by
Diana Wynne Jones
pictures by
Paul O. Zelinsky
“…utterly charming chapter book… illustrated with marvelous vitality”
—Kirkus
A Junior Library Guild selection
“delightfully odd characters and eccentric magic” —starred review, PW
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Young Earwig has always found life much to her liking at St. Morwald's Home for Children. She seems to get her way with anything and anybody, a quality that might well derive from her mother's having been a witch. But this is a fact not known to Earwig herself, and only guessed at by the St. Morwald staff, who found the baby Earwig on their doorstep with a cryptic note pinned to her clothing.
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Earwig's happiness faces a major challenge when the raggety-ribby-faced Bella Yaga and her towering husband the Mandrake come to the orphanage looking for a child to adopt—and they choose Earwig! Bella Yaga thinks she is getting a menial servant to help her mix her potions for neighborhood clients. But she doesn't know what she is in for, as Earwig learns, with the help of Thomas, a talking cat, to give her mistress some of her own medecine.
Earwig and the Witch is the last novel written by Diana Wynne Jones (1934-2011), one of Britain's top fantasy and science fiction writers. Her books for children and adults, including the popular Chrestomanci series, won awards around the world.
She was Paul Zelinsky's older daughter's favorite author in elementary school. |
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