Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Has anyone seen the 2015 Reading Challenge put out by Popsugar?  A friend of mine from RI shared it on FB at the beginning of the year, and I’ve been trying to work through it–even though having a baby in February pretty much ensures that I won’t be able to finish.  My friend Britt found Anna Elizabeth Bennett’s Little Witch for me when I was looking for a book by an author with my initials, and I finished it last night.  And it is, indeed, odd–but cute.

Part of the oddness comes from being a bit dated; it was published in 1953, and life was just a tad different then (not to mention children’s literature and fantasy in general).  It also, however, sacrificed some character consistency in favor of a cute ending.  I doubt anyone in its target audience will care, but I had an ‘alrighty then!’ kind of moment when I finished it.

Still, the premise is cute and the story is fun.  Minikin is a 9-year-old witch’s child who wants desperately to make friends, go to school, and live a normal life.  Instead, her witch mother is mean to her and turns people from the town into flowerpots that sit on her windowsill.  Minikin–Minx, for short–finally gets up the courage to go to school, however, and that starts a chain reaction with surprising (and satisfactory!) results.

If you don’t read that much children’s literature and are only interested in the very best, I don’t know that you need to pick up this one.  If you enjoy children’s literature, on the other hand, this is a fun, fast-paced, fairly short read.  Keep it in mind as Halloween approaches!