Posted on by TracyC

Jenny, the Halloween Spy

JennyHalloweenSpy

Jenny, the Halloween Spy by Lillie Patterson, 1979.

JennySpyWitchOne Halloween, Jenny goes to visit Nancy, a woman who local people say is a witch.  Jenny is curious about magic and, knowing that there are magical creatures abroad on Halloween, she wonders if she might see something unusual at Nancy’s house.

As she arrives at the house, Jenny peeks inside before announcing herself and sees Nancy putting some kind of oil in her eyes.  After Nancy welcomes her inside and offers her some cider, Jenny sneaks a little of this oil and puts it in one of her eyes to see what it does.  She discovers that the oil allows her to see magical beings that are hidden to most people.  There are fairies in Nancy’s house and rich furnishings that appear very ordinary to Jenny’s unaffected eye.

Using her new ability to see magical creatures, Jenny goes to the town market to see what is going on there.  However, when she catches a pixie stealing some fruit, the fairies and other “wee folk” decide to put an end to Jenny’s spying on their activities.  With some magic dust, the pixie removes her ability to see magical creatures and tricks her into getting onto an enchanted horse that takes her on a wild ride ending with a view of the devil!

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

My Reaction

JennySpyFairiesThis is a kind of cautionary story about the dangers of curiosity.  Jenny’s curiosity invites the attention of dangerous creatures and leads her into a frightening situation, something that she never wants to repeat.  For the most part, I think that curiosity is a trait that should be encouraged, but Jenny did deliberately seek out a person with a dangerous reputation and pry into the things she was doing, even trying some herself because she wanted to know more about it, so she could be considered to have gone looking for trouble.

In some ways, this book is very strange, but I can see where it draws on old folklore.  The end part about seeing the devil (accompanied by headless hounds) is a little bizarre and rather frightening for a modern children’s picture book but in keeping with folklore about Halloween and witches.  Although everything that happens to Jenny is supposedly really happening, part of me did wonder about the oil that she put in her eye because plants with hallucinogenic properties are used in folk medicine.  As far as the story is concerned, though, the magic and supernatural creatures are real.

The pictures are colorful and fascinating, but this book may be frightening for very young children.  Some of the fairies remind me a little of the pictures that inspired the Cottingley Fairy hoax.

Posted on by TracyC

Old Black Witch

OldBlackWitch

Old Black Witch by Wende and Harry Devlin, 1963.

OldWitchChimneyA 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.

OldWitchToads

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.

OldWitchPancakeRecipe

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.

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

Which Witch is Which

WhichWitch

Which Witch is Which by Pat Hutchins, 1989.

This is a cute picture book/puzzle book.  A pair of twins, Ella and Emily, are invited to a friend’s costume party, but they come dressed as witches in identical (or nearly identical) costumes.  Throughout the party, as the girls play party games, eat the party snacks, and give presents to their host, readers are invited to figure out which twin is which.

WhichWitchIntro

The main clue to the girls’ identities is that Ella’s favorite color is pink while Emily prefers the color blue.  Things that the girls have in those colors or objects that they select give away their identities

WhichWitchPresents

However, there are also other hints, like we are told what each of the girls ate at the party so that we can use the crumbs left on their plates (or the lack of crumbs) to determine which witch is which.

WhichWitchCake

The text of the book rhymes.  The illustrations are cute, and it’s a good book for teaching children how to notice details.

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

WhichWitchPlates
Posted on by TracyC

The Witch King

WitchKingThe Witch King by Maeve Henry, 1987.

Robert is the son of a fisherman in a small village by the sea. All his life, he’s grown up hearing stories of a mysterious City to the south that was fashioned ages ago from a silver tree. Wondrous things are said to happen there. People from the City used to visit the Witch Women in Robert’s village for advice, but no one has come there from the City in a long time, and people now doubt whether the City really exists. People have even stopped believing in the Witch Women. However, Robert believes in the old stories, and he wants desperately to see the City for himself.

