hair and can’t resist combing and brushing it. However, Hannah doesn’t like having her hair combed, and Malachi, bumble bee, stings the Old Witch to make her stop. Malachi had joined the Old Witch at the house secretly and has become a magical bee, spelling things out when he wants to communicate, like a spelling bee. He is Amy’s representative and warns Old Witch whenever she does something that she shouldn’t do.
The Little Witch Girl shows Old Witch the spells she’s been learning in Witch School, and the two of them have races around the glass hill on their broomsticks. Old Witch sometimes scares Little Witch with her cackles and wild witch dances. Little Witch is a sweet little witch, and she tells Old Witch that she doesn’t want to be scared. Old Witch has to learn to control her behavior so she won’t scare the Little Witch.
Little Witch has to go to Witch School, and the other young witches are jealous of her because she does so well at school and lives with the head of the witches. They try to tease and bully her, but Malachi stings them whenever they try to do something mean. Eventually, the other young witches give up their mean tricks and start admiring Hannah for her witch skills.
Amy decides that the Little Witch Girl has birthdays but never ages beyond 6 years old, just like how her doll never ages, and she draws a picture of Hannah’s witchy birthday party. All of the other young witches from her witch school attends. However, the Old Witch refuses to grant her wish for Amy and Clarissa to join the party because she’s still angry about being banished. Because it’s Hannah’s birthday, any spell she casts will work for her, so she summons Amy and Clarissa herself. Amy and Clarissa keep focusing on their drawings, and Amy cautions Clarissa not to say anything because they’re in a haunted witch house.
Fortunately, Amy declares that Old Witch can’t see them because they’re invisible to her, although everyone else can see them. After that, Amy and Clarissa can ride around on Little Witch’s mechanical toy broomsticks and play with the other little witches. Eventually, the Old Witch casts a spell that reveals the girls, but she is forced to allow them to stay at the party. The Old Witch insists that she’s been good during the whole time of her banishment, but the little witches urge her to do a suitably wicked spell for their entertainment. Old Witch would, but when she tries, Malachi stings them all.
Because the Little Witch Girl needs a playmate, the girls create a lagoon with a waterfall inside the glass hill, where Little Witch Girl finds a mermaid with a baby sister to play with. Little Witch Girl wishes for a baby sister for herself. At first, Old Witch is reluctant to give her one, but finally, she casts a spell to summon a little baby witch carried by a tiny broomstick with a little black kitten. The Old Witch is surprised at how adorable the baby witch is, and caring for the baby occupies much of her time.
Even so, Old Witch is still tempted to commit acts of wickedness, particularly with finding cute rabbits to eat. When Old Witch spots some of them painting some eggs for Easter, she begins plotting to get them and their eggs to eat! Fortunately, the rabbits use painted rocks and toy rabbits to trick her. The Old Witch blames Malachi for her schemes being foiled and all of the times he’s stung her to stop her from being bad, so she challenges him to a spelling bee. Of course, Malachi is the winner because he’s literally a Spelling Bee.
When Halloween finally arrives, Old Witch is allowed out to fly with the other witches and make some scary mischief! She leaves Little Witch at home to watch the baby, but Little Witch is sad at the idea of missing Halloween, so she persuades her mermaid friend to babysit the baby while she slips out and enjoys some Halloween adventures of her own. Little Witch encounters Amy, who is also dressed in a witch costume for trick-or-treating, and the two of them switch places so Amy can have a ride on Little Witch’s broom. However, the broom takes Amy to the house on the glass hill, and she can’t get home by herself. She needs some help from Malachi.
Amy’s time alone in the witch house on the glass hill also get her thinking about how bleak the place really is. She decides that it is too harsh as a place for the Little Witch and even too harsh for the Old Witch, whose behavior has greatly improved. Relenting a little on Old Witch’s banishment, Amy gets Clarissa to help her improve conditions for the witch house and the hill through their stories and drawings.
My Reaction
This book is a story about the imaginations of two little girls and a story they create which seems to have a life of its own. The girls create the idea of the wicked Old Witch, and finding her frightening, banish her to a house that they imagine on a glass hill. All through the book, the girls add two aspects and characters to their story, drawing pictures together of the things they imagine.
There are times when the girls interact with characters in the story or send them messages. There are times when readers might question where imagination has crossed over into reality or if the girls have managed to make the witch and her family real through the power of imagination. However, it all seems to be part of their imaginary game. The story even admits this. The Old Witch sometimes tries to be sneaky and commit acts of “wickedness”, but she can’t fool the girls because Amy in particular is controlling everything that happens as she makes up pieces of the story. There are times when she wants to punish the bad Old Witch, but in the end, the witch family ends up living quite happily, and the Old Witch gets some freedom on Halloween.
Because the witches in the story are the products of the girls’ imaginations, they talk the way that Amy and Clarissa do, mispronouncing difficult words, like “banishment.” They say that Amy and Clarissa are Old Witch’s “banquishers” and that they “banquished” her because that’s how Amy says it. They also use other words that the Amy made up, like “grantify” as in “grantify a wish” instead of “grant a wish” and “haunched” instead of “haunted.”
