Tasha's Witch

by Natalie Jane Prior

Tasha, who lives in Queensland, Australia, is convinced that the woman who lives next door is a witch who has put a spell on Tasha's radish patch when Tasha refused to give her any radishes.

75 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Prior was born in 1963 in Brisbane, Australia, where she also currently lives with her husband and daughter. Her first fiction book, 'The Amazing Adventures of Amabel', was published in 1990 and her internationally successful children's fantasy series, 'Lily Quench', has been published in more than twenty countries. Prior's work has been a finalist at the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards as well as being honoured and named as notable. Her work, 'Fireworks and Darkness', won the 2003 Davitt Awards for best young-adult novel and her work, 'Lily Quench and the Lighthouse of Skellig Mor' won the 2003 Aurealis Award for best children's short fiction. She has also been nominated for an Aurealis Award on three other occasions for best short fiction, long fiction and young-adult novel.

Reviews

[Jill Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tasha is a young girl with a green thumb. She plants radishes and watches them grow madly watched carefully by the Witch next door. The Witch is named Dr Elizabeth Carroll and she works in the Library her mother goes to. Tasha knows she’s a witch because she has a black cat, a broom and a secret room in her rickety house.

This book is about making friends, learning to trust that friend, enjoying time with them and sharing some ‘real magic’. She buys a magic book and uses it to help her school friends cure warts. Elizabeth Carroll indulges Tasha in her belief that she is a witch and helps her learn about fossils and life, including knowing when moving on is not the end of a friendship.

Natalie Jane Prior was born in Brisbane in 1963 and still lives in the inner city with her dog Ragnar. She graduated from Queensland University in 1984. Her first book ‘The Amazing Adventures of Amabel’ was published in 1990, followed by ‘Amabel Abroad’ (1991), ‘The Paw’ (1993) and ‘Bog Bodies and Other Preserved People’ (1994). She has received an Australia Council Writers Fellowship and Honour Book, Children’s Book Council Picture Book of the Year Award (1994).

This book is for a slightly younger age group than I usually read to review. I could not resist the charming cover as I passed the bookshop at Robina Shopping Centre on my way to work. Anyone with a child with an inquisitive mind would quickly see the joy they might find in being a bit like Tasha, slightly obsessed with Witches.