Witch Baby and Me After Dark

September 1, 2010

Gr 4-6-Three witches from Ben Screeeiiighe, a wildly remote area of Scotland, are searching for a baby. Their plan, at first, is to cast a spell on an infant, allow the human parents to raise her, then take over her witchy education when she becomes older. Humans cannot see most of their spells, or so they predict. But the witches do not foresee that Baby Daisy MacRae's sister was born under a blue moon; she can see their magic, and knows that her sister is a witch even if no one believes her. And so begins this quirky series about a family who leaves the city for the Scottish highlands where they plan to carry on quiet, normal lives. Daisy finds a ghost dog, appropriately called WayWoof (because she cannot say Werewolf) that only she and Lily can see at first, but everyone smells. Gliori imaginatively dreams up spells that a toddler witch can perform, leaving hilarious consequences for her big sister to explain or fix. In After Dark, Lily and her friend Vivaldi take Daisy out for Halloween only to divert their attention from trick-or-treating to searching for lost WayWoof. Readers will laugh at Lily's imagination and her attempts to keep people from finding out that her sister is really a spell-casting witch-in-training. Entertaining line drawings complement the texts. Fun choices for readers who like silly fantasies.-Delia Carruthers, Roxbury Public Library, Succasunna, NJ

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2010
Grades 3-5 A fresh import, along with Witch Baby and Me (2010) and Witch Baby and Me at School (2010), this entry in the chapter-book series stars nine-year-old Lily, who has her hands full trying to protect baby sister Daisy from being exposed as a witch. Its Halloween, and the girls disguising has a dual purpose: collect some tasty treats and locate Daisys missing invisible dog, WayWoof. Daisy demonstrates several tricks (changing into an owl, a bat, and a dinosaur), and a trio of local witches further complicates their quest. Eventually, the pooch resurfaces, with two new pups in tow. Glioris story brims with humor (much of it scatological), and young readers are sure to identify with the siblings relationship. Briticisms abound (torches, nappies, the littles), but the authors frequent line drawings and footnoted asides will clear up most vocabulary challenges. Sure to please young fantasy buffs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)