How to recognize a witch? . Review on Witches, The - Roald Dahl

My candle burns at both ends,

it will not last all night,

but ah my foes and oh my friends,

it gives a lovely light. - Roald Dahl

I am a Roald Dahl (RD) fan. I have read most of his books available in library and around me, and love the way he writes. The language is funny, easy to understand, witty and not very stretchy. He uses imaginative words, which makes the books even more interesting.

Recently, I came across a book, The Witches, written by him. The title and RD both were an interesting combination. It was given to me by a friend of mine, a few months back, I read a page, and she took it back. When I got it this time in the library, I realized it was my unfinished book.

The Story : The story includes a boy who lives with his grandma in England. His grandma has a unique knowledge of identifying witches. The witches, who blended well within people and do not use broom stick or are not dressed in black but hated children to the core and wanted to destroy every child in the World. The boy’s life literally and drastically changes when he accidently ended up in a witches meeting. How and what happens next is the fun part of the story.

The Main Characters :

Narrator : The boy, himself who is narrating his series of adventures. He is an orphan, not very rude with people around him, not exactly intelligent but yes, smart, who automatically gets in a problem but knows how to come out of it.

Grandma : Like any grandma in the world, sweet, wise, loving, caring. She is very knowledgeable and can recognize a witch in disguise. She naturally lived in Norway but after her son and daughter-in-law’s demise she moved to England to take care of her only grandson. Without her the boy wouldn’t be able to come out of problems.

Grand High Witch: She is the villain of this story. Very vicious and extremely ugly, so so ugly that she wears a mask to cover her ugliness. Above all, she is the head of witches, and a mystery for the humans, as no one knew who she is. She has a strange accent. Apart from all the magical powers a witch is supposed to possess, she also knows how to print money and different creative recipes to torture children.

It is a fun filled exciting book for all ages. The RD fans like me and adventure lovers will enjoy this odd 208 pages book. It includes interesting chapters like “How to recognize a witch”, “formula 86 delayed action mouse maker” and “The Grand High Witch”. Every chapter creates a brief introduction for the next chapter and hence closing it in between is really hard. There are not many pictures, which gives me a lot of scope to imagine things of my own. The illustrations by Quentin Blake are free hand creations, very creative and funny.

In the end, RD said “he has hung glass balls in his children’s bedrooms, so that if a witch enters their room, it will see its reflection and run away, frightened!”

It is very hard to pick out anything bad about the book but the way it ends, gives a feeling, that the end is not complete.

This book has been adapted into a movie as well, but I haven’t seen it, so can’t say, whether it was able to capture the magic of the book.

Hope you will also enjoy the book as I did, do give me your feedbacks.

Happy Reading

MJ