The Glass Witch

Lindsay Puckett's The Glass Witch is a funny, heartfelt Halloween story for 8 year olds about the weakest witch in a very powerful family.

What happens

Addie Goode is twelve, and she's furious. Her mum is leaving her at Grandma's in Cranberry Hollow for three months while she takes a new job in Seattle. Addie feels like the dog in one of those sad films on planes. Dumped at the pound.

Goode witches are meant to be strong. Addie's magic is so feeble that when she wishes for extra cash at a petrol station, all she gets is the presidents on her dollar bills pulling faces (Lincoln picks his nose).

She's decided she's a villain now. Well, more of a henchman.

Grandma's cottage is full of rescued rabbits, floating tea sets and a cuckoo clock that sings hello. Then there's Fatima, a sparkly girl who comes round with her grandpa, loves monsters and puts eyeballs on her cupcakes. They're both misfits, and they click straight away.

Addie bakes too. Her Halloween macarons are the one thing she's sure she can win with. The costume pageant is another matter. Her mum won it as a girl, and Addie is certain big girls don't win pageants.

And there's the family curse. If more than three Goode witches are in town at once, something terrible wakes up. Addie is number four. Before the night is out, the curse is turning her bones to glass.

Reading it is like being inside Addie's very funny, very prickly head. She thinks in recipes and lists, and her anger is a swarm of bees under her skin. Underneath all that, she's hurting a lot.

It's good to know that Addie says some unkind things about her own body, and a boy at the festival snorts like a pig at her. The book is firmly on her side, but a child who's touchy about their size may feel it. The feelings about her mum leaving are big ones too, and Addie is a few years older than most of the readers it's shelved for.

If you've got a reader who loves baking, Halloween and a bit of magic mischief, this is a treat.

What to read next

For another young witch who's sure she isn't good enough, try The Apprentice Witch. Arianwyn turns up for her witch's evaluation with frizzy hair, wet shoes and a mean girl called Gimma sneering at her in the queue.