Kiki’s Delivery Service

Eiko Kadono's Kiki's Delivery Service is a gentle magic story for 9 year olds about a young witch who flies off to find a town of her own.

What happens

In Kiki's family, a witch's daughter leaves home on a full-moon night in her thirteenth year and has to earn her living with her magic. Kiki is only really good at one kind of magic. Flying. (Her mum's sneeze medicine takes far too much patience.)

So off she goes on her mum's old broom, with a red radio hanging off the front and her black cat Jiji riding on the back. She heads south because she's never seen the sea.

Jiji is the best thing in it. He's grumpy, dry and completely loyal. When Kiki promises to brush him till he's "all fresh", he complains she makes him sound like something she's about to cook!

The big seaside town she picks has a clock tower she loves at first sight. The people aren't so sure. Some of them don't want a witch at all, and Kiki ends up sad and tired with nowhere to sleep. Then a baker called Osono needs a baby's dummy delivered across the river, and Kiki has an idea.

It's everyday magic, really. Kiki worries about the same things as anyone. Spots on her nose, the dress she'd rather wear, whether anybody will like her. You'll feel her homesickness and her pride all at once.

If your family knows the Studio Ghibli film, it's lovely to read the story it came from.

It's worth knowing Kiki is nearly thirteen, and this is a translated classic with long, chatty scenes and quite a bit of description. A confident reader will manage it, or it makes a lovely one to share at bedtime.

What to read next

For another young witch who has to win over a whole town, try The Apprentice Witch. Arianwyn's big witch test goes badly wrong, and she's posted to a quiet little town called Lull at the edge of a great foggy wood.