The Only Thing Worse Than Witches

June 9, 2014
Eleven-year-old Rupert has been told time and again to stay away from the witches in town, but when he sees an advertisement about a witch seeking an apprentice, his curiosity wins out. Rupert is also lonely: he and his classmates live in constant terror of their “super evil” teacher, Mrs. Frabbleknacker, who forbids them from socializing. When the witch from the ad turns out to be a girl Rupert’s age, who needs help studying for her bar exam, Rupert agrees. The witch community is immediately up in arms over a human becoming involved in their business, which leads to a chaotic confrontation with the Witches Council and its leader, the Fairfoul Witch. Magaziner’s debut has echoes of Dahl’s Matilda, as it pits “helpless” children against an over-the-top villain. The same goofy charm that Magaziner brings to the names of characters and settings (Mrs. Gummyum, Yammerstop Way) carries through to the details of witch life and logic in the town of Gliverstoll, resulting in a fun, frothy story that will, well, charm its readers. Ages 8–12. Agent:
Brianne Johnson, Writers House.

Starred review from June 15, 2014
Fifth-grader Rupert Campbell lives in a world that combines Roald Dahl's Witches and Louis Sachar's Wayside School.Absurd and magical, it is still informed by the trials of children: trouble with friends and teachers. Extremely mean, scary, strange and dangerous teachers. Mrs. Frabbleknacker refuses to allow the fifth graders to speak to one another-even outside of class. She has been known to physically pick up and throw students out of the room when they get on her wrong side. The day she makes the students search for one paper clip in Gliverstoll's town dump, Rupert decides to change his fate. Infused with a Mr. Weasley-like curiosity, nonmagical Rupert yearns to learn more about the witches in the area. Against his mother's firm directions, he answers an ad for a witch's apprentice. Quirky and hopelessly dramatic, Witchling Two desperately needs to pass her exams to become a full-fledged witch, or she will be exiled. Rupert is her only, unlikely hope. Together, they struggle to solve two looming disasters-passing the exam and surviving Mrs. Frabbleknacker's class! Magaziner's youthful narrative voice is distinctly aural: Her characters swish and swoop, clomp and screech. Her storytelling cauldron mixes the right balance of bizarre and banal, and she turns up the heat as the witch exam approaches.Readers will banish themselves from the ordinary world to finish this book in a flash. (Fantasy. 8-12)

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June 1, 2014

Gr 4-6-Rupert Campbell is a fifth grader in Mrs. Frabbleknacker's class. She's the meanest teacher in school; she discourages her students from becoming friends and forces them to participate in gross projects. Rupert's mother doesn't make his life any easier, insisting that he avoid the one thing that fascinates him most-witches. When Rupert sees an ad for a witch's apprentice in the local paper, curiosity gets the best of him. Witching Two couldn't be further from his expectations. Her difficulty with spells and potions lead the duo through a series of hijinks. As their friendship forms, each agrees to help with the other's greatest challenge, be it passing a series of exams to become a full-fledged witch or standing up to a truly terrifying teacher. This friendship is the story's strongest element, as the two characters help each other through their toughest battles. Mrs. Frabbleknacker is as awful as her name, with antics reminiscent of scenes from Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories from Wayside School (Follett, 1978) gone wrong. There is a similar undercurrent of silliness in this book, including some of Witching Two's strange beliefs and aversion to bunnies. A solid choice for libraries looking to bolster their collection of lower-reading-level, middle-grade fiction.-Nicole Signoretta Sutton, Kingston Elementary School, Cherry Hill, NJ

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