The Witches by Roald Dahl is a tale about real Witches. Witches who hate children. A boy and his grandmother go on vacation after his grandmother is ill and have a run in with The Grand High Council of Witches. They have come up with a potion to turn all children into mice. The boy and his friend Bruno and his Grandmother have to stop them before they can turn all the children into mice.
My daughter Katelyn read this book and loved it. She looked forward to finding out what was going to be next every day. She loved the descriptions of the witches so much that she told me about them and even wrote a journal entry about how to tell a real witch from a regular woman.
Appropriateness: This book is very creepy and like all Dahl books there is a bit of twisted disturbing humor involved in the end. The book has a kind of happy ending but it's not as picture perfect as most children's books. This is not a book for kids who scare easily or have a problem figuring out reality from fiction. For kids who like scary and weird stories this book is great. The lexile is 740 putting it at a mid fourth grade level, guided reading level R. I would recommend this book to kids 9-14
There is a great movie version of this book which is a good reward for kids who have finished the book. The ending was Disneyfied but Angelica Houston does a fantastic job as the High Witch.
