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"A thoughtful and entertaining story about human gullibility and pigheadedness, the fact that magic and science each contain a little of the other, and the way two people can be right and wrong at the same time" The Guardian |
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Emma Barnes - Children's Author
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"A thoughtful and entertaining story about human gullibility and pigheadedness, the fact that magic and science each contain a little of the other, and the way two people can be right and wrong at the same time" The Guardian |
Imagine if your mother was a
witch!
Jessica thought for the thousandth time it was a terrible nuisance having a witch for a mother.
Other people's mothers had sensible hobbies. They made jam or mended bikes or practised the piano. They did not go around pretending they could charm warts, or offer potions for ingrowing toe-nails (potions that they made themselves from pond slime and black beetles). Nor did they dress up in long black capes and go and practice incantations in the back garden, so that all the neighbours came out and stared, and all the neighbours' kids giggled. Nor did they serve up nettle soup on the grounds that it was "good for the blood"!
Jessica thinks she has the most embarrassing mother in the universe. At least Jessica and her brother Midge have always been able to keep their mother's peculiar hobby a secret, but all that changes when Mrs Haggerthwaite announces that she's turning professional. "Mellandra Haggerthwaite, Professional Witch! Doesn't that sound good?" Jessica does not think so. She is determined to be a Famous Scientist one day and having a witch for a relative will do her no good at all. She sets up as a "Witch Dispatcher", determined to thwart her mother's plans...
Published by Bloomsbury Children's Books 2001
Shortlisted for the
Branford-Boase Award
Broadcast on BBC Radio
Audio-cassette version read by Stephanie Cole (Chivers Children's Audio Cassettes)
Translated into nine languages
Buy this book
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"readers
who enjoyed the witty, fast-moving story of the sparky Jessica
Haggerthwaite as Witch Dispatcher will be delighted with the sequel"
Financial Times |
Continuing the adventures of Jessica. She still wants to be a Famous Scientist but decides to postpone the Nobel Prize in favour of becoming a TV star! However, achieving television fame is more difficult than she expected, and meanwhile her mother has entered into a feud with a newcomer to the town, the mysterious Xandra Wind Spirit, and desperately needs her daughter's help...
Published by Bloomsbury Children's Books 2003
Broadcast on BBC Radio
Large Print version (BBC
Audiobooks)
And Emma Barnes's latest book...
Sam
and the
Griswalds
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"perfect
for 10s and over, a terrific comic adventure with many a hair-raising
episode" Times Educational Supplement |
Sam Harris first met the Griswalds when Elfrida Griswald set fire to his hair.
The Griswalds had been living in Bellstone for almost a week when the meeting took place and they were already famous in the town. The reason for this was, quite simply, that they were different from the other kids in Bellstone. Some people thought they were different in an entertaining kind of way; and some people thought they were different in a downright criminal kind of way. But they were different - there was no doubt about that.
"terrific entertainment"
The Scottish Herald
"Emma
Barnes creates a wonderful cast of characters in an eminently readable,
fast-paced and funny story"Financial Times
