SOLVED. Witches with hair that floats up / sphere that stings hands when touched / wishing well & tall albino man [s]

[Richard]

I've got three books I used to read to death when I was about 10ish (early '90s) and I can only remember very tiny parts, would love to know if anyone recognises them!

1) Children's book about witches. The main character's name was Anna, and she had friends called Nan and La Val - witches' names were all palindromes, and they all had pale green skin and hair that floated up in the air. It wasn't for very young children, it wasn't a picture book, it was a paperback. I randomly remembered how much I used to love The Little Witch by Otfried Preußler and I thought that might be it, but it's not. Don't remember much about the cover but I think it had a picture of Anna.

2) This one's even more vague. It was another children's book about a boy and a girl, I think brother and sister. There was something about a sphere (spaceship, I think, but small like a football) that stung their hands when they touched it. (view spoiler)[I think they went to another planet, and I'm sure there was something about a gigantic eyeball that I think they had to touch for some reason or squeeze around in a small space or something like that. In the end their dad was talking to them while they were in bed and explaining how they could be home before they'd even left because they were moving so fast. It's possible I dreamed any or all of this, but I'm 99% certain I used to LOVE this book! (hide spoiler)]

3) Vaguest of all, another children's book: a ghost story, something about a tall albino man, something about a wishing well, and I think something about a travelling fairground or circus but I might be confusing that bit with something else. Definitely the well and the albino man, though.

I realise this isn't much to go on...! Please let me know if any of this is familiar, even if you don't know the titles. It'd be nice to know I'm not just inventing this stuff ;) but the bits I remember are too vague to bring anything helpful up in Google.

[Cathy]

#1 may be "Anna Witch" by Madeleine Edmondson. It has characters with those names, and their skin is a very light green. Anna's mother was Ada, but Anna sometimes called her Mom (also a palindrome).

Anna Witch

[Richard]

YES. Thank you so much, this has been bothering me for years!

[Dave]

Found this page thinking about you third book by googling albino, ghost and well! Still looking for its name though. I suspected Sally in the Well but searching that came up with plenty about Philip Pullman's tiger in the well (part of a series featuring protagonist Sally Lockhart). Searching various phrases did no good, and tried Molly in the well. I recall it was told from a boys point of view, befriends ghost girl Sally/Molly/Annie and !! Spoiler!! thwarts a gang's attempt too steal coins from ancient wishing well. Gang leader definitely albino. Boy lived with gran who dispensed nuggets of wisdom (everything has an end and a sausage had two, her parting aphorism finishes the book, funny how these things stick in your mind).

[Cheryl]

Journey to Terezor might possibly be your second book.

I see this has been moved to 'solved' - but only #1 has been solved?

[Richard]

Dave - THANK YOU, I googled some more key words and found it! I'm pretty sure it's The Wishing Well Ghost - there's not a lot in the synopsis, but Quintus Quigley set off a lightbulb in my head, plus it's by the same guy who did the Horrible Histories and I used to be obsessed with those as a kid so it's likely I read more by him. To ebay!

Cheryl - thank you! I don't think that's it, I feel like there's too much that's different, but it's possible I'm just remembering it really badly so I'm going to track down a copy to be sure.

[Kate]

You may want to copy the information on the third book, and make it a new thread. Otherwise it get confusing when some are solved and one still isn't.