Eva Ibbotson writes for both adults and children. Born in Vienna, she now lives in the north of England. Her husband was a naturalist who taught her to value even the smallest and most unattractive animal â and her four children and seven grandchildren showed her that ghosts, wizards and witches are people like ourselves ‘only madder and more interesting'. She has written eight other ghostly adventures for children.
Grade 5-8-After 30 years at witch school, best friends Heckie and Dora plan to settle down in a small town, Do Good, and make the world a better place. But when they quarrel on graduation day, Heckie is left to carry on alone. She recruits a wacky bunch of helpers to form the Wellbridge Wickedness Hunters: three children, a dragworm familiar, a garden witch, a former witch beauty queen, a wizard hot-air-balloon enthusiast, and a wizard endeavoring to make a walking cheese. At first, all seems to go well. Heckie uses her power to turn humans into animals to rid the town of wicked people and supplement the animal population of the local zoo. However, her plans begin to go awry when she meets a slick furrier who wants to exploit her talents to obtain rare snow leopard pelts. Fans of Ibbotson's other humorous fantasies will be pleased to see more of the same here. The story moves at a satisfying pace and the characters provide just the right balance of silliness and sagacity, masking any moralizing with satire. The black-and-white illustrations add wit and fancy to the book. This light fantasy will not just bewitch, but will bring peals of laughter, too.
Heather Dieffenbach, Lexington Public Library, KY
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