Rating: 
Summary: Finding the right hat...
Review: One can only admire what must be going on in an author's mind to create stories like A HAT FULL OF SKY! Tiffany Aching, young heroine of The WEE FREE MEN, is back capturing the attention of young and older readers alike. Terry Pratchett has woven a new thread into the Discworld, adding a refreshing, new dimension to the already rich collection of characters, landscapes and goings-on. The Chalk, home of the Achings, is a remote rural region, far away from the bustle of Ank Morpork. The soft rolling hills, evolved in ancient times from the seas of the ages, are part of an area where reality meets magic...
While Tiffany, now 11, has been cautiously applying her special skills, inherited from her much-loved granny, she does not really understand what they mean and how to apply them. It is time to *learn* the witching business properly. With the help of Miss Tick, the headhunter for young witches, she leaves her beloved Chalk to take up "service" with an experienced witch, the complex Miss Level. Contrary to common assumptions that young witches might learn to fly on a broomstick or concoct magical potions, Tiffany's new life can only be described as tiresome and tedious... Her chores have more in common with a nurse's training as she follows Miss Level to attend to the old, sick and lonely. While she is much appreciated by their charges, Tiffany has a more challenging time to fit in with her fellow witches' apprentices. The trials and tribulations of the witches' teenage years are no different from those of "normal" girls: vanity, jealousy, peer pressure. Pratchett has a wonderful, sensitive touch when characterizing this motley group. Tiffany's search and acceptance of her own, real *hat* and the hat itself are wonderful metaphors for her coming of witch-age.
Tiffany has several magical talents. With telling herself "see me" and "see me not" she can step out of her body to observe her surroundings undetected. She also has the capacity for "third thoughts". Those are thoughts that "watch the world" and "think by themselves". They have helped Tiffany in her fight with the Queen of the Fairies in WEE FREE MEN. But they also can be trouble. Combined, these talents can also prove dangerous. The Nac Mac Feegle, the funny wild bunch of tiny blue men, a special kind of fairies, are the first to realize that danger is brewing for Tiffany. The hiver, an ancient entity that cannot die and moves from host to host, to absorb their minds, has set its ambitions on Tiffany. She would be an ideal candidate to be taken over... Rob Anybody and his brothers, have a special bond with the young girl, the "big wee hag". Their adventures are always hilarious, yet their efforts to protect Tiffany and to reach her before the hiver does is one of those gems that will stay in the mind of the reader. Mistress Weatherwax, the most revered of the old witches, is well known to Pratchett fans. Here, in her attempt to support and protect Tiffany, new sides of her personality are revealed. The confrontation with the hiver, while unavoidable, develops in unexpected ways.
A HAT FULL OF SKY is a delight of a story, for readers with a young mind, whatever their actual age. As Pratchett fans have come to expect, it is filled with good humour, imaginative witticisms and magic fantasy and, at the same time, with deep understanding and empathy for the foibles of humans and other beings. [Friederike Knabe]
Rating:
Summary: Funny and inspired
Review: Perhaps a lot of adult fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series have come to take for granted his ability to combine fantasy, riotous humor, and a touch of "why are we here and what are we for?" metaphysics. In "Hat Full of Sky," a sequel to his kids' hit "Wee Free Men," he manages all these plus more from a pre-teen perspective. However, you'll really want to read the first volume ("Wee Free"), first, or the plot of "Hat" won't make as much sense to you.In the previous volume, Tiffany Aching, a young independent farmgirl with witch-like powers, overcomes an evil queen to rescue her brother with the help of a clan of drunken, riotous "Pictsies"-six-inch kilt-wearing men painted blue and swearing like truckers. In "Hat Full of Sky," Tiffany goes off for formal witch training, only to be taken over by a "hiver," an evil being who stirs up all one's worst urges. Under the hiver's temporary influence, Tiffany becomes a kind of "mean girl"-pushy, self-interested, inconsiderate, and obsessed with clothes. It strikes me as remarkable that Pratchett (a middle-aged man, after all) could get the internal struggle of the pre-teen so exactly right: wanting to be popular and able to satisfy every urge, but with a wee small voice inside, fighting those urges in favor of a better self. As in "Wee Free Men," the pictsies are terrifically funny; the best bit is when the Pictsies climb over each other like acrobats and throw on human clothes to disguise themselves (as a single human) for a journey: they confound their fellow-travelers when the stomach complains out loud to the head, and the gloved hands walk off in opposite directions. Both full- and pint-sized readers will laugh and enjoy this book!
Rating:
Summary: fantastic as always
Review: Terry Pratchett continues to add to his fantastical Discworld. I loved it!
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: This is another book in Terry Pratchett's series on the Discworld - a flat world, supported on the backs of four massive elephants riding on the back of a planet-sized turtle, anything hilarious can happen here, and eventually does.
In this sequel to The Wee Free Men, young Tiffany Aching begins her apprenticeship in witchcraft. However, her activities have attracted the attention of a disembodied spirit, an unkillable spirit that wants to take Tiffany over, body and soul. Tiffany's meager training has not given her everything she needs to defeat this invincible opponent, but with her native talent and pluck, plus the help of some good friends, it might just be enough.
This is another *great* Terry Pratchett book, perhaps the best that he has created in years! I enjoyed the new and fascinating characters that Terry includes in this story, plus the return of Granny Weatherwax and the wonderful Nac Mac Feegle (little blue pictsies who can outdrink and outfight just about anyone and anything). Plus, the setting is great, and the story is incomparable. If you are a fan of humorous fantasy, then you must read this novel by the king of them all, Terry Pratchett!
Rating: 
Summary: What makes a real witch?
Review: Tiffany Aching, heroine of 'The Wee Free Men' leaves home and goes be apprentice to the witch Miss Level, who has a very unusual talent. Tiffany is rather bored by the mundane duties required of her by Miss Level, and meets some other, flashier witches who seem to have a different idea of what witchcraft is about, but who is right? Meanwhile a mysterious and apparently maligant force is after Tiffany, attracted by her strong magical powers. The valiant and belligerent little Nac Mac Feegle set out to rescue her, and Granny Weatherwax too has an interest in Tiffany. I enjoyed this book more than 'The Wee Free Men' I thought it was funnier and had a more intersting plot, with a number of unexpected twists. Great fun, full of humour, magic,suspense and amusing characters.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book
Review: We purchased the CD version of this book on our cross-country journey this summer. Our daughter, aged six, picked the CD out based on the description on the back of the CD cover. Neither my wife or I had heard of the author or series before.
We were very happy to discover that this is a wonderful and delightful tale! It is one of the rare children's books that both adults and children can enjoy. There were many times when all of us were laughing at the same time. Mr. Pratchett's sense of humour is, to say the least, unique.
The tale is told independently of the first book in this series. You are told enough background information to know what is going on and at no point do you feel like you should have read the first book.
As to the plot, it is full of blue little men with red hair, witches and a nasty creature that takes over the heroine. Everything is settled in the end and the world goes on.
As a final testment to the book: our daughter demanded that we listen to the book on the return journey and neither my wife nor I complained.
PS My daughter wants you to know that she thinks the book rates a "100 percent."
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