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Women's Fiction
Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth

Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A late discovery
Review: At 33, I would not have been attracted to this book had I not spotted the author's name under the title. Eureka! Another book by the author of "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil Franweiler" which my mother had borrowed from the library for a Children's Literature class she was teaching and which she had to return, overdue, because my sister, 11 years older than me, was enjoying it unbeknownst to us. But I digress.

Elizabeth is short, unglamourous and lonely. She meets an unlikely friend in Jennifer, a mysterious girl who is eerily familiar with Shakespeare and claims to be a witch. They hit it off and Jennifer takes on Elizabeth as her apprentice witch. For Elizabeth, this means eating one unpleasant thing after another and gathering the ingredients for an ointment of flying. Things seem to go terribly wrong until Elizabeth, displaying as much genius as Jennifer, realizes that Jennifer has claimed her as a lifelong friend.

There is much in this book that rings true to the present, and will continue to do so for as long as friendships exist. It reminded me of my own best friend in the fifth grade. He's a guitarist who played in one of the best rock bands from my city, and I got into computers. Our paths were quite different, but when we run into each other, we're still those boys from the fifth grade.

My own kids are still far too young to appreciate this book, but I'm saving it for them.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Jennifer and Elizabeth
Review: Despite the title which implies a cast of thousands, this story revolves around the intense relationship betweent two fifth-grade girls, both seeking to be Needed. Black Jennifer is a loner of a character, while white Elizabeth is new to the neighborhood. The author refers to Hecate, the head witch in MACBETH, which may stimulate some discussion of Shakespeare's plays.

On Halloween day Elizabeth is walking through a park, when she spies an old-fashoined shoe dangling from a tree--a shoe on the foot of a self-proclaimed junior witch. Jennifer never smiles or laughts; in fact this curious girl walks with her head skyward--never at the ground. Her abrupt manner lacks social skills, but immediately fascinates the impressionable Elizabeth. Unique and possessive, Jennifer decies to make the girl her Apprentice--without even asking if she'd like this honor! Suddenly Elizabeth must eat certain foods and refrain from eathing others, while leaving food "offerings" for her mentor. Is this a clever scam or a serious attempt to achieve supernatural power; they both start collecting odd ingredients to compound a Flying Ointment. How far will this Game be taken?

Totally dominated by Jennifer's will Elizabeth starts acting strangely both at home and in school. Alas, she learns more than witchcraft when she is promoted to Journeyman witch, but must she sacrifice everything that normal girls enjoy, just to win Jennifer's occult favor? Is it friendship or something more sinister which she seeks? What is the attraction of Power over others? She actually discovers that she enjoys being Different from other girls; that it is exhilarating to behave in a difficult manner, which puzzles concerned adutls. What kind of underground game has their social symbiosis become, if she has to sneak, lie, dissemble and deny her own personality? Elizabeth is convinced that Jennifer's esteem is worth it all. It takes a special toad (as in TUCK EVERLASTING) to teach her an important life lesson: that no joy comes from wishing ill on others. Elementary girls will enjoy this cute BOO! read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth Willam,Mekinley and me, Elizabeth
Review: I recommend this book. Elizabeth was lonely. She has no friends. All the kids go out the back door to school. Some kids go over the hill to school, and some go through the forest to school. Elizabeth goes through the woods. She looked up and saw a girl named Jennifer. Jennifer jumped out of a tree and ran so fast it didn`t look like she touched the ground. Jennifer took a book from the library. It was a spell book. It had ointments that make you fly, and that change you into an animal and that kill people. I liked the part when they told me that one of the girls was a witch. A couple of magical things happen.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth Willam,Mekinley and me, Elizabeth
Review: My mother bought me this book for my 8th Christmas and it remains a favorite to this day. In it I found a sympathetic character in Elizabeth, the protagonist of this story. I could well sympathize with her inability to make friends easily (I had that same challenge) and agonizing over her small stature. I had the opposite problem -- I always thought I was abnormally tall until I reached my maximum height of 5'4", which is NOT tall for any adult!

It was an interesting coming together of these two loners, Elizabeth and Jennifer. I think the whole "witchcraft" thing was to a large extent, childhood wishful thinking and playacting and the natural wish to distinguish oneself among one's peers. I loved this book and delighted in the antics of the two girls.

Elizabeth's nemesis, the phony, duplicitous Cynthia is easily recognizable. I had to endure my share of "Cynthias" growing up and I can remember thinking how laughably clueless adults were to the phony, smarmy charm such creeps like Cynthia oozed. I thought it was mean of Elizabeth's mother to make her attend Cynthia's birthday party and to constantly sing Cynthia's praises to her. That certainly did not help Elizabeth's esteem. I could relate to that because my mother used to sing the praises of other people's children to me. I can remember telling her time and again, "She's/They're just pretending to be nice because YOU'RE here. I can't just walk up to kids and make friends." It was only after I had become an adult myself that I realized that my mother and her peers were not as susceptible to the smarmy Cynthias as I had been led to believe. It was in recent years that she has told me that she knew all along what sneaky, miserable little wretches those "Cynthias" were and that she was "friendly to them in the hopes they'd be nicer to me" whether she was present or not. How wonderful it would have been to have told me that in the first place! I would have known she was an ally then instead of easily misled by other people's children! This book is an eye opener for all ages.

