When Nicky and his mother buy a dilapidated old home in a small New England village, intending to renovate it and turn it into a tearoom, they are unprepared for the original inhabitant: a sooty, snarly Old Black Witch with a penchant for getting into trouble. I want to own this series! I might have to buy it. There is color, energy, emotion and mood in the art. I had to go to the Library of Congress to find this book so the kids did not read it. Great work and it makes me sad this is slowly being forgotten. It’s not too sweet either as the witch is spicy.

I might like this series better than cranberryport, maybe. It was this decade you have Bewitched, Casper and his good witch friend Wendy and this book about a witch that has a good heart with a very rough exterior. (this is the 60’s so it’s not a nasty woman sort of thing, but a scary witch thing) This was back in an era when witches were almost always considered evil and the villain.

Another: “Boil Cauldron, Make a brew, what kind of berries make pancakes blue?”Ģ thieves break in to the Tea & muffin cafe and the Old witch confronts them and turns them into toads. She sings to customers as she places food on tables: Eventually she begins to cook pancakes (recipe at the end of the book) for the fancy ladies and they are the best around. She tries to claim the house, but the duo move her to the attic. An old black witch was asleep in the chimney for a 100 years when they move in. I hate this practice in children’s books.Ī mother and son duo buy a house in New England to make into a tea room. The publisher wraps sentences across a page turn or page to page and this is a pet peeve of mine. I love the whimsy and mood that Wende brings to her stories. Before there was Cranberryport (I love these books) there was the Old witch books.

The black witch book 4