Marie Burlington

When Willow Witch's wand is confiscated by Miss Wart, her teacher at Cobwebs Junior School, because she simply cannot cast an effective spell, the young magical practitioner is dismayed. Then, while out gathering magical ingredients with her cat Spooky, she finds the Chief Wizard's wand, lost underneath a tree. This she uses in various attempts to help her friends, only for each spell to go disastrously wrong. Eventually she flees to the Chief Wizard's home, where her final effort produces unexpectedly delicious treats for the Hallowe'en party...

Published by the Dublin-based O'Brien Press as part of their O'Brien Flyers collection - a "series of illustrated fiction for improving readers" - The Little Witch Who Can't Spell is an engagingly witchy tale for children just beginning with chapter-books. Stories about little witches who have trouble with their magic are not so uncommon, but author/illustrator Marie Burlington's contribution to the genre is a fun example. I do rather wish that her interior illustrations were done in color, like the cover, but leaving that aside, this is one I would recommend to beginning chapter-book readers who enjoy witchy tales.… (mehr)