I still laugh uproariously over the way Elizabeth ate a raw onion per Jennifer's direction for a week. Her bizarre eating habits paid off -- I loved it when her onion breath scared nasty Cynthia who ran off the stage during a school play. I also loved the way she fixed Cynthia's wagon at Cynthia's birthday party by challenging her phony charm. Each time Cynthia oohed and aahed over a gift and asked who it was from, Elizabeth would call out the name of the giver, thus spoiling Cynthia's fun. I cheered when Elizabeth stepped on nasty Cynthia's foot when the latter stuck her tongue out at her when she left the party. I remember at 8 thinking, "Elizabeth, you don't need Cynthia. One of these days she'll get it." Many years later, I wanted to say, "Just remember, there is life after elementary/middle school. Creeps like Cynthia may have one a battle or two, but they won't win the war. I hope you see Cynthia fall flat on her phony face."

It is a delightful treasure trove of memories and a book well worth reading at any age. I still love it and I have my original hard back copy that I got when I was eight.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Jennifer and Elizabeth
Review: The story is about Elizabeth moving in this town where she knows no one, but one day she meets a girl named Jennifer. Jennifer says she is a witch but Elizabeth doesn't believe her. Through out the beginning of the story Elizabeth learns its true. Jennifer teaches Elizabeth to be a witch an apprentice witch. Every Saturday Elizabeth and Jennifer meet in the park to learn witchcraft. Elizabeth has to eat one thing every day a week such as an onion, or a raw hotdog. One Saturday, Jennifer and Elizabeth start to make a flying ointment, it will take them about 5 months. One day Jennifer and Elizabeth got in a fight, and Elizabeth came down with a cold. Then one gloomy afternoon Elizabeth thought that she would go and apologize. After that they were the best of friends.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Jennifer and Elizabeth
Review: The story is about two girls. One girl is a witch and the other girl has just moved to the town. Elizabeth was walking to school one day and saw a shoe hanging off a tree. The shoe looks very old and Elizabeth's shoes' look new. So Elizabeth told Jennifer your shoe is about to come off. Jennifer jumped off the tree and talked to Elizabeth. Jennifer and Elizabeth would meet every Saturday at the library first and then they would go to the park. Elizabeth became Jennifer's helper. Jennifer would tell Elizabeth to eat a weird food every day of the week. At the end of the story of the story Elizabeth finds out that Jennifer isn't a witch she just wants to be one. Elizabeth and Jennifer are best friends

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fabulous story for those who are 'different'
Review: This is a fantastically quick read, very interesting and unique. Konigsburg is excellent at her craft. She never preaches or talks down to her young readers. No wonder her books are so timeless. This book is over 30 years old, and it still stands up. A classic in children's lit.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is a great book-especially if you're a witch!
Review: This is a great book, about two fifth-grade girls who have the same need. The need for a friend. Elizabeth, the narrator of the story (I, me, myself) doesn't have any friends until Jennifer comes along. Well, actually, Jennifer and Elizabeth aren't really friends---but Elizabeth carries on the job of a witch's apprentice. That's what Jennifer is-a witch! They meet on Halloween, but they only see each other again on Saturdays, when they go to the library and the park to read books on witchcraft. Their goal is to make a flying ointment, but it is here that trouble starts. This book is great, and at the end, there is a great surprise that Elizabeth realizes. This book was a 1968 Newbery Honor Book, a runner-up to From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, also by E.L. Konigsburg

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cute and fun.
Review: This novel could be described as "Beverly Cleary plus Zilpha Keatley Snyder, with a touch of Carolyn Keene." In other words, it has friendship elements, almost-magical elements, and some mystery elements, all at the same time.

This story is told in first person by Elizabeth, the new girl in town. With the perspicacity of a Ramona Quimby or a Harriet M. Welsch, she makes wonderfully droll observations about people she meets and things she does. (This makes it a little hard to believe that she's just ten years old--but the narration is so nice that this flaw is easily overlooked.) Her cleverness and wry humor fail her, however, when it comes to Jennifer, the first real friend she makes, who is unlike anyone she has ever met before.

On their first meeting, Jennifer cooly reveals that she is a witch and performs a number of seemingly magical feats to prove it. Before long, she starts to train Elizabeth to be a witch, too. Yet despite all the "bonding" they do, as Jennifer prepares rituals, rules, spells and surprises for her willing friend, their relationship remains slightly stiff. I am certain that readers won't mind, at first: Jennifer is too fascinating and her ideas are too imaginative and funny for anyone to complain about any lack of warmth. Besides, anyone is better than Cynthia, who lives one floor up from Elizabeth and is exactly what Angelica Pickles of "Rugrats" will be like in a few years.

Come the end, readers will have read a rollickingly good yarn sprinkled with practical lessons about friendship--so there really is nothing to mind about this novel. I recommend it for young girls who have liked "Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Jennifer and Elizabeth
Review: This story was about Elizabeth, the new girl that just moved in town. On Halloween, while Elizabeth was walking to school, she met Jennifer, a strange and weird witch. Elizabeth became Jennifer's witch apprentice. They met at the library every Saturday. Elizabeth became a journeyman (the next step to being a witch). They were trying to make a flying ointment. One day, Elizabeth gets invited to Cynthia's birthday party. Her mom makes her go to the party. She got permission from Jennifer to go. At the end, Elizabeth and Jennifer fight, but they became friends again.


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