The Island of Summer

The sequel to The Magic Apostrophe, in which the good witches must again do battle with the evil Astarte Perkins, what this book does so well is build a serious fantasy, with vivid shifts of shape and dramatic movements between worlds, while retaining a nicely earthy and often humorous tone. So Taliesin is both a great, mythic character and plain Mr Howard while Tanith is both a young witch and the girl with a very annoying older sister. It's fun in its own right but also a good introduction to other powerful retellings of Welsh legend.