The Witches

The Witches by Roald Dahl is a story about a boy(yep, that is all the info we get on his name) and his grandmother who live together. The grandmother informs the boy that witches exist and have been responsible for the disappearance of children. She teaches him how to spot a witch. In the course of the book he encounters a witch and recognizes her as what she really is. Later in the book the grandmother and the boy travel to a nice hotel in England where the boy discovers a large witch convention where all of the witches from England have gathered. The boy is turned into a mouse and goes on a quest(as a mouse) with his grandmother to do the same to all of the witches at the convention and the world.

I really enjoyed the story and the language that Dahl presented in the Witches. The imagery he painted of several hundred witches gathering together, all bald headed and wretched, planning the demise of all the children of England was very entertaining. Maybe I am still as immature as a kid, but the witches in the convention referring to the children as smelling worse than dogs' droppings and yelling "Poooooooooo!" had me laughing pretty hard. The book is filled with humor, action and suspense. Because I am such a sucker for perfect endings, however, I was a little disappointed that the boy, now a mouse, was never able to regain his human boyness.