The stories say that someday the Witch King will come to the City and plant a seed so that a new tree will grow. Robert wants to see this story come true, and Granny Fishbone, a strange old woman who tells Robert the old stories, says that the time of the Witch King is close. She gives him a pendant in the shape of a fish and tells him that it came from the City and that it is time for Robert to take it back there.

With some misgivings, Robert’s family lets him set off on his seemingly crazy quest of finding the City. To Robert’s surprise, he is met on the road by the Royal Wizard of the City. As Granny Fishbone said, the time of the Witch King is near, and there is trouble in the City. The Spell that controls the City is failing, and the King has been seeking a remedy for the problem.

The City has become corrupt because a usurper murdered the rightful king years ago and took over the City. He had his wizards cast a spell on the City that let him control everything in it, and he manipulated historical accounts to make it seem as though he was the founder of the City himself. Robert knows differently because Granny Fishbone is really one of the Witch Women, and she told him the true story about the miraculous tree and the founding of the City. The king’s grandson, David, is also corrupt and wants to learn to control the spell over the City for his own power. He believes that he is the prophesied Witch King, and he tries to convince Robert of it so that he will help him.

When Robert learns that David’s plans for controlling the spell may mean sacrificing his own sister, Princess Sophie, who Robert loves, Robert does his best to thwart his plans by telling the king and the Royal Wizard.  Although David at first seems to have the upper hand, he is not the true Witch King. Granny Fishbone was correct that the time of the true Witch King has come, and Robert has a much bigger role to play in the story than he thinks.  As the ancient prophesy says, the City will have to be destroyed in order to be saved.

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The Blue-Nosed Witch

BlueNosedWitchThe Blue-Nosed Witch by Margaret Embry, 1956.

Blanche is still a very young witch, but because of her magnificent blue nose (which she can make glow at will), she’s allowed to join a group of adult witches, Scurry No. 13.  Their specialty is beautiful flight formations on their broomsticks, and they’re planning a special one for midnight on Halloween.

But, Blanche has a bad habit of being late to everything.  Some of the other witches have started complaining about her, saying that she’s too young and irresponsible to be part of Scurry No. 13.  If she’s late for the flight on Halloween, they might decide to send her back to Scurry No. 2 1/2 with the other young witches, where she’d only be allowed to ride a whisk broom.

To make sure that Blanche will be on time for Halloween, her friend Josephine sets her alarm ahead a couple of hours to give her extra time to get ready.  Unfortunately, Blanche doesn’t know that Josephine did that, so she sets her alarm ahead herself.  When she wakes up on Halloween night, it’s still early evening, instead of late at night.

BlueNosedWitchPic1Blanche looks for her fellow witches but ends up joining a group of trick-or-treaters by mistake.  They love her blue nose and introduce her to the idea of trick-or-treating.  Thinking that even the grumpiest man in town would be impressed by Blanche’s amazing nose, they stop at his house, too.  The old man isn’t impressed by anything and plays a mean trick on the kids.  However, Blanche is a real witch, and she and her cat Brockett give the old man a real Halloween scare.

Blanche is having fun on Halloween, but will she keep track of time well enough to join the other witches in their flight?

Even though this wasn’t written to be an historical novel, in a way, it kind of is now.  One of the interesting things about this book is that you can tell from the way the kids are trick-or-treating that it’s the 1950s.  Kids today don’t get jelly donuts or apples while trick-or-treating, and in this day of giving out only prepackaged treats for safety reasons, the kids would probably have to throw them away if they did (sigh).  Also, there is still the implied threat of Halloween tricks when the kids go asking for treats, something less common today.  Instead of saying “Trick or treat!”, the kids say “Candy or cake or your windows we’ll break!” (although the kids later promise the adults that they’re not going to soap any windows).  My mother said that the popular saying when she was young was, “We are the beggars of the street.  Do we soap, or do we eat?”

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

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