Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Worst Witch at School
Fiction Series
For ages 8 to 10
Candlewick, 2007 ISBN: 978-0763634353
Mildred Hubble is in her first year at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches and she is constantly getting into trouble. She cannot for the life of her keep her broom under control, and her potions and spells have a horrible habit of coming out wrong. When Mildred is presented with her kitten – this is a tradition in the school – it is a tabby instead of being all black like all the other kittens. To add insult to injury, Mildred’s kitten turns out to be hopeless at sitting neatly on the end of a broom, which is what it is supposed to do. Instead Mildred has to put her pet in a bag, which dangles from the broom handle in a very unwitchlike manner.
It is decided that the first year students will give a broom flying demonstration during the Halloween celebration. Not surprisingly Mildred is rather worried about this. She has a very poor track record when it comes to flying, and if she messes up there is no knowing what Miss Hardbroom will do to her. Unfortunately, Mildred’s worries turn out to be well founded, and the Halloween presentation is…well…a bit of a disaster.
Young readers are sure to enjoying reading about Mildred and her misadventures. The poor girl does not mean for things to go so wrong, but they do anyway. One cannot help wondering how one person can be so accident prone, but at the same time Mildred is so very likeable that we hope that she will, somehow, come through her ordeals in one piece.
This title contains two of the original Worst Witch titles, The Worst Witch and The Worst Witch Strikes Again.
