Witches of Peculiar – Glimpse the Future

Luna Graves's Witches of Peculiar Glimpse the Future is a cosy, spooky mystery for 9 year olds about a human boy who might be able to see what's coming.

What happens

It's the fourth Witches of Peculiar book, and twin witches Bella and Dee Maleficent are in for a shock. Beatrice, who made the best strawberry milkshakes in town, has retired. (Dee does NOT take this news well.)

The diner's new owners are a human family, and their son Henry is in the kitchen flipping the pancakes everyone's talking about.

Then he does something odd. He races across the room and catches a tray of food before anyone else has seen it wobble. Later he snatches a plate of garlic eggs away from Charlie, the twins' vampire friend. Nobody told him Charlie can't eat garlic. So how did he know?

That same week a goblin clairvoyant called Kathleen Krumplebottom gives an assembly at YIKESSS, the twins' school for supernatural students. She explains that psychic powers can turn up in anyone, with no warning at all. Bella starts putting two and two together.

The trouble is, Peculiar's biggest rule is that humans must never find out about monsters. Asking Henry straight out could get the whole family exiled. So the twins and their friends plan a secret stakeout at the diner instead.

The twins squabble like real sisters. Bella's hand keeps shooting up in the assembly until the principal looks ready to explode, and Dee worries about absolutely everybody.

Their friends are great fun too. Eugene falls head over heels for the grumpiest waitress in Pennsylvania in about ten seconds. Charlie would much rather let mischief go to voicemail (but comes along anyway).

And Henry is lovely. When a mean girl calls the twins freaks, he quietly stops Bella's temper boiling over and tells the bully exactly what he thinks of her. Who wouldn't want a friend like that?

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Kathleen tells the school about her old friend Nina, a clairvoyant who wore herself out chasing visions. In the end Nina misread one and it cost her life. It's a sad story from Kathleen's past, not something that happens in the book, but it's quite heavy for a moment.

A child who worries a lot might want to chat about it afterwards. If yours loves a mystery, they'll probably be swept straight on to the stakeout.

What to read next

The twins already have plenty of history by now, and not all of it gets explained. If you'd like to start them at the very beginning, Double, Double, Twins and Trouble is Bella and Dee's first day at YIKESSS, and a Spell Casting lesson ends with the classroom flooded.