The Bag of Bones

Vivian French's The Bag of Bones is a daft, cheerful witchy romp for 10 year olds, full of chatty bats, a toothless troll and one very wicked grandmother.

What happens

Wadingburn's witches are a harmless lot. They sell charms and soothing cures and meet on the hill every week to stir a cauldron of mouldy mushrooms and chicken soup.

Then Mrs Cringe brings her grandmother along. Truda Hangnail happens to be a Deep Witch, and Deep Magic is banned in the Five Kingdoms. She carries a bag of bones (dragon bones included) and wears a pet called Malice round her neck, made from a snake, a rat and a weasel.

One handful of bone dust and the witches go warty and whiskery and fall under her spell. Truda has big plans. Old Queen Bluebell is about to announce who'll rule after her, and Truda fancies the crown.

The only one who gets away is Loobly, a skinny little orphan on work experience with the witches. She was busy saying sorry to a pickled rat at the time.

Loobly is the heart of it. She talks in her own funny way ("Smell badness, Auntie!") and she's kind to absolutely everything, even the dogs chasing her.

Meanwhile Gracie Gillypot is woken at midnight by a quill pen scribbling DANGER all over her bedroom walls. Off she goes in her dressing gown and slippers with Gubble the troll, who mostly says "Unk".

It reads like a pantomime. Everyone is either very good or hilariously bad, and the baddies keep getting their spells wrong. Marlon the bat talks like a gangster ("Button up, kiddo") and his little nephew Alf just wants to see something scary.

The orphanage master is a proper villain who sets his dogs on Loobly, but it's all played for laughs. Would you want to be his orphan? Absolutely not!

This is one of the Tales from the Five Kingdoms, and Gracie, Gubble and the bats have been in trouble together before. It still makes sense on its own.

What to read next

If they'd like to meet Gracie at the very beginning, The Robe of Skulls starts with her shut in her stepfather's cellar for the crime of smiling.