Witch Week and Joan Aiken!
It's Witch Week! And this year we are reading Joan Aiken, one of the true greats of 20th century children's literature (not to mention some very fun other things). One of my favorite go-to presents for children is Aiken's Arabel and Mortimer books, which are so funny and worth reading many times over. But for this Witch Week I decided to revisit the alternate-history world of the Wolves Chronicles, which are set at the beginning of the 1800s under the reign of James III (often called Jamie Three). In this world, not only are wolves the scourge of England in winter, but the industrial revolution is well under way, and the Hanoverians are forever plotting to overthrow King James and set the German Bonnie Prince George upon the throne. Aiken builds an amazing, adventurous, eccentric, and very dangerous world for her characters. Aiken is incredibly imaginative and inventive, so you never know what will happen next, and the language is wonderful. Dido is the...