The Witches

In this dark fantasy, an unnamed seven-year-old boy goes to live with his Norwegian grandmother after his parents die in a car accident. She warns him that real witches are non-magical demons who live undetected in society, hiding their bald heads with wigs, their clawed hands with gloves, and their square toes with narrow shoes. While staying at a seaside hotel in England, the boy accidentally stumbles upon the annual meeting of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He discovers this group is actually a front for every witch in England, led by the Grand High Witch, who plans to turn the nation’s children into mice using a delayed-action formula. After being transformed himself, the boy and his grandmother must use his small size and mouse-like agility to steal the potion and eliminate the witches.

Children and young adults read this book for its unsentimental approach to danger and its refusal to offer a traditional happy ending. The story appeals to readers who enjoy dark humor and the idea that children can be cleverer than the adults who seek to harm them. Readers finish the book with the understanding that outward appearances are often deceptive and that personal identity is not defined by physical form, but by one's actions and the people who love them.