Anyone's dcs Winnie The Witch fans? Need some info!

[wilbur]

My dcs never got into Winnie the Witch so the books have sort of passed me by (ironically, given that my nickname is coincidentally one of the characters names). I have a work project and need to know a bit about WTW and why kids like them. My copies of the books wont arrive for a few days, so can anyone give me an idea of the type of stories and also what the main areas of appeal are to kids? TIA

The illustrations are great
Winnie is a good witch whose spells go wrong in a comedy fashion
She has good turns of phrase (easy peasy fat slug squeezy) and "swears"
Wilbur the cat speaks volumes without words

One of our favourites is "Winnie's Knickers" - she designs and tries to market some reinforced knickers after a bumpy broomstick ride. Her only customer is put off by the spider finishing the lace, so she gives up and sends a pair to each of her sisters, keeps one for each day and turns the final pair into a teacosy (after Wilbur has rejected it as headgear).

Hope that helps, and that you enjoy them when they arrive. Intrigued to know what your work is!

Yeah. The illustrations.

So full of detail.

cover the WHOLE page. The text is over writren.

as far as the stories go. I guess shes a modern witch. E.g. winnies new computer.

Nothing goes right but eventually ends in a comedy fashion. E.g. I think in winnie by the seaside there were problems with the tides knocking over sandcastles, wilbur chasing fish in the sea (but the problems are hazy) but she ends up creating a beach in her back garden.

personally I like the fact that they have childrens illustrations on the inside cover pages.

There are two lots of "Winnie the Witch" books:
The pre-school books have great "busy" illustrations (often with little comical bits to spot and talk about" and fun stories. They are good "read aloud" stories. It is very easy to put lots of expression into them.
Have a look at this:

(CBeebies story time read by John Simm)

Then, as the children have had a year or two of reading (obviously this will vary) they can progress into the chapter books (still a few illustrations) which are not too long. My daughter's school had several of these books in amongst seemingly limitless Rainbow Magic Fairy and pony story books (so it was a nice change) in one of her reading book levels.

If you imagine an eccentric, scatty hapless witch who lives with a smarter long-suffering cat you'll be on the right track. The stories are fun nothing too scary or complex happens (so they are great for the early readers who find some age-appropriate titles a little too complex).

BTW Have you tried previewing pages of the books on Amazon or looking at the Winnie website?

Thanks so much for these - very helpful! Lala - I have looked at the website, good idea re Amazon, but I'm also interested in what attracts the children to the characters - humour, it seems, and lots to look at.

My dd is 2.9yo and absolutely loves the Winnie the Witch picture books. She got the 14 book set at Christmas & since then has insisted Winnie is included in her bedtime books every night. I think she loves getting to know Winnie more and more with each story. She loves shouting out "abracadabra" along with Winnie and she adores the funny illustrations. She'll often point out little things in the pictures that I've missed because I'm reading the story.

DD (4) loves Winnie the Witch - we got a full set of picture books in a Winnie satchel for silly money with the Book People and luckily they were a huge hit.

Winnie is laugh out loud funny, scatterbrained and kind. DD loves Wilbur and often gets quite involved in thinking about what Wilbur would be saying if he could talk (in the books he just meows but you can really have fun with the tone when you read it out loud).

The illustrations are brilliant, so much going on and so much to look at. I like to try to find where Korky Paul puts his own name into a picture.

We also enjoy saying Abracadabra. DD has a magic wand from the front of a comic which is the only bit of comic tat to have lasted quite this long! - although if it says 'Winnie waved her wand 5 times and said...' DD thinks she's supposed to say Abracadabra 5 times - which is a little time-consuming at bedtime ;) She loves looking at the children's illustrations in the front and end papers - it's a nice touch and she finds it fascinating that ordinary children would have their drawings in a Winnie book.

The chapter books are written by someone else and I think you can tell.. Still fun but, yes, different.

Yes to saying Abracadabra. And the cat. We lurve the cat, Wilbur.

The best one IMO is Winnies Birthday one. We love the cake