The Witch's Children Go to School

When the witch’s three children go to school there is bound to be trouble. New, timid Gemma is turned into a furniture-eating ogre. Middle One’s efforts to cheer her up by changing the staff, school cat and most of the pupils into story characters and the school into a storybook proves a great hit. However, the school inspector is not impressed by ending up as a smelly cheese. None of the trio can undo their handiwork but they do know how to summon Mum who soon turns things back to normal.

The comparatively long text uses a straightforward conversational, almost throwaway style that makes demands on the reader. The events of this exuberant fantasy unravel through a series of detailed illustrations depicting angular, elongated characters with deliciously pink and cavernous concentric circled mouths when they open them. Ayto’s use of shape, space, line and distorted perspective make for visual excitement at every turn of the page.