Genre: Children
Publisher: Puffin
Publication Date: 2007
Reviewed by Jaci Miller
The Grandson has grown up with his grandmamma’s tales of witches, their wicked ways and their horrifying hatred of children. She has told him these tales to prepare him for the inevitable day when a witch will try to eliminate him, in the same way witches try to do away with other children. But the Grandson never expects to encounter a whole room full of witches and when he does, he must find a way to foil their evil plan to destroy all of England’s children.
The Witches by Roald Dahl plays upon children’s love of the fantastic and their fascination with the frightening, but in an empowering, child-centric fashion. Children will sit on the edge of their seats, itching to learn more about the unique, and yet still familiar, world Dahl has created. Of course, the tale needs to be prefaced with an affirmation that the book is indeed pretend, since readers are told multiple times that witches do exist despite what any adult says. But once this is handled, Dahl treats readers to a plot line of magic and heroism, legends and oral history. This simply told tale is a Dahl classic.
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