The Worst Witch and the Wishing Star

Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch and the Wishing Star is a cosy school story for 7 year olds about a young witch who secretly wishes for a dog, and gets one.

What happens

It's the first day of Winter Term at Miss Cackle's Academy, in wind and pouring rain. Mildred Hubble is in Form Four now, and for once she lands her broomstick perfectly with Tabby the cat still on board. (Miss Cackle notices, which must be a first.) Her friend Enid isn't so lucky and nosedives into an enormous puddle.

There's news, too. All the witches' schools are competing, and the prize is a brand-new pool (an indoor one!). The bedrooms finally have glass in the windows, with a little flap for the bats. And Miss Drill has hurt her knee and swapped her gym kit for some VERY colourful outfits.

Mildred isn't thrilled to be made Lantern Monitor. She has to light the lanterns in the East Wing every evening and put them out at dawn, and she's always been a bit scared of the dark.

On her very first evening she hears whimpering outside the school gates. It's a small, muddy, very hungry dog. And Mildred knows exactly where he came from, because she saw a shooting star the night before and made a wish. She just didn't expect it to come true quite so fast!

So she calls him Star and smuggles him up to her room in the lantern bag. Tabby is NOT impressed. He puffs up to twice his size and retreats to the top of the wardrobe to glare.

Anyone who's read these books will know that keeping a secret from Miss Hardbroom is asking for trouble. That's where the fun is. You spend every page waiting for Star to bark at the wrong moment.

It's a warm, gentle read. Mildred, Maud and Enid look after each other, Ethel is as sneery as ever, and even the teachers get a funny moment. Miss Hardbroom wishes on the same star and then asks what she's supposed to do next.

If you've got a reader who's ever begged for a pet you said no to, they'll be right on Mildred's side.

What to read next

This one sits further along in the series. If they haven't met Mildred yet, the first Worst Witch book is where it all begins, halfway through her first term at Miss Cackle's.