The Ghost Witch
Betty Ren Wright
Little Apple
Fiction, CH Chiller
Themes: Ghosts, Girl Power, Witches
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Description
Jenny and her mother have just inherited a large Victorian house, owned by the strange old Miss Nagle. She lived alone with her cat, Rufus, until her
death, and every kid in town just knows she was some sort of witch. Jenny never listened to those stories, and her mom always told her what a nice woman
Miss Nagle really was. Besides, everyone knows there's no such thing as witches - they're as made-up as ghosts.
When Jenny goes to feed Rufus, her best friend Chris in tow, strange things start happening. Doors open and close on their own, and things seem to be
creeping around in the dark. Surely the house is haunted, maybe by the late Miss Nagle herself! Maybe she really was a witch, after all! Now, Jenny's mother
wants to move out of their cramped apartment and into Nagle's empty house... but does the former resident want them to move in?
Review
This wasn't really a bad story. It's spooky, especially for younger readers, with snakes and giant spiders and other scary happenings. Jenny is a good
hero. It's well-paced and decently written, but the plot resolution not only comes out of the blue, but violates one of the basic rules of ghost hauntings;
this drug the rating down. I also got annoyed at a problem that's really starting to bug me about kids' books. It's this insistence that witches were old
hags who cast curses on everyone. This one even contains lines saying that witches don't exist. That's about as honest and valid as saying Gypsies don't
exist, or pirates don't exist. They did and still do, just not as popular stereotype portrays the: the evil old cackling hag casting curses. I'm getting
increasingly annoyed by this, myself. If these authors made the distinction by calling them "evil hags" I wouldn't be as ticked off, but they never do
(except in instances like Harry Potter, and even then it seems that they have to justify a witch's existence by giving them inborn magical powers.
Sort of like saying you can't be a Christian unless Jesus actively answers your prayers.) Someone really ought to write a kids book in which witches can be
good without being supernaturally empowered (which they aren't, any more than followers of other religions are, by sheer virtue of practicing their religion,
specially gifted.) Yeah, I suppose I shouldn't let it bug me, but it does. But I digress...
In the end, Ghost Witch might make for a decent little scary story, but it hardly sticks in the memory - and even a grade-school kid might realize
that the ending comes out of nowhere.