The Worst Witch Saves the Day
Author: Jill Murphy
Publisher: Puffin Books
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 156
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Genre: Children’s Fantasy
Rating: ***

Summary:
Mildred Hubble and her friends are in their third year at Miss Cackles Witches Academy. This year they have a new teacher. She has frizzy red hair, a high pitched voice, and has no rules in class other than to leave her alone. They all find it very strange and as usual, Mildred is always finding herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. No matter what she does, it seems things always go wrong for her. One the first day of school she tried her friend’s new curling iron and go it all tangled in her hair. Another, Ethel, her arch enemy came in to “help” and cut off all her long hair to get it untangled! Mildred was sad and horrified. So the next day in potions class their new teacher Ms. Granite said to look over spells and do practice any they wanted. So when Mildred found one on re-growth she tested it out! That night she put the potion in her hair, and before she knew it her hair was down past her legs, and out the window, under the bed, and kept growing. Ms. H.B had to come up and put a spell on it to stop growing and cut Mildred’s hair back to the length it originally was. That wasn’t the end of it though, the next her broom broke, her cat go stuck on the roof and Ms. Granite didn’t give her cat back! So that night, she went to get Tabby. As she opened the door to Ms. Granites room, she heard a cackle and saw that Ms. Granite wasn’t who she thought, the was the academies director Ms. Cackles evil twin and planned to take over the school that morning at 2 am, and turn everyone into snails. She then shoved Mildred into the closet and went to take a nap. Mildred had to save the day, so she turned herself into an ant and went and woke her friends up. Though it took quite a while they finally were able to understand what she was saying, turn her back into Mildred and go and stop Ms. Granite. They went downstairs and saved Ms. Cackle just as her sister was about to turn her into a snail, and instead turned Ms. Granite into one. They then stop the evil withes that came to take over the school and turn them into snails one by one as they come in the door. So Mildred turned out to be not such a bad witch after all and saved the day!

Who would benefit from reading this?
This is a fun book for kids, more girls than boys though. Mildred seems to get into a lot of trouble, and most kids can relate to that. A fun read with lots of humor.

Potential problems/conflicts:
If you don’t like anything having to do with witch craft this would not be a good book for you or your child. One of the characters is also a bully…which does some very unkind and snotty things to Mildred.

My reaction:
I am not a fan of fantasy but I enjoy this book. Mildred has a fun quirky personality and I could relate to her with things not always going as well as she had hoped. I loved the friendship between the three young witches and how they are always there to stand up for each other. A fun read, and also some pictures to give you an even better idea of what the scene might look like.