PENGUIN The Witches

My wife remembers this book from her childhood as being her favourite book so she bought it for our 7-year-old daughter and we read it over several nights. My daughter also liked it and said it was "really fun".The story starts with the unnamed boy narrator (at the beginning where the main characters are introduced he is simply called "boy") being told about witches by his grandmama. But "this is not a fairy-tale" she is telling. "This is about REAL WITCHES" and "real witches hate children." They disguise themselves as women and make children disappear.The grandmother is funny because she is so un-grandma-like as she puffs away on her black cigar.After that bout of story-telling the book sees the boy come into contact with real witches. Not just one witch though as he gets stuck in a room with about 200 of them. He has to hide but witches can smell children out, and do just that. This is where the real witching begins and the dastardly things they do comes to the fore.All-in-all a classic Roald Dahl tale with the scary enemy potentially being anywhere, hence a child's imagination running wild.

My daughter loves Roald Dahl and this book was no exception. She's now 9 and has read this in a couple of weeks, just by taking it to school and reading first thing in the morning before lessons.Easy to read and the usual 'unusual' style animations makes this a great book for the junior school age group.

My 6 year old daughter loves roald Dahl and so far together we have read Charlie and the chocolate factory, James and the giant peach and The twits. We have also started reading Matilda as well as this book. A firm bedtime favourite in our house.

Took this on holiday just in case bad weather kept us cooped up in a caravan for a fortnight. Weather was good to us, as it happened, but we still read the book through. My 5 year old did like it, but 7-year-old couldn't get enough. I'd sit reading it to her for an hour and she would demand more (this from a girls who has difficulty sitting through a quick meal). Not too scary. Engaging characters. Brilliant, original concepts. Dahl totally rules. Still.Since re-read it with both of them. And Dahl still totally rules. Still.

I thought this was going to be a novelization of the new film but it wasn't it was the old book repackaged.