W.K. Jasner

Contrary Nan, who likes to tell her mother 'No!' and stamp her feet, runs away during a shopping trip and finds herself in the establishment of a very frightening witch in this early reader/picture-book from 1979. Shrunk into a miniature version of herself, Nan is placed in a glass case with some gingerbread, and threatened with baking by the wicked witch, who initially mistook her for Gretel (of Hansel and Gretel fame). Escaping the case, Nan is restored to her original size, and must face off against the witch's troll and dragon, in order to leave the shop and find her mother again...

W.K. Jasner was one of a number of pseudonyms used by children's author Jane Werner Watson, who is perhaps best remembered as one of the initial editors of the Little Golden Books series, to which she herself contributed some one hundred and fifty titles. As far as I have been able to ascertain, she used the Jasner pseudonym twice, both times to publish a witchy early-reader. Both Which Is the Witch? and The Witch's Shop were published in 1979, but the latter, a small pamphlet-style paperback printed without ISBN, is far more obscure. I read Which Is the Witch? a number of years ago, and wasn't particularly impressed, so I almost didn't bother to track it down, when I discovered its existence. How fortunate that I decided to give it a try after all, as I found it delightfully creepy, and far more satisfying than Jasner's other witchy tale. The references to Hansel and Gretel, the exciting adventure element, as Nan must try to escape, and the appealing artwork from illustrator Marilyn Miller, all combined to make this an entertaining read. The visuals were quite interesting, in fact, done in black and white, with blue as an accent in the scenes where Nan is outside the shop, and in black on a blue background, in the scenes where Nan is inside the shop. That difference in background color does quite a bit, I think, to emphasize the feeling that, having stepped into the witch's shop, one is in a different world.

All in all, a very appealing witchy tale, one I would recommend to young readers who enjoy such stories. It's obscure, as mentioned, so it might be difficult to track down, but for fans of the type, it is certainly worthwhile.… (meer)

Although her mother and father and annoying brother Nick all insist that she should be something other than a witch for Halloween - she's always a witch, they tell her - young Jenny is determined. In fact, she'd love to be a real witch, and is always practicing her magic words and spells. When a real witch, complete with flying broomstick, shows up during trick-or-treating, offering to switch places, Jenny jumps at the chance, only to discover that witchy activities aren't as fun as she'd imagined. The little witch, in the meantime, finds the loving warmth of Jenny's family a little difficult to take...

A book I would never have known about, let alone picked up, had I not found it while searching for the homophones "witch" and "which" in my library database, W.K. Jasner's Which Is the Witch is an early chapter-book, published in 1979, and divided into three sections. I cannot say, truth be told, that I found the narrative that involving (quite the reverse, in fact), although there is nothing wrong with it either. The artwork, done in black and white, is rather dreary, and likewise unappealing to me. I'm glad I requested this (it only took a few minutes to read, after all), because now I won't be wondering what that other "witch/which" book was all about, but I can't say I recommend it that highly. Out of print, and likely to stay that way...… (meer)