The Witches

The Witches by Raold Dahl is on the list of 100 Most Challenged Books.

The Witches is a silly story set in Europe during the modern day.  It is a story of a young boy that is being raised by his grandmother after the death of his parents.  She lives in Norway, but he has grown up in England.  The most important lesson his grandmother has taught him is how to recognize witches and avoid themso he can survive.  Apparently witches are out to destroy all of the children in the world.  After learning about witches, the young boy is more alert in his every day actions and tries to avoid them at all costs.  While on holiday, the boy and his grandmother find out they are staying at the hotel where the witchedsof England are having their annual meeting to talk about there new plan to rid the world of kids.  The boy falls prey to the witches who test their plan on him and turn him into a mouse.  The only flaw is they cannot kill him after he becomes a mouse because he is too smart to fall for dying in a mousetrap.  When his grandmother learns of his new existence, they devise a plan to give the witches a taste of their own medicine, literally.  When their plan works, and all of the English witches turn into mice, they decide they must spend the rest of their days together extinguishing the world of all the witches in the other countries as well using their own plan against them.  I did not really connect with this story in any way, but I did enjoy the relationship between the boy and his grandmother as it reminded me of times In spent with my own grandmother learning many things from her.

Dahl, R., & Blake, Q. (1983). The witches . New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.