The Cursed First Term of Zelda Stitch. Bad Teacher. Worse Witch.

by Nicki Greenberg

Imagine if you read your teacher's diary... and discovered she was a witch! With courage, imagination and a certain amount of recklessness, Zelda Stitch begins her first year of teaching primary school - as an incompetent (incognito) witch.

'Zelda rides a broomstick!'
'Zelda's got a bat-friend!'
'Zelda smells like toadstools!'
'Witch! Witch! Witch!'

It was bad enough when I was eleven years old. But if they sniff me out now, it'll be a disaster.

Zelda Stitch isn't much of a witch - she's hoping she'll make a better primary school teacher. But if the vice principal finds out about her, her dream will go up in a puff of smoke.

Keeping her magic secret isn't the only trouble bubbling in Ms Stitch's classroom: there's wild-child Zinnia, lonely Eleanor, secretive Phoebe and a hairy, eight-legged visitor called Jeremy. Not to mention the nits...

With NO HELP AT ALL from her disagreeable cat Barnaby, Zelda must learn to be a better teacher, a better friend and a better witch - even if that means taking broomstick lessons.

Magic. Mischief. Mayhem. Zelda's classroom is a cauldron full of laughs.
More books by this author

Genres: Humor

272 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2017

About the author

Nicki Greenberg is a writer and illustrator with a special interest in sequential art narrative - a fancy way of describing comics.

Nicki's first books, The Digits series, were published when she was fifteen years old, and sold more than 380,000 copies. Since then, she has devoted most of her ink to comics, but has also written and illustrated fiction and non-fiction books for children.

At seventeen, Nicki fell in love with The Great Gatsby. Almost ten years later, she set out to pay tribute to F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel by interpreting it in comic art form. It took more than six years to complete this enormous labour of love.

This mad undertaking was followed by three years' passionate work on Shakespeare's Hamlet, which was finally staged on the page in 2010.

Nicki lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her family, their poodle and two bad cats. In her spare time she works as a lawyer.

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this but the story didn't make me go "oh wow". Mind you, I am of course not the intended audience. Illustrations are fabulous though - loved the pictures of the kids..

[Anna Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* A fun story about a teacher who is really a witch. Easy to read book in a diary format, with lots of great pictures to accompany the text. If you enjoyed Sally Rippin's 'Polly and Buster', you'll enjoy this new book from Nicki Greenberg. Hopefully there will be a second book about Zelda Stitch!

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it but I felt like some parts were for no reason not my personal favourite but still a great book.

[Alicia Huxtable · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been the book I have been reading with my daughter for her homework reading and we have both found it to be quite an enjoyable read. The story had us laughing our way through the book a little bit at a time. Well written and the pictures and great too.

[Josie]

I felt like this book perhaps didn't quite know its audience. I struggled to connect with the story because, aside from Zelda, pretty much every other secondary character is awful and mean. Overall, this didn't work for me and I ended up DNFing it.