The Apprentice Witch

James Nicol's The Apprentice Witch is a cosy but shivery magic story for 9 year olds about a girl who fails the most important test of her life.

What happens

Arianwyn has wanted to be a witch for as long as she can remember, like her mum and her grandmother. On evaluation day, in the pouring rain, every other girl gets pinned with a shiny silver star.

Arianwyn gets a dull bronze disc. The machine says she's "ungraded". And her snooty rival Gimma sees the whole thing (of course she does).

So instead of a smart job in the city, she's sent as an apprentice witch to Lull, a tiny town right on the edge of the Great Wood. They haven't had a witch for years. The mayor isn't sure he wanted this one.

The magic is lovely. Witches draw glyphs in the air or in the dirt, for air and water and earth and fire, and a toppling pile of papers sorts itself out or a fallen tree drags itself off the road.

But Arianwyn keeps seeing a fifth glyph, one that shouldn't exist. It's dark and it pulls at her, and she's never told a soul about it. That secret gives the whole book a proper shiver. So does her first night on the road to Lull, when she finds a tree that's been ripped in two by something with enormous claws.

Reading it feels a bit like starting a new job with her. She's nervous and cross, snaps at people who are only being kind and then feels awful about it. You'll probably want to give her a big hug. And there's something very comforting about all the small jobs waiting in Lull, like the bus driver's spare room full of grindlesmudgers.

A few things are good to know. Arianwyn is fifteen, a fair bit older than the children reading about her, although it's written with them in mind. Her mum died when she was little (it's backstory, told early on), and her dad is away fighting in a war overseas. None of it is dwelt on, but it's there.

What to read next

If they love the idea of magic being passed down in a family, The Spell Tailors is about Hen, who's learning to stitch spells into clothes in his nana's basement workshop.