witch week (original 1982; edition 1982)

I wanted to love this book. It has some of the most hilarious parts of all the Chrestomanci books so far. But, the second half wasn't as interesting or exciting. I also didn't like Charles Morgan, which is unfortunate since he's one of the main characters and so much time is spent on him. ( )

An interesting story written about an alternative world where magic is rife, but it is illegal to be a witch - in fact you will be burned at the stake.

The story starts in class when a teacher finds a note in a pile of books he is marking. It reads "Someone in this class is a witch." What happens next turns the whole boarding school, and ultimatly two worlds, upsidedown. ( )

This is a school story about magic; but not a la Hogwarts. In fact, the story takes place on a parallel Earth where magic is forbidden (as opposed to merely hidden). Though this is part of the Chrestomanci series (book 5), we don't see the connection until around the final quarter of the book.

At the beginning of Witch Week, a supernaturally powerful time of the year between Hallowe'en and Guy Fawkes day, an anonymous note claiming that one of the class members is a witch lands on a teacher's desk. In an universe where magic practitioners are persecuted and burned at the stake, this leads to a fraught week where accusations and untamed magic abound, until the Chrestomanci is called in to save the day.

Although I found the ambience of this book (a school story with cliques and bullies and lots of people keeping secrets) very different from other Chrestomanci books, it had me laughing out aloud at points. Mind you, each book in the series does have a different 'flavour'.

A very nice read, up to Ms Wynne Jones's usual high standards.

Recommended.

( )

Witch Week was one of the first Chrestomanci books to focus on a female protagonist’s point of view, and is much the better for that. It feels as though Diana Wynne Jones has included a lot of autobiographical details in her treatment of Nan, an orphan witch girl who is at Larwood House, a boarding school in Hertfordshire. Nan is much more of a rounded character than the young male leads in previous books in the sequence, Christopher, Cat and Conrad, who sometimes come across as pleasant wimps or clueless actors in the unfolding story. True, Nan is largely pleasant and clueless in her attempt to discover the truth about the magic that is happening around her, but I get more of a sense of a real person here than the ciphers that are Christopher, Cat and Conrad.

The premise of the story is that Nan and her classmates exist in a world where witchcraft is punishable by death but where magic undeniably exists. When it is suggested that someone in class 2Y is a witch, the ball starts rolling that inevitably leads to a literal witch-hunt, in which not only Nan but several other students are put under suspicion. Add to that the tedium of lessons, the institutionalised bullying and the sense of control slipping away, and we have the inevitable conflicts that drive the story forward towards its denouement and final resolution. Along the way we have Jones’ confident handling of themes, personalities and atmosphere that makes her writing such a joy to read, not to mention the puns and other examples of humour that contrast with the fear that grips the heart when witch-burnings are mentioned.

I'm going to mention the dreaded P word, only because so many readers seem to latch on to the very superficial similarities with the Harry Potter books. But Larwood House is the antithesis of Hogwarts (as well as significantly predating the appearance of Rowling's books): magic is discouraged rather than encouraged. Interestingly, there is the similar-sounding and equally unpleasant Lowood House in Jane Eyre which many commentators point to as an influence, but I've also found out that there is a Larwood School, founded in 1971, in Stevenage, Hertfordshire (the county where Witch Week is set); however, this is a modern building, purpose-built for primary schoolchildren with special needs, and though witches could be said to have special needs in this Series 12 world I don't think that was what Jones had in mind.

I loved the final resolution, though I was still left with the logical confusion familiar from other DWJ books. If that world split off from our own world (12B is it?) in 1605 when Parliament was blown up, why was it necessary to merge the two worlds again when it wasn't necessary to do the same with others in Series 12?

Finally, I see that in North American books the pupils are in class 6B, which makes them sixth grade and therefore 11 years old, going on 12. In the UK the pupils are in 2Y which, in the old system before the National Curriculum was established, would have made them 12 going on 13. The UK version seems to me to render the children more believable--more mature, more bolshie, less awkward than if they had just moved from primary school. ( )

Set in a split-off of the Chrestomanci universe that shouldn't exist, one where witches are both commonplace and hideously persecuted. Since this sets off one of my major squicks, I don't love it as much as I do the rest of the series – this is probably only about the third time I've read it. But, as it's DWJ, it's still pretty damn good. ( )