Catherine Leblanc

After reading How to Outwit Witches, I had mixed feelings about the book. I liked the book because it had comical illustrations and language; however, I didn’t like the story because the writing did not flow. I feel as though the message of this book is to give young children a sense of relief about their fears of witches because they’ll “possess all the secret spells and potions to beat witches at their own game.”

To begin on a good note, the illustrations were great. The colors were vibrant, and contrasting. The illustrator gave each witch their own unique look and style, thus, giving the readers a variety of characters to look at. And the two children in the book who are outwitting the witches are portrayed as very clever. Furthermore, I liked how the language was descriptive and fun. For example, “They’d like to turn you into a parrot to make their zoo complete! Pretend to be stupid…obey their commands but sneak into the library: open their magic book, discover their magic spells, and turn them into toads, snakes, or old crows.”

On the flip side, I did not like the flow of the book. It was hard to follow the first time around; and the way the text is displayed, it looks as though there would be rhyming. But there is no rhyming which confused me the first time I read this book. Furthermore, I felt as though there were too many words when reading. Too descriptive.… (meer)