Witch Switch

by Maeve Friel, Nathan Reed (Illustrator)

Overview

An enchanting new adventure for Jessica, everyone's favourite Witch-in-Training, and her teacher Miss Strega.

"Prrrrrrooom," Jessica purred, in a very pleased voice. "I'm a cat."

Jessica is learning the Witch Switch - how to magically change shape. But although being a cat can be great fun, it's also a tiny bit scary. What happens if a Witch Switch goes wrong! Meanwhile, what happens if an Ordinary Person finds out about the goings on at Miss Strega's shop?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780007185252
Publisher:	HarperCollins Children's Books
Publication date:	06/06/2005
Series:	Witch-In-Training , #6
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	7 - 9 Years

About the Author

Maeve Friel was born in Northern Ireland and went to university in Dublin. After many years working and travelling in Spain, Italy and England, she now lives in a small village near Alicante (Spain). She has a son and a daughter. Apart from the Witch-in-Training series, she has published four novels for older readers, a book for young readers and a book of non-fiction as well as featuring in many short story anthologies. She has been short-listed three times for the Irish Children's Book of the Year (Bisto), has won a Bisto Merit Award, was twice nominated for the Reading Association of Ireland literary awards and won the Hennessy Literary Award. She has also had stories broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and RTE.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 2-5-This audiobook combines the four books by Maeve Friel about 10-year-old Jessica Diamond who discovers that she is a witch. In Flying Lessons (HarperCollins UK, 2002), we meet Jessica as she finds herself in an unfrequented and strange hardware shop where things don't appear to be what they seem. Under Miss Strega's guidance, Jessica develops her skills as a witch in the subsequent volumes, Spelling Trouble (HarperCollins UK, 2003), Charming or What? (HarperCollins UK, 2003), and Brewing Up (Roaring Good Reads UK, 2003). Phyllida Nash gives an admirable performance as she interprets the plethora of female characters in these four books. While many of the voices are not distinctively different, her pacing, enunciation, and familiarity with her script give the rather tedious text some zip. While her voice for Jessica seems a bit too deep and full for a youngster, she gives the adult characters, such as Miss Strega, Hecate Darling, Dr. Crank, and Pelagia, a believable authority. Her measured timing and clarity with the dialogue provide an easy format for young listeners, especially as the stories focus on the mechanics of Jessica's training and scene descriptions, rather than high adventure. Some British pronunciations might be difficult for young listeners to understand. A supplemental purchase for collections serving elementary age girls.-Tina Hudak, St. Bernadette School, Silver Spring, MD Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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