Pauline Cartwright

A little girl reflects on what she would do "if" she were a witch in this easy reader picture-book from New Zealand. She'd ride her broomstick in jeans, cook her potions in the microwave, and keep her spells on a computer. Most of all though, if she were a witch, she'd make herself into a princes...

Originally published in 1988 in Wellington, New Zealand, If I Were a Witch was then published in the United States in 1991, as part of a twelve-volume set. I'm not sure if the volumes were ever show more sold separately, or just as a set, but I did manage to track down a copy of this individual title. As someone with a fondness for witchy picture-books - a perennial pet project of mine - I was looking forward to reading it. The initial premise of the book - a young witch who wants to do things in a more modern, less traditional way - was intriguing, and I got a chuckle out of the scene in which the little girl declares she would ride a broom in jeans, as the accompanying illustration shows older witches struggling with long skirts that blow up in the wind, in all kinds of inconvenient ways. Pauline Cartwright's text is very simple - no more than a sentence or two per two-page spread - and Jan van der Voo's brightly-colored cartoon-style artwork, which reminded me a bit of Babette Cole, had plenty of fun witchy details, from potion ingredients to the diverse array of written characters on the little witch's (distinctly vintage) computer screen. All in all, despite the fact that there just isn't much to it, this probably would have been a solidly appealing three-star book for me, were it not for that ending. As a fan of all things witchy, the conclusion just ruined the mood altogether. This is an obscure book, and I would probably never have stumbled across it, were I not ceaselessly on the hunt for new witchy books. Given its scarcity, and my less-than-enthusiastic response, I don't know that I'd particularly recommend it. show less

I read this junior fiction novel from my school library to fulfil a challenge I was doing on LibraryThing.
It is one of the My Story diary series aimed at informing today’s young people of the rigours suffered by children their age in the early settlement of New Zealand.
The book does this effectively. 11 year old Mary goes in search of her father on the Otago goldfields. He was last seen in Australia following a big find and sent his family on ahead to Wellington where he would join them. show more Several years pass and he has not appeared. Mary over hears a conversation between her Uncle and Aunt about her father probably digging for more gold in Otago. She disguises herself as a boy and sets off to find him. show less

I picked this book up at some second-hand shop somewhere along the line, thinking it might be one my siblings would enjoy. It’s sat on the shelf, untouched, for several years, and I decided to finally read it for myself, to see if it’s any good. It’s a fun story…but I found it rather annoying in the end. The main character (a cat) thinks more like a human than a cat, knows how to reason things out, and in the end, doesn’t act so much like a cat as like a human in a cat’s body. show more Although it’s a fun adventure story—as the cat gets lost and finds its way home—it isn’t the kind of story my siblings are really interested in, or one I’m interested in reading to them. I’m going to be sending our book on to a new home. show less

Joseph spends ten days on holiday with his grandfather in New Zealand, a grandfather he has never seen. During this time Joseph begins to see a clearer picture of the man his late father was. Joseph's grandfather tells Joseph that death will be his next big adventure, something that becomes reality soon after Joseph returns home to Melbourne. Joseph realises that his grandfather was right, and that death is just part of life.