Teenage Witches
In the past month or two I've actually read two books about teenage witches and thought I'd bring them together in this one blog post.
The first was These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling. To me this book is a little more about the traditional type of witch that you think of. But I really loved the characters and the twists and turns that happened in the book.
Hannah is a witch living in Salem, Massachusetts who has to keep her abilities as an Elemental (controls fire, earth, water, and air) secret from the regs ("muggles") in her life--like her best friend. She does her best to avoid her ex-girlfriend Veronica (who is also an Elemental) and works at the Fly by Night Cauldron selling "witchy" paraphernalia to tourists, goths, and local Wiccans.
Hannah thought that dealing with her ex-girlfriend drama was her biggest worry but when the end-fo-school-year bonfire ends with a terrifying blood ritual and evidence begins to point towards a Blood Witch in Salem, she has more to deal with than she thought. Unfortunately, the rest of the coven doesn't believe her and she has to team up with Veronica to hunt down the witch.
After I read this, I immediately had a student pick it up the next day at school and devour it. She said she loved it! I think one of the things that makes this story great is that besides being a great story about teenage witches (something that is kinda making a comeback right now) is that Hannah is a lesbian. Therefore Hannah represents a lot of LGBTQ teens out there right now who need main characters in story that are just like them. It's not something that is pushed onto the reader and isn't even what the whole book is about. It's just a part of who Hannah is and I loved it!
These Witches Don't Burn is the first in a series, but since this book just came out this year. We will have to wait a while for the sequel, This Coven Won't Break which is expected to be released in June 2020.
The second of the books I read about witches was The Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams. Others describe it as "Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the cover definitely caught my eye when I was at our school library. Esme Pearl and her best friend Janis make up a babysitters club, which mostly ends up with them picking out their fashionable outfits and occasionally taking calls for babysitting requests. When Cassandra, the new girl in school, finds out about their babysitting club, she is willing to do anything to join. The reason? Cassandra's mother who died in a car crash when she was small left a mysterious note that said, "Find the babysitters. Love, Mom."
Together Esme and Cassandra discover what it really means to be a babysitter: a lineage of superpowers, potions and magic rituals, and saving innocent people from evil beings. Turns out that babysitting is a lot more complicated than Esme ever thought. And maybe this even has some connection with Esme's mother who seemingly "lost her mind" and ended up institutionalized.
This one was also fascinating--teenage witches finding out the real strength of their powers as well as relying on family and friendship to get the job done. I felt like there were a lot of great things about the novel and I loved the characters. Some of it at times did seem a little cheesy or "teenager"ish but that's the reality of teenagers. I saw that a few other reviews complained about the breaks in text where the author used acronyms like "LOL" and "FML" that they felt made the writing inauthentic. But let me tell you, my junior high students talk just like that!
The Babysitter's Coven just came out this fall but it looks like it will also be the first book in a series, the next book still untitled.
Hannah is a witch living in Salem, Massachusetts who has to keep her abilities as an Elemental (controls fire, earth, water, and air) secret from the regs ("muggles") in her life--like her best friend. She does her best to avoid her ex-girlfriend Veronica (who is also an Elemental) and works at the Fly by Night Cauldron selling "witchy" paraphernalia to tourists, goths, and local Wiccans.
Hannah thought that dealing with her ex-girlfriend drama was her biggest worry but when the end-fo-school-year bonfire ends with a terrifying blood ritual and evidence begins to point towards a Blood Witch in Salem, she has more to deal with than she thought. Unfortunately, the rest of the coven doesn't believe her and she has to team up with Veronica to hunt down the witch.
These Witches Don't Burn is the first in a series, but since this book just came out this year. We will have to wait a while for the sequel, This Coven Won't Break which is expected to be released in June 2020.
Together Esme and Cassandra discover what it really means to be a babysitter: a lineage of superpowers, potions and magic rituals, and saving innocent people from evil beings. Turns out that babysitting is a lot more complicated than Esme ever thought. And maybe this even has some connection with Esme's mother who seemingly "lost her mind" and ended up institutionalized.
This one was also fascinating--teenage witches finding out the real strength of their powers as well as relying on family and friendship to get the job done. I felt like there were a lot of great things about the novel and I loved the characters. Some of it at times did seem a little cheesy or "teenager"ish but that's the reality of teenagers. I saw that a few other reviews complained about the breaks in text where the author used acronyms like "LOL" and "FML" that they felt made the writing inauthentic. But let me tell you, my junior high students talk just like that!
The Babysitter's Coven just came out this fall but it looks like it will also be the first book in a series, the next book still untitled.
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