Tiffany Aching wants to be a witch. She’s sick of hearing stories where old grannies are forever being bad-mouthed or boiled in fairy tales, and she has no use for those swooning princesses or thick-headed princes. She’s not sure Tiffany is a good name for a witch, but she is quite a sensible girl. When her sticky little brother Wentworth is kidnapped by the fairy queen, Tiffany decides to get him back. Armed with a frying pan (fairies hate iron) and a talking toad, she sets off to find her little brother.
Thankfully, she has the help of the very blue, very litte Nac Mac Feegles. Standing 6 inches high and covered head to toe with tattoos, these “Pictsies” (instead of Pixies) are infamous for stealing sheep, drinking ale and fighting. This particular group of Wee Free Men, led by Rob Anybody (with much regretted input from his brother Daft Willy), have experience fighting the fairy queen and help Tiffany enter the fairy world made from fantastic dreams and gruesome nightmares.
Based on the adult Discworld series also by Terry Pratchett, this is an exciting book filled with hilarious dialogue, droll puns and generally fun laughs. Stephen Briggs, narrator of the audio edition, brings an amazing layer of entertainment to the novel with wonderful characterizations and brogues.
Recommended 11+
Where is the Welsh town of Manod? Just ask Dylan, resident and only boy in the entire town. His parents own the only gas station, which his mum dreams of turning in to a café, and his best friends are his two pet chickens. Life is quiet and boring until a mysterious BMW, Nissan X-Trail and two vans appear in the night and drive up the mountain. The vehicles are carrying precious paintings fro m the flooded National Gallery in London which are to be stored in Manod’s defunct mine.
Meet Anthony, the average middle child in an average Italian Catholic family in average Brooklyn, NY. While his older brother Frankie is a straight-A student, and his younger sister, Christina is just plain adorable, “Antsy” manages to fly along under the family radar. Then, from out of no where, comes Calvin Schwa. Although Calvin is in his science class, Antsy simply can’t remember ever seeing him before. No one seems to remember The Schwa, not even his own mother who left him at the grocery store. Antsy and Calvin test this “Schwa Effect” and, on a dare and a bet, try breaking into the apartment of Mr. Crawley, the local grouch. Caught in the act, Antsy and Calvin become Old Man Crawley’s slaves, forced to walk his fourteen dogs. As he performs his penance, Anthony begins to see the different ways people can disappear before our very eyes, but how love and friendship can bring them back.
Colin Singleton was a child prodigy, not a genius, just prodigy. Now, after graduating from high school he is just a smart guy with a talent for languages and remembering obscure facts. To top it off, he’s been dumped, for the nineteenth time, by a girl named Katherine. In a slump and feeling lost, Colin sets out with his best friend Hassan on a road trip adventure. Searching for that “Eureka” moment, the pair end up in Gutshot, Tennessee where Colin learns that making a difference, really mattering in life, can happen in unexpected ways.
