What to Read After... The Worst Witch

Published on: 13 Hydref 2020 Author: Anna McKerrow

 We're big fans of Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch - but which other stories might Mildred Hubble devotees enjoy? We've got some recommendations, and would love to hear your thoughts too!

Jill Murphy created one of the original and best witch schools in Miss Cackle's Academy, with hopeless witch Mildred, her tabby cat and loyal friend Maud. But what if you loved The Worst Witch and want more... or something different?

Witchy books for the same age group

Try the Veronica Twitch books, which are fully illustrated quick, fun reads featuring a witch girl-about-town. For those 7-9 year olds also looking for laughs, Em Lynas and Jamie Littler's You Can't Make Me Go To Witch School features non-witch Daisy Wart who definitely doesn't want to attend witch school Toadspit Towers - she wants to be an actress!

Claire Barker's Picklewitch and Jack series about a very sensible boy and a very chaotic young witch is also worth checking out, or try Kaye Umansky's Pongwiffy books, which feature a delightfully filthy witch and definitely fulfil the funny brief for Worst Witch fans.

Sibeal Pounder's Witch Wars series is a fun, highly illustrated fantasy series about a community of fabulous witches living in Ritzy City. And finally, there is of course Roald Dahl's classic The Witches - now also available as a fabulous graphic novel illustrated by Pénélope Bagieu.

Witchy books for 9-11s

Illustration: Jon Klassen

Michelle Harrison's Terry Pratchett-esque A Pinch of Magic series follows the magical adventures of Betty Widdershins and her two sisters - they live with their bad-tempered Granny in the Poacher's Pocket, a rowdy, tumbledown inn on the dismal island of Crowstone.

The Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill is a tremendous fantasy tour de force featuring a boy and a girl on two sides of a kingdom, struggling to contain ancient and powerful magic. And with a gentle tongue in cheek, James Nicol's The Apprentice Witch series sees trainee witch Arianwyn dispatched to the boring town of Lull, where nothing ever happens - apart from a small demon infestation here and there. In fact, there is a great threat lurking at the edge of Lull which Arianwyn must battle.

Meanwhile, in Storm Witch by Ellen Renner, Storm must fight the elements to survive in a magical, coming-of-age fantasy set in an isolated world.

For more friendship stories set at school

Illustration: Pippa Curnick

Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series recently received a modern upgrade, with new stories from Patrice Lawrence, Narinder Dhami, Lucy Mangan and Rebecca Westcott Smith in New Class at Malory Towers.

Elsewhere, in Karen McCombie and Becka Moor's St Grizzle's School for Girls, Goats and Random Boys, Dani Dexter's mum has taken a last-minute job that will see her gone for three whole months - and that means a very hilarious St Trinian's-style boarding school for Dani.

Pamela Butchart is a fabulous go-to author for funny school stories for 6-9s - you could try The Spy Who Loved School Dinners in which a new girl joins school... a new girls with a suspicious love of school dinners.

And for 9-11 year-olds, what better series to get stuck into than the adventures of the Wells & Wong Detective Agency, set at Deepdean School for Girls? Robin Stevens' brilliant Murder Most Unladylike mystery series features a strong central friendship and all the familiar boarding school elements slightly older Worst Witch fans will adore.

Join in!

Now it's your turn! You've heard our suggestions about what to read after The Worst Witch, and now we'd love to hear your thoughts. Have you recently read a brilliant book that you think fits the bill? Do you know Worst Witch fans who discovered another series they adored?

Let us know by leaving a comment in the box below or by joining us on Twitter @BookTrust, using the hashtag #WhatToReadAfter...

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