The Worst Witch
By: Jill Murphy
96 Pages
Ages: 8-12
Summary:
Mildred Hubble is starting her first year at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches — and making a mess of it! She can’t ride her broomstick without crashing, she’s always getting her spells mixed up, and worst of all, the teacher’s pet, Ethel, has just become her sworn enemy. -- publisher
Originally released in 1974, The Worst Witch is being re-released for a new generation to discover. Young readers are bound to fall in love with little Mildred Hubble. This poor witch-in-training is the student with her heart in the right place, but nothing else. She's the one who will crash into things while learning to fly on her broom, fixing her broken broom with a pile of sticky tape and glue, and is afraid of the dark (ssshhh, if you don't tell, I won't.).
In this first installment of this delightful character's series, Mildred is the recipient of a kitten. The time has come for all the first year students to get their assigned kitten who will ride on the brooms with their owners. Instead of getting the typical black one, Mildred is given a tabby one. And worse off, yet, the poor kitty isn't taking to flying on a broomstick too well.
Everything comes to a head during her class's formation presentation at the annual Halloween festivities. Mildred's has embarrassed her class by causing a crash landing (not her fault, though). Poor Mildred is so upset, she decides to taker her tabby cat and run away. However, while walking down the mountain, she stumbles across a group of witches. Witches who are plotting to place a spell over everyone at the school so they can control it. Now it's up to Mildred to save the day.
This book was fun to read. Mildred is a cute character who is fun to read. I can relate to being that child who had good intentions, but would somehow, someway mess things up. I think fellow readers will enjoy her, as well. I look forward to reading more adventures of Mildred.
