By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member Ryan Downing

Title: Whispering to Witches
Author: Anna Dale
Illustrator: Melvyn Grant/ Ken de Silva
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Number of Pages: 297

Tis the Fall Season

Fall is finally here. The air is now chilly and the leaves on trees are turning from green to a glorious red, orange, or yellow. Best of all, Halloween is just around the corner. However, Halloween is much more than dressing up in goofy costumes and eating candy. It’s that time of year that you can really enjoy the thrill of a good fright! That is why I highly recommend you read the spectacularly spooky book called, Whispering to Witches by Anna Dale.
This novel takes place over in England in modern- day times. When a young boy named Joe boards a train to take him to Canterbury where his mum, stepdad and stepsister live, he doesn’t realize what he has just gotten into. Joe knew he had to leave his father over Christmas because of a ‘family emergency that Joe shouldn’t be a part of,’ and that he was going to visit his mum and her new family for the holidays, but what he didn’t know was that by boarding that train, he was not going to have a regular, happy holiday after all.

Joe ends up being tricked to get off the train at the wrong spot (a place called Stubble End) by some evil witches plotting to take down the world of magic. Later on, Joe is given a tricycle to ride along the railroad tracks on so he can make his way to Canterbury where his mum is waiting for him. Unfortunately, the tricycle is possessed and it takes him away to a witch coven by the name of Dead-Nettle.

That was where the adventure begins. Joe meets a young witch in training called Twiggy and all of the members of the coven. Because Joe is a mortal, the witches fear he will tell the other mortals about them, and so they leave him with his recent memory drained back at his mums’ home. The next day, Twiggy came back for him and gave him his memory back. Twiggy and Joe become friends and embark on an amazing adventure to stop the cruel witches from ending the world of magic. Will the two have the power to stop them? Find out yourself!

I enjoyed this heart-stopping, spooky Halloween book! If you are anywhere from ages 10-14, whether you are a boy or a girl, this book is for you! I think Whispering to Witches is very similar to Harry Potter in a magical-relating way. The only problem about this book is it is a real puzzler sometimes; you’ve got to stop and rethink all of the events going on to figure out what might happen next. Otherwise, it has a great plot, beginning, middle, and end, packed with wonderful adventures and surprises that will make your heart leap up to your throat! (February, 2005)