I would like to thank Egmont Publishing for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

I somehow managed to miss this author's books as they were originally released many years before my own children were of age to read them. Last year I happened across his newer series, The Witching Legacy and have since read both books one and two and loved them. So when I saw this one I was eager to delve into it, especially as it's set in Whitby like the newer books.

The Whitby Witches was a lot of fun. It was full of adventure, imagination, and danger. I was completely swept along with the characters and their story. The writing was easy to read and the world was vividly described. It was wonderfully dark and atmospheric and a lot of fun all round. Everything was so easily pictured in my mind as I read. It was like being a child all over again, reliving that wonderful sense of adventure, danger and anticipation.

The only negative aspect, and it's not something that's particular to this story alone but something that seems to be a trend across many children's stories and books and something I'm more aware of now as a mother, is the fact that the majority of villains or bad guys in children's stories always seem to have some kind of disfigurement or disability. They are always "ugly" scarred or disfigured in some way. Why are we portraying this kind of message to our children? How a person looks doesn't portray whether they are good or bad. Beauty is only skin deep, the outside does not reflect who a person is on the inside. "Monsters" can look just like everyone else and just because someone isn't what most would class as "normal" it doesn't make them the bad guy to be feared. Perhaps that is too scary of a concept in truth for children but it's reality. Anyway, I realise this is a more general comment and not something particular to this book alone but it's something that I found myself contemplating after finishing this one so I wanted to comment on it.

All in all, The Whitby Witches was a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm going to have to get my hands on the rest of the series now. ( )

The characters are well drawn, but the pieces dont' hang together well, the climax is not properly prepared for, and too much of the plot revolves around the adults. ( )

Read my review at http://talesfromfoxglovecottage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/summer-reading-part-2.htm... ( )

As we join the story, we find Jennet (12) and her brother, Ben (8) on the train to meet their new guardian, Alice Boston (92). It seems that Jennet and Ben are orphans who have been moving from foster home to foster home (four so far) because Ben is different...he can see ghosts, this has cost them four new homes and Jennet is determined that he won't mess things up for them in Whitby with Alice. Upon arriving in Whitby by train, they meet Alice Boston their new caretaker, and are surprised to find that she's an eccentric old lady...kind of the town busybody. It's not long before they fall into a casual friendship with Alice and things start to get a little weird around town.

The Whitby Witches turns out to be something of a junior paranormal thriller with a dark side...but not too dark. The cast of characters include Ben, Jennet, Alice, the ladies circle (friends of Alice who meet once a month and includes Prudence, Matilda, Dora, and Edith), Rowena Cooper (our resident bad guy), and the local Aufwader's - the strange fisher people who live in caves by the sea (Nelda, Hesper, Tarr, and Silas). It all seems to start shortly after the arrival of Rowena Cooper...Alice's friends start dying, all labeled accidents by the police, but Alice believes differently (as does Ben who has met Nelda the young Aufwader girl whose father and uncle are missing). We really are given two parallel plot lines, the deaths of the ladies circle and the Aufwader mystery (including the search for the mysteries, mythical moonkelp). Everything in the story is linked to the moonkelp, the ruins of the abbey, and the mysteries Sister Bridget. Will Nelda and Ben find the moon kelp and save her people from extinction? Will Alice find out what Rowena is up to and will they all come out of it alive? You'll have to read to find out...and I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Overall, this is one of the best children's books I've read in the last couple of years...it's got mystery, intrigue, the paranormal, danger (and lots of it), bad guys that might just get away with it (and those are the best kind)...but it's also got heart and characters that you can really get to know and like! I could hardly put it down and my daughter ate it up! I give The Whitby Witches five stars and hope that they reprint the rest of the series soon, we're anxious to get our hands on the second book! Highly recommended!! ( )

Since their parents died in an accident, Jennet and Ben have been moved into a series of foster homes. They are always asked to leave because Ben frightens people. He can't help it - he sees things other people don't - like ghosts. But when a kind old woman in the small seaside village of Whitby take them in, the children start to think they may have found a home. They soon discover that Whitby has a strange history, and unusual (and evil) events are beginning to happen there. And Ben is not the only one who sees things. The first of a new trilogy, and an exciting one. ( )