The Worst Witch Saves the Day

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Hold on to your broom for magical mayhem!
It's the start of a new term at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches and Mildred Hubble is determined not to be the worst witch this year. Everything starts so well. Mildred's class has a new form teacher - no more Miss Hardbroom for Mildred and her friends! But then the new teacher, Miss Granite, starts acting fishy; Mildred has a very bad hair day when a hair growth spell goes wrong and she has to put up with know-it-all Ethel Hallow being 'helpful'. To top it all, her beloved cat Tabby is having a nervous breakdown and refuses to fly.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

CHAPTER THREE The girls set off to put their suitcases and cats into their rooms and to get themselves tidied up before assembly, which was held in the Great Hall. Mildred was delighted to find that she now had six bats roosting along her picture rail, instead of the usual three. She was mad about animals and, although the bats didn't do very much except sleep all day -- occasionally stretching a wing or shuffling along a bit -- it was nice to know they were there. In the early hours, when Mildred was often lying awake worrying about a looming potion test or some similar horror, it was always comforting to see her little flock come in from their night's hunting and jostle into position upside down. It only took a few minutes for Mildred to unpack her suitcase and put away her clothes, so she decided to nip along the corridor to Maud's room. "Have you got that styling brush, Maud?" she asked, letting herself in through the heavy oak door. "I'd like to have a little twirl with it and see if I can liven up my hair a bit." Maud was still cramming her clothes into her tiny wardrobe. All the pupils had a wardrobe, with space on one side for their robes and shirts and a narrow set of drawers on the other side, which was not big enough to take a term's supply of socks and underclothes and was, therefore, very difficult to keep tidy. "Of course you can, Mildred," said Maud cheerily. "It's on the bed there.Just push up the switch at the side and it makes a hissing sound, then gets warm in a few minutes." "Thanks, Maudy," said Mildred. She was about to close the door as she left the room when Enid came upbehind her. "I'm just going in to have a chat with Maud," said Enid. "Coming?" "Not yet," replied Mildred. "I'm going to have a go at beautifying myself with Maud's magic brush here," and she skipped off down the corridor back to her room. "What do you make of our new form mistress, then?" asked Enid, settling on the end of Maud's bed with her knees pulled up under her chin. Maud stuffed the last pair of grey-and-black-striped pyjamas into the bottom drawer and closed the wardrobe door. "She's a bit weird-looking, isn't she?" said Maud. "I'm surprised H.B. let her over the doorstep. She's so -- everything H.B. can't stand, isn't she? Nervous, twittering, doesn't look as if she could control a dead budgerigar -- and that funny little voice and all those frivolous curls!" Enid laughed. "Come on," she said, "let's go and help Mildred with herhair." "Yes, let's," said Maud, heading for the door. "I meant to warn her to becareful. It's really easy to get the brush tangled if your hair's long." CHAPTER FOUR Maud and Enid pushed open Mildred's door. "Be careful with the brush,Mildred," said Maud. "It's easy to -- " She stopped abruptly as she saw Mildred sitting on her bed with the styling brush and her hair rolled up in a great messy loop right against herscalp. She was desperately trying to unroll it, but the brush was held astightly as a fly parcelled up in a spider's web. "It's got stuck, Maud!" said Mildred, trying not to cry. "I mean really stuck! I've turned it off but it's still burning hot and the brush is black so you can't see where the hair ends and the brush begins." "Don't panic, Mildred," said Enid, trying to sound soothing, despite thehorrified tone in her own voice. "That's right," said Maud. "Just leave it and let Enid and me sort it out. Bend your head towards the window so we can see what we're doing." Mildred bent her head so that Maud and Enid could assess the situation. It was not good. In the dim light filtering through the narrow castle window, they could see that Mildred had twirled up a large hank of her waist-length hair, which had spiralled round the brush into a hopeless tangle. Maud and Enid exchanged appalled glances. They looked even more horrified when the bell for assembly began to clang urgently through the corridors. "Oh, no!" said Mildred, bursting into tears. "Why on earth do these things always happen to me? I can't go down to assembly like this. H.B. will go bonkers!" "Hang on, Mildred," said Maud, jumping up. "Perhaps I can find someone to help." She opened the door just as Ethel Hallow was walking past. Ethel lookedin at Mildred. "Oh, dear," she said, "what have you done now?" "Don't be horrible, Ethel," said Enid. "This is really bad news. Mildred's got Maud's styling brush stuck in her hair. It'll take all day to untangle. It's really serious." To everyone's surprise, Ethel looked suddenly genuinely concerned. "Sorry, Mildred," she said. "Of course it's awful, but luckily I know just what to do. Hang on a sec." She went over to the window in an authoritative manner, bent Mildred's head towards her and began busily working on the hair and brush as if she knew exactly how to help. No one could quite see what she was doing and by the time they realized it was too late. Ethel had taken a pair of scissors from the jar on Mildred's windowsill and cut the brush out of Mildred's hair, leaving a tuft about three centimetres long and ten centimetres wide. "Ethel!" exclaimed Maud and Enid together. "You are unbelievable! Lookwhat you've done!" Mildred leapt up, feeling the space where the brush had been, and rushed to look in the mirror, which hung just below the bats. "Oh, no!" she cried. "I look completely mad, Ethel." "Well, you asked me to help!" said Ethel, sounding offended. "No, I didn't!" snapped Mildred hotly. "You just barged in here and hacked a huge lump of my hair off !" _______ Excerpted from The Worst Witch Saves the Day by Jill Murphy All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 3-5-Mildred Hubble is up to her old antics as she and her friends begin their third year at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches. Fans of the "Worst Witch" books (Puffin) will be delighted by her escapades, and first-time readers of the series will find themselves swept up in the action (pertinent scenes from the prior installments are briefly explained). True to form, Mildred gets right down to trouble, ending the first day of school with a horrible haircut, compliments of her nemesis, Ethel Hallow. But when Mildred attempts a restorative spell, the hair-raising catastrophe that follows is just one of the adventures in which she and her pals partake before she uncovers the sinister plot of the new form teacher, Miss Granite, and, as the title implies, saves the day. Murphy's ink sketches provide a comic look at some of the more unusual sights and situations-especially Miss Granite's odd appearance. A fun read with plenty of silliness and excitement to keep readers engaged, this is a solid purchase, especially for libraries where the other titles are popular or those with younger audiences eager for magic/fantasy.-Bethany A. Lafferty, Las Vegas-Clark County Library, NV (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Mildred Hubble's third year at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches starts inauspiciously a hair potion backfires, a cat-flying exercise goes awry, and Mildred breaks her new broom. Then Mildred discovers the new teacher, Miss Granite, may not be who she seems and the school and its pupils are in jeopardy. It's up to Mildred to take action, and with courage, creativity, and the help of good friends, she devises a clever scheme to circumvent a dastardly plot. Like previous books in the Worst Witch series, this one is full of fun, with a diversity of lively characters from well-meaning but trouble-prone Mildred to teacher's pet Ethel. British author-illustrator Murphy extends the story with energetic, intricately detailed black-and-white illustrations. An entertaining choice for those who enjoy witch stories, magic, and mayhem touched with humor.--Rosenfeld, Shelle Copyright 2007 Booklist