Wildwitch: Wildfire: Wildwitch: Volume One

By Lene Kaaberbol, Charlotte Barslund and Rohan Eason

From Lene Kaaberbøl, known as the Danish J.K. Rowling: Book one in the Wildwitch series, an acclaimed new children's fantasy series about a young girl who can communicate with and control the natural world.

Twelve-year-old Clara is an ordinary girl, so small and shy that her mum calls her Little Mouse. Then, one day, she meets a cat. A huge, strange, black cat, with glowing yellow eyes. And so begins her new life as a wildwitch.

Suddenly, Clara is plunged into a world of mystery and magic. With her Aunt Isa to guide her, she finds she can talk to animals and walk the mysterious Wildways. But then she is captured by the dreaded Chimera...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781782691143

Reviews for Wildwitch

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am a huge fan of Kaaberbøl's Shamers series (Teen Fantasy), so I'm always particularly delighted when her work finally makes it to the states.

This series of books is great for the slightly younger crowd -- there are some scary moments, but the world building and characters are fantastic, and the fast paced storytelling never lets up. I'd recommend it for fans of Harry Potter (similar magic just outside regular life themes) and also for Tamora Pierce aficionados -- really anyone who gets into magic and animals and stories that are not fair, but that the heroine wins through anyway.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.

[geraniumcat · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I can't resist books with cats! And to add to the enjoyment, this one has a dog and a horse as well. What more could one want?Wildwitch is by an award-winning Danish author, Lene Kaaberbøl, and is the first in a series. It introduces Clara, a nice, ordinary 12-year-old who lives with her single mum and is best friends with Oscar. Her world changes when she's attacked without reason by a huge black cat. When she develops a high fever her mother takes her away from the city to visit Aunt Isa, who she's never met before, and she learns that, like her aunt, she's a wildwitch. But the moment she first walked the wildways she made a deadly enemy, and now she's in grave danger.This is a short book, only 160 pages, so it's an easy read. Like many modern children's fantasies, though, I think it's genuinely scary - at times, Clara is in fear for her life. It's too short for very much leisurely character