I can't resist books with cats! And to add to the enjoyment, this one has a dog and a horse as well. What more could one want?
Wildwitch is by an award-winning Danish author, Lene Kaaberbøl, and is the first in a series. It introduces Clara, a nice, ordinary 12-year-old who lives with her single mum and is best friends with Oscar. Her world changes when she's attacked without reason by a huge black cat. When she develops a high fever her mother takes her away from the city to visit Aunt Isa, who she's never met before, and she learns that, like her aunt, she's a wildwitch. But the moment she first walked the wildways she made a deadly enemy, and now she's in grave danger.
This is a short book, only 160 pages, so it's an easy read. Like many modern children's fantasies, though, I think it's genuinely scary - at times, Clara is in fear for her life. It's too short for very much leisurely character development, but nonetheless there's a sense of real people populating the story, and Clara, who tells the story, is immediately likable. I very much look forward to seeing how she grows throughout the series - the second is on its way, I believe.
The translation by Charlotte Barslund is excellent, and Wildwitch is delightfully illustrated by Rohan Eason.