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Witch Week

Witch Week

List Price: $5.99
Your Price: $5.39
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just as good as Charmed Life
Review: In a very strange world, different and similar to ours, in a classroom a teacher finds a note tucked inbetween too books. "Someone in this class is a witch" is written in big letters. But who is the witch? In this world every witch, good or bad, is condemmed to be burned at the stake. Could this witch be Charles, a boy who's just discovered he can do spells? Or is it Nam, a girl who's named atfter the most famout Witch of them all? THe teacher dosen't know but from that day on strange things start to happen. Things that only the great Chrestomanci can fix.

I really liked this book. It was just as good as the other book in the series I've read, Charmed life. If your a fan of magic books and/or works by Diane Wynne-Jones I really reccomend this book. I'm part-way through the next book in the series and I'm just as pleased. If you like fictional witchcraft and magic read this book!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Magical
Review: It's about a witch in a school of non witches. It reminds me a little of Harry Potter except that they aren't all witches/wizards.

If you aren't allowed to read Harry Potter you probably won't be allowed to read this one but it is really good. I read it 6 years ago but I still remember it well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A book for kids of all ages.
Review: One day Mr. Crossley, a teacher at Larwood House (an English boarding school for witch orphans) finds a note on his desk: SOMEONE IN THIS CLASS IS A WITCH. In a world where witches are still burned over bone-fires this is one of the most serious accusations a person can make. Is it just a joke? Or is there really a witch in the class? If so, who? And can they find out before the Inquisitor arrives? As the story progresses, we discover that there is more to it than first meets the eye. New subplots continuosly pop up. The question becomes not so much who is the witch, as who isn't? This story is more than just a story about magic, or parallel worlds. It's a story about real people in a world as real as our own; a world inhabited by people, who can be stubborn, nasty, selfcentered, shy, stupid, and smart. The characters are all people who have reasons for being the way they are. The villians are rarely evil, but instead just plain stupid and narrow-minded. This is a book written for kids of all ages. It can be easily read and understood, no matter who you are or where you are from

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Welcome to Larwood House!
Review: One of the four (five if you count the new multi-story book) Chrestomanci books, this tale displays a unique and imaginative outlook on history, on prejudice, on tiny events that shape our futures. And the story's good too. *wink*

A note is left on a teacher's desk: SOMEONE IN 6-B IS A WITCH. To the kids in this school's class, in a rather dreary part of England, it's not entirely clear whether the adults take this seriously. Being a witch in this parallel universe is a bad thing: Witches are found, interrogated, and burned at the stake. To make things worse, students are beginning to suspect each other -- and themselves -- of being witches.

Odd occurrances continue, such as a flock of birds inside the school, shoes vanishing, and one particularly bizarre speech spell. Several lonely students form alliances, and soon they encounter the one man who might be able to help them -- Chrestomanci the magician.

A little less sprightly than Charmed Life or Magicians of Caprona, this is nonetheless a stirring and well-crafted tale of magic and parallel universes. We are treated to a unique view of how the kids in Larwood House both torment each other and protect each other, and a unique magical twist near the end.

Nan and Charles are the recognizable Charlie Browns, an angry young boy and overweight, much-teased girl. The clique of perfect, snobby Teresa and her hangers-on is something that any girl will recognize, in their constant mockery, jeering, and exclusion. Charles has to deal with equally perfect, snobby boys in his wing, led by Simon, who also kick around scrawny Brian.

Other accompanying characters, like Brian's father Mr. Wentworth and Nirupam, a low-key, intelligent boy from India who wants all his classmates safe. Prepare to hate Miss Hodge, for I promise you that you will. And if you have read of Chrestomanci before, you will not be disappointed. If this is your first book, then he is charming, witty, intelligent... but never boring.

Jones' writing style is near-perfect -- things do go a bit undescribed at times, but not severely -- and she gets effortlessly inside the characters' heads, while offering sometimes-absurd situations that fit well into the plot. At a few points during the plot, the pace does lag a bit, but never severely; the complexity, however, is truly wonderful in a piece of juvenile literature and never hits inconsistencies.

Enter the tangled world of Larwood House, and become addicted instantly to the Chrestomanci Chronicles!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Better than Harry Potter!!
Review: This book is second only to the Magicians of Caprona also by Diana Wynne Jones. The book is an awasome journey of childrens discovery of themselves and their place in the world. Better than than the Harry Potter series by a long shot!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Witch Week
Review: This book is very intresting and imaginative. It is about another universe where in the modern day, witches are still burned and is set at a boarding school called Larwood House where a lot of the children are 'witch-orphans'. It has an unusual plot and is a good read, but one thing which spoiled it for me is I didn't really like or identify with any of the characters. Charles Morgan was probably my favourite character. Lots of other people who have reviewed this have compared it with Harry Potter, I read this book before I read Harry Potter and don't think they are much alike at all. I prefer Harry Potter, however but I would recommend this book to people who like fantasy stories about magic, and other Harry Potter fans would probably enjoy it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book was highly (and repeatedly) recommended by Polly Shulman on Slate.com, so I enlisted the help of my sisters and friends in searching for it so we could read it. When my sister finally found it, I couldn't wait to start reading it. I am sorry to report that I had more fun looking forward to reading the book than I did actually reading it. Maybe I'm too old to identify with the characters (I'm 25), maybe I'm too used to the skillful plotting and effortless pacing of J.K. Rowling, or maybe this book is really as labored and confused as I thought it was. Shulman calls Witch Week "an important predecessor to Harry Potter," and it certainly is in the sense that it is set at a boarding school, features children with magical powers, and was published in 1982--a decade before the Harry Potter craze swept the world. But it hardly comes close to J.K. Rowling's work in terms of wit, inventiveness, and sheer delight, and at no point did it reach out and pull me into its world as Harry Potter always does. The other two books by Diana Wynne Jones that I've read--Charmed Life and The Lives of Christopher Chant--are somewhat better, but still not quite up there with Harry Potter.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My first and favourite Wynne Jones book.
Review: This is surely one of Wynne Jones best books. Her humour is magnified in this, you have to laugh at her characters, Charles Morgan with his double barrelled glare, Nan and her urge to describe, even smug, self righteous Simon, smirking Theresa, and the ratty Brian Wentworth. Larwood house is a boarding school for Witch Orphans and a few other children, and Nan and Charles are both at the bottom of a pecking order. Each character is different, and some of the things DWJ describes are so true to life no matter what world you are in that you have to wonder where she gets her insights. The teachers are just as funny as the students, and the messes they all get themselves in are immensely entertaining. When I think of Nirupam and Charles trying to ride the how and mop I laugh hysterically. Charles is possibly the most interesting character, because his looks deceive so much. The magical workings that go wrong are spectacular..."Simon says"...and Theresa's fluffy white caretakers dogs (aka her knitting)...I could go on for hours!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hysterical Fantasy
Review: This was one of my all-time favorite books when I was a child, and I still delight in reading it now. Diana Wynne Jones has an incredible imagination, and can blend humor, characters, and plot skillfully. Witch Week is wonderful fantasy, taking us into a magical world where someone -- or possibly everyone -- is a witch. All the main characters are interesting, but it is more the humor in this book that won me over than anything. The descriptions and situations the students of 6B get themselves into are absolutely hysterical. I would recommend this classic to basically anyone and everyone.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A very good book
Review: Witch Week is a wonderful book. Once you start reading it you can't put it down. It's simply great!


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