Witchwild

Witchworld #3

by Emma Fischel

I stared. At the small hissing nibbet, at its glowing green eyes. And I felt the hairs on the back of my neck – slowly, slowly -stand up on end. Every single one.

Witchen Week is here, the best holiday of the year! Flo loves to go swimming in the bright blue seas around Kronebay. But dark secrets lurk in the waters, and Flo will face terrible dangers before the week is out. She fought off ghouls, she fought off the Haggfiend, but can she fight off the most horrifying creature of them all?

Genres: Middle Grade

336 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 2016

About the author

Emma Fischel grew up in the country, the middle of five children, and had a happy, muddy childhood. She now lives in London and has three nearly grown-up children of her own – two boys and one girl, all very tall, and extremely useful at changing light bulbs she can’t reach. Emma writes both fiction and non-fiction. Her books have been published by Bloomsbury, Usborne, Watts, and others.

Reviews

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those of you who have read my reviews for the previous two books know that I only picked up the first volume because I recognized the illustrations to be Chris Riddell's and I really like his work. However, as these things sometimes happen, it turned out to be a really lucky pick because the Witchworld trilogy (I presume there will not be more than these three books, for several reasons) are not only funny and have cute illustrations but also a surprising depth. This third part most of all.

As for the content, Witchen Week (a huge holiday) is about to happen and all Flo and her sister Hetty are wishing is for their dad to come back ever since they found out that he was still alive in the previous book.
In this story, we not only get a nod to history (mostly the witch equivalent of World War 2 with kids being evacuated to the countryside - being addressed in Flo's school lessons and her grandma's memories) and some sidenotes about teenagers (shallowness and selfworth) but, more importantly, a lot of environmental issues like dumping dangerous garbage somewhere and therefore causing catastrophic events.

Of course, these lessons are delivered with the usual funny interludes (proudly presented by Flo's grandmother for the most part) and wit, which makes this story so very sneaky and special.
And since this is about the environment, Flo also gets a new creature to face:


A worthy ending for a very good children's book.

[Manika · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really enjoyed being with Flo and her family once again.
as always, Emma fischel incorporates serious topics such as taking car of the environment, the importance to take care of endangers species, family tight in a very understandable way for a young audience.
then, i very much appreciated to get to know mervick this time around and see how his friendship with Flo evolved.
i was a bit disappointed by her writing this time. her writing was always quite simple but this time i felt like she did not workd hard enough. she used way too much "stare", " beamed" or "boomed" as if she did not know other words or synonyms.
furthermore, the middle of book dragged a bit for me so the climax wasn't that climatic ...
finally, i still do not like her way writing about " frivolous women" or "shallow ones". it still feels too cliché and badly done on top of that.
having said that,, it was a very lovely read set in a world i could feel like revisiting.

[Tammie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read- December 2021
- I honestly think this was my favourite installment in this series. I'm surprised that I haven't heard more about this series because I think it was just so much fun, for sure a very underrated series.

[Layla · Rating 2 out of 5]

WAS ok but not as good as the other i read.

[Nikki Parry]

Love this. The ending was so lovely, and so happy, that it made me cry tears of happiness. This book, and the rest of the series are very addictive, and extremely well-written. I very much recommend this AND the 1st and 2nd book, to 8-11 year olds. It does have some slightly trickier words in it, invented by Emma Fischel.

[LudmilaM · Rating 4 out of 5]

The terminology and creatures of this world was a little overwhelming at times but I love this series. Imaginative and fun.