An accessible page design incorporates Zelinsky’s plentiful line illustrations, the best of which (Bella Yaga pinching herself with the two extra hands Earwig has magicked her with, the fire-demon walking through a wall) are showstoppers. This little fillip of a novel is over almost before it begins, but while it lasts readers are treated to a nonstop plot, memorable characters, and signature DWJ touches: a bungalow that is much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside demons who enjoy prosaic pub food. And indeed in very short order Earwig has made a friend in the witch’s familiar, a talking cat, and has teamed up with him to get her own back. Briggs the Matron to the newest and smallest children, did exactly what Earwig wanted.” So when she is adopted by an unpleasant witch named Bella Yaga (whose only interest in Earwig, it turns out, is as slave labor) and her horned, nine-foot-tall, fire-demon companion, we’re not as worried as we might be. Morwald’s, mostly because “everyone, from Mrs.

With her “very strong personality,” she is perfectly happy at St.

LeMerise, Oxford Public Library, MIįrom the start, readers of this early chapter book fantasy will know that Earwig is not your average orphan in distress. Zelinsky’s illustrations enhance this imaginative tale.- Alissa J. Earwig is a plucky, albeit bossy, heroine, and the story is packed with wit and humor. This appears to have been the first in a charming new series, cut short by the author’s untimely passing in 2011. And before long, she has both Bella Yaga and Mandrake under her control. But with the help of Thomas, a feline familiar, Earwig outsmarts the witch in a most ironic way. Slave duty doesn’t even come with magic lessons. Morwald’s and takes Earwig to do her grunt work.

Then comes the fateful day Bella Yaga, accompanied by Mandrake, her sinister shape-shifting sidekick, arrives at St. For this reason, Earwig goes out of her way to avoid being adopted. Since then, she has possessed a strange affinity for making the staff do exactly what she wants-from preparing her favorite meals to buying her new clothes. Morwald’s Orphanage under mysterious circumstances.

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