SOLVED. Fantasy/Children's about a young witch and her familiar, black cat, moral lesson about toxic people and where true friends are. [s]

[Hannah]

I read this (secondhand) book around 2015-2016. It's about a young witch, possibly in her preteens/early teens. Her mother if I recollect correctly does not like humans and forbids her daughter from going into town. Like every good children's book the daughter defys the mother and goes into town. There she meets two teenagers, and tries either milkshakes or smoothies for the first time, commenting that "it's too sweet". Her familiar becomes jealous and upset (I believe it is written from his pov?), and begins trying to foil her new friendship (without telling Mother of course). He is entered into a race that is for familiars on broomsticks but he cannot race without his owner, another reason for being upset. Her familiar is a black cat, possibly named something with an R. She winds up finding out that her new "friends" are toxic people and turns them into lawn ornaments, and gets to the race just as they are starting. Has black and white illustrations, written in a almost handwriting font, with 'ink splatter' illustrations sometimes throughout.

[Rainbowheart]

Unfamiliar Magic

[Kris]

DragonLadyYT, that's a good start. Please add more plot details to the topic header (title). We have thousands of book requests.

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[Hannah]

@Rainbowheart I'm afraid that isn't it. The familiar is a male, and stays a cat throughout the book, no transformations that I can think of, and absolutely no boy next door. I remember when I first got it I stuffed it in the closet because the cover looked lame to me(couldn't tell you what it looks like now, only my thought process), so it stayed hidden in the dark for a few months then I decided I couldn't put it off any longer and read it, thinking it was a really good book when I was done and wondering why I had ever doubted it. Thanks for your help though.

[Becca]

Could it be one of the My Unwilling Witch books by Hiawyn Oram? They're narrated by a cat called Rumblewick who is the familiar of a young witch called Hagatha Agatha / Haggie Aggie, who doesn't like traditional witchy things.

[Becca]

After a bit more digging, it looks like the book where her new "friends" are turned into garden ornaments is My Unwilling Witch Sleeps Over, which is the second book in the series.

[Hannah]

@Becca omg tysm! That sounds like that's it!

[Becca]

DragonLadyYT wrote: "@Becca omg tysm! That sounds like that's it!"

Glad to help! So can this be filed as solved? If you need to double check, the 'preview' tool on Google Books is really useful - you can read a sample of the book to see if it's what you remember and even search for specific words to find a particular bit.