The witch seems to represent an abusive single mother who is living in poverty without a partner or a community and the daughter lives a solitary life without friends or advocates and fears her mother's temper, her own starvation and neglect.

There is a joyless, abject quality to this 1953 lower grades chapter book, similar in feel to another children's book written 9 years before this one, The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. Right around this point, my daughter contributed, “This is like having Bellatrix Lestrange for a mother.” Madam Snickasee also denies her daughter food and screams that she's “useless” and “disobedient” and calls her “stupid girl.” I read through the first few pages, cackling whenever I read Madam Snickasee's part of the dialogue, but after she threw several objects at her daughter and shouted “Sissy!” in her face, I started to get a stomachache. So, we got the book, and I was thrilled that the story was about an actual witch, named Madam Snickasee, who lives with her daughter, Minx, in “the ugliest, most rickety house in town.” We've attempted a few books after finishing Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, but nothing inspired even a spark of interest until a friend on here reviewed Little Witch, and I thought. Searching for the meaning of life in a post-Harry Potter world.

Helen Stone's gay line drawings make the little witch and her friends come alive with humor and Hallowe'en spirit. Sputter of the Parent-Teachers' Association.Īnyone who ever longed to cast a spell or experiment with a magic kettle will delight in the wonderful story of Minx and how her dearest wish came true. The principal was certainly surprised to see his newest pupil arriving on a broomstick, and life got much more exciting for a lot of people - the school-children, Mr.

Even a witch's child rebels, and one day, Minx sneaked off to school. You might even like to see certain people you know turned into potted plants and have your own flying broomstick.īut Minx didn't like riding around in the dark or cooking up horrid pots of Black Spell Brew. It may sound like fun to be the daughter of Madam Snickasnee and be forbidden to go to school, to wash behind your ears, or go to bed at night.

Minikin Snickasnee - called Minx for short - was nine years old and wished with all her heart that she was not a witch's child.

Little witch anna bennett