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The Candy Witch
In this tale of Halloween mischief, Maggie the Witch tries to get her family's attention by casting some topsy-turvy spells.
Paperback
First published September 1, 1979
2 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Steven Kroll
124 books28 followersStephen Kroll spoke at schools and conferences all over the world. He was married to the journalist, Kathleen Beckett, and they lived in New York City and an old carriage house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. When he was not writing or traveling, he played a lot of tennis and walked around looking at everything.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
October 12, 2018
Maggie was a little witch who came from a family of kindly spell-casters. Mama Witch liked to turn garbage into fruit, Papa Warlock liked to restore the hair of balding men, and Brother John would turn pillows into purring cats. But although Maggie herself liked to surreptitiously stuff people's pockets with candy, her kindnesses went unnoticed by her family, who kept wondering when she'd get in on the family tradition of doing good. Finally, determined to get their attention, Maggie decided to do something bad! And the next Halloween, all the trick-or-treaters discovered that their candy had disappeared...
This slim little paperback picture-book, first published in 1979, is probably not one I would have picked up on my own, had I not seen in mentioned in a list of possible witchy selections, for a book-club to which I belong. A sweet little story, in which Maggie's hurt feelings, and her resultant misdeeds are both easily resolved, it has cartoon-like illustrations done by Marylin Hafner. I wouldn't say, all told, that The Candy Witch really stands out, from the witchy picture-book 'crowd,' but for those children who happen upon it, I can imagine it will prove entertaining.
This slim little paperback picture-book, first published in 1979, is probably not one I would have picked up on my own, had I not seen in mentioned in a list of possible witchy selections, for a book-club to which I belong. A sweet little story, in which Maggie's hurt feelings, and her resultant misdeeds are both easily resolved, it has cartoon-like illustrations done by Marylin Hafner. I wouldn't say, all told, that The Candy Witch really stands out, from the witchy picture-book 'crowd,' but for those children who happen upon it, I can imagine it will prove entertaining.
November 4, 2018
My daughters love this book. We read it every October.
October 17, 2019
So so fun! Perfect book for kids who love Halloween.
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October 8, 2023The Candy Witch
Maggie comes from a family that likes to do good deeds with their magic. Maggie likes to do good deeds to. She likes to fill people's refrigerators and stick andy in people's pockets. Only her family doesn’t notice any of this. Her mother asks her one night when she’s going to start doing good deeds and she says she does. They just don’t pay attention. Their father disagrees. That night she makes someone’s flowers bloom, but her family is all to busy to notice. So, she decides to get their attention another say and on Halloween, she starts to play tricks on people. When she goes home, she sees nothing has changed. They’re all in their own world. That night Maggie makes all the kid's bags to heavy to carry and then all their candy disappears. It’s the talk of the school the next day. Maggie has 173 trick-or-treat bags. But as she sits on the roof, she sees all the children crying. Maggie confesses to her parents what she did because she feels bad. They kiss her and apologize and say they’ll try to do better in the future. So to make the children feel better they plan a Candy Festival.
This Was What Was In The Fountain (s) at the Party:
Lemonade
Candy Apples
MnM’s
Hershey’s Kisses
Peppermints
Caramels
Lemon Drops
Fudge
My Thoughts:
I could NOT have gone to this party. I would have wound up in the ER. Lol, But it sounded sooo good! Maggie would have had to have a separate fountain for me with the nonsugar versions of these. But she would have had to use her magic to make them taste just like the sugary ones. I know that Chick-fil-A makes the BEST diet lemonade in the whole WORLD! Hershey’s also has caramel chocolate bars that I get occasionally. There probably also are caramels that don’t have sugar. Come to think of it I think I had some of these too. I also know that there *are* brownies. They’re just expensive as all get out. You can get them on Amazon They’re called Fairy Tale Brownies and are very small but so SOOO good! Not so sure about the lemon drops and jelly beans. But the best part of this short book was the part about the fountain.
Rating: 6 Just for the description of the fountain. Without this, it would be a 5. An can I just say this? You shouldn’t have to change for someone to notice you. Or for that matter have to prove yourself to anyone if you are doing good deeds.
Maggie comes from a family that likes to do good deeds with their magic. Maggie likes to do good deeds to. She likes to fill people's refrigerators and stick andy in people's pockets. Only her family doesn’t notice any of this. Her mother asks her one night when she’s going to start doing good deeds and she says she does. They just don’t pay attention. Their father disagrees. That night she makes someone’s flowers bloom, but her family is all to busy to notice. So, she decides to get their attention another say and on Halloween, she starts to play tricks on people. When she goes home, she sees nothing has changed. They’re all in their own world. That night Maggie makes all the kid's bags to heavy to carry and then all their candy disappears. It’s the talk of the school the next day. Maggie has 173 trick-or-treat bags. But as she sits on the roof, she sees all the children crying. Maggie confesses to her parents what she did because she feels bad. They kiss her and apologize and say they’ll try to do better in the future. So to make the children feel better they plan a Candy Festival.
This Was What Was In The Fountain (s) at the Party:
Lemonade
Candy Apples
MnM’s
Hershey’s Kisses
Peppermints
Caramels
Lemon Drops
Fudge
My Thoughts:
I could NOT have gone to this party. I would have wound up in the ER. Lol, But it sounded sooo good! Maggie would have had to have a separate fountain for me with the nonsugar versions of these. But she would have had to use her magic to make them taste just like the sugary ones. I know that Chick-fil-A makes the BEST diet lemonade in the whole WORLD! Hershey’s also has caramel chocolate bars that I get occasionally. There probably also are caramels that don’t have sugar. Come to think of it I think I had some of these too. I also know that there *are* brownies. They’re just expensive as all get out. You can get them on Amazon They’re called Fairy Tale Brownies and are very small but so SOOO good! Not so sure about the lemon drops and jelly beans. But the best part of this short book was the part about the fountain.
Rating: 6 Just for the description of the fountain. Without this, it would be a 5. An can I just say this? You shouldn’t have to change for someone to notice you. Or for that matter have to prove yourself to anyone if you are doing good deeds.
February 12, 2023
When Maggie the witch’s family don’t notice her good spells, she decides to make mischief for the town’s children on Halloween.
Maggie comes from a family of benevolent witches who cast good spells on people, but Maggie’s spells go unnoticed by her family who question her lack of spell work. To get noticed, Maggie decides to cast naughty spells instead, culminating in the vanishing of all the town’s children’s trick-or-treat bags. But her family still doesn’t notice, and the town’s children are crying.
Maggie starts crying, too, and her family finally notices that something is going on with Maggie. After explaining the situation, her family promises to be more attentive to her, and Maggie returns the children’s missing candy. So, all’s well that ends well.
Originally published in 1979, this picture book was ahead of its time in recognizing that children will act out to receive negative attention if they are not receiving sufficient positive attention. To a child’s mind, no attention is bad attention.
Maggie comes from a family of benevolent witches who cast good spells on people, but Maggie’s spells go unnoticed by her family who question her lack of spell work. To get noticed, Maggie decides to cast naughty spells instead, culminating in the vanishing of all the town’s children’s trick-or-treat bags. But her family still doesn’t notice, and the town’s children are crying.
Maggie starts crying, too, and her family finally notices that something is going on with Maggie. After explaining the situation, her family promises to be more attentive to her, and Maggie returns the children’s missing candy. So, all’s well that ends well.
Originally published in 1979, this picture book was ahead of its time in recognizing that children will act out to receive negative attention if they are not receiving sufficient positive attention. To a child’s mind, no attention is bad attention.
May 11, 2017
I liked this book. The little girl wasn't noticed by her parents and was criticized for not doing good deeds with her magic even though she was. Her deeds were the best when they were unnoticed, making sure that people's fridges were full of food.
So, to get attention, she did bad deeds, but that only got her noticed by the kids, still not her parents.
When she was upset about making the kids upset, that's when her parents noticed and promised to pay more attention to her and she made everything right again.
So, to get attention, she did bad deeds, but that only got her noticed by the kids, still not her parents.
When she was upset about making the kids upset, that's when her parents noticed and promised to pay more attention to her and she made everything right again.
October 22, 2018
This is a book you can only read around Halloween time but I enjoyed it. Windy's parents didn't pay attention to the good deeds she did and when they said she never did any she got upset. Windy then started going around not doing not so nice things. She then got upset about making all the kids upset and wanted to make it right. She then made a fountain that had candy coming out of it. This is a great story to teach children to do nice things for people. The illustrations were fun and creative because it's Halloween themed.
March 2, 2021
The first thing I noticed and really enjoyed about this book was the attention to colors for the illustration. This is a Halloween themed book and all of the colors truly went along with that theme. I like how it showed a little girl struggling to get her family's attention because I feel a lot of children can relate to that. Then when the family finally notices they apologize and try to do better which is something that all families should do. This book can be really fun for children but also teach them that sometimes families make mistakes and so do children and that that is okay.
December 8, 2024
This book, The Candy Witch is delightful, and very busy stirring up trouble. Maggie who is the main charter in this book, tries to get her family's attention buy casting spells that do not carry out as planned and makes everything worse. Maggie was a little witch who came from a family of kindly spell-casters. Mama Witch liked to turn garbage into fruit, and Maggie wanted to be and do the same, with so many, Maggie was feeling like she did not matter to her family, that's why Maggie started to act out. A great book to read especially around Halloween time.
October 8, 2019
Halloween is my favorite holiday, so once I saw The Candy Witch, I knew I had to read it. I did a glance over and flipped through the pages and was delighted with the simplistic art paintings on each page, helping to convey the story. The Candy Witch. is a perfect story to do an interactive read aloud with younger students for the spooky season with a sweet message about Maggie the witches’ mischievous Halloween Day.
October 20, 2018
There is a sticky situation with a small witch who is stealing bags on Halloween. I enjoy reading Halloween books because that is my favorite book. This book had some humor in it because the main character wanted to be noticed, not making the most wise decision, steals candy bags. I recommend this book who loves Halloween!
October 23, 2018
The Candy Witch is about a little girl Maggie who wanted the attention of her family of spell casters. They all did something of their own and when Maggie wanted their attention she stole all the candy of all the children on Halloween. This book was fun and would be loved by a lot of kids and would be great to start off a Halloween festivities.
April 1, 2019
I absolutely loved this book! My birthday is on Halloween so I love all the cutesy Halloween books and movies. I love having my birthday that day, so I really enjoyed this book. The ending was my favorite part. I thought it was great that Maggie was able to make herself happy along with the rest of the kids and her family. This is definitely a great book to read during October to your students!
December 6, 2019
This book would be a good lesson for a classroom discussion. Even if something that you do doesn't get the attention you believe it deserves, you should not find ways to harm others in the process. Making others feel upset doesn't make you feel any better and i feel this book is a good student friendly example of that.
September 29, 2019
A story about a witch who is neglected by her parents. Eventually to get attention to steals everyone's candy, but them feels bad when all the kids are crying. Finally her parents realize that they don't pay enough attention to her.
February 7, 2023
This is a good book for when things start to go missing. It talks about how a little witch steals everyone’s candy after Halloween. She sees everyone’s reactions and then feels horrible and throws a candy party. At the end of the book she learns that stealing is bad and she shouldn’t do it anymore!
October 2, 2023
This book is perfect to teach children the proper way to get attention. The main character learns an important lesson in this book. The book was originally published in 1979 and is still relevant to children today. It is a perfect addition to a classroom or home library for children of all ages.
October 30, 2018
It is a nice book about abundance, sharing gifts and taking joy in the joy of others.
October 2, 2020
One of my favorite Halloween books growing up
May 18, 2021
A young witch wants her deeds to become noticeable.
April 19, 2022
This is a great book that can be read during the fall and Halloween time. It can also be used as a lesson to continue doing nice things for others even if no one notices.
October 6, 2022
My favorite Halloween picture book of all time.
October 21, 2016
Maggie is a good witch just like her parents and brother. All day they do good things for people, except no one notices the good Maggie does. Hoping to get her parent's attention Maggie does some not so nice things including making all the kids' Halloween candy disappear. When she realizes she's just made everyone upset she rights the wrong and hosts a Candy Festival for the town.
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This is a cute story. I like that Maggie and her family do nice things for people and I like that her spells usually involve giving people candy. I also like that in the end her family notices and praise her for the good she does for others.
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This is a cute story. I like that Maggie and her family do nice things for people and I like that her spells usually involve giving people candy. I also like that in the end her family notices and praise her for the good she does for others.
January 10, 2009
No need to wait for Halloween for this title. An instant hit in January at our house. The illustrations are fun and add a lot to the book. June has learned to identify both the ghosts and witches from this book, plus cats, mice and birds, three other favorite subjects, are found easily in this book. The illustrations are definitely more of the draw, over the story itself.
July 30, 2014
The illustrations in this book are delightfully retro in color and style. It is a book about abundance, sharing gifts and taking joy in the joy of others. We love this book! We would read this year round, but we make it more special by bringing it out every Halloween.
December 2, 2010
Cute story, good Halloween themed story.
February 10, 2011
"Shannon 1987." What a difference the illustrator can make. The author of this book is the same as the author of The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, but this book is woefully inferior.
June 23, 2015
Robin Hood-esque.
August 15, 2012
One of my favorite picture books from when I was a kid.
September 13, 2013
A little witch steals candy from kids.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews