My Unwilling Witch Gets a Makeover by Hiawyn Oram and Sarah Warburton

From TheBookbag

My Unwilling Witch Gets a Makeover by Hiawyn Oram and Sarah Warburton

Genre: For Sharing

Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: The sixth book in the series sees Haggy Aggy wanting to become a supermodel. It's quite heavy on jokes which only an adult would understand but is still enjoyable for a child.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Format: Paperback 96 pages
Publisher: Orchard Books January 2008
ISBN: 978-1846160660
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My Unwilling Witch introduced us to the world of Rumblewick Spellwacker Mortimer B - or RB for short – the cat who's a witch's familiar to Haggy Aggy. She's the witch who just wants to be a regular girl and certainly doesn't want to go around frightening children. Now she's found RB's diaries and she's sold them to a publisher in exchange for a lifetime's supply of shoes. This is the sixth book and it tells the story of the time when Haggy Aggy wanted to become a supermodel.

I loved the first book in the series, with its picture book format and anarchic drawings by Sarah Warburton. I thought there was a lot of potential there, but now I'm not quite so certain. We've moved into a more traditional form with a stiff cover and I couldn't help thinking that it was aimed at adults as much as children. Many of the jokes are going to go over a young child's head – such as Stairrods department store, or RB's telephone number – 77+3-5+1-7 – or his hobby of point-to-point shrewing. There's nothing wrong in there being such bonuses for an adult sharing a book with a child but here I felt the balance had tipped just a little too far.

That said, it's a good story. Haggy Aggy wants to be a supermodel, but, well; she just hasn't got the looks. In fact, she looks scary. What she needs is a makeover and she's been watching all the television programmes. What RB needs is to get Haggy Aggy to Fright Night when all the witches and their familiars have a competition to see who's the most frightening, but she's not keen on going. I'm not going to tell you how it all works out, but it does and very neatly.

I did worry that the theme – a girl needing to have a makeover – might go counter to all that I believe in. I don't think that anyone needs a makeover, or that it should be suggested to impressionable people that they should have one. Fortunately the story line does make it clear that it's a rather silly thing to do and the results might not always be quite what you hope for.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.

For another book which can be shared with a child or enjoyed by the newly confident reader we think that you might like Ottoline Goes to School by Chris Riddell.

You can read more reviews of this book at Amazon and Waterstones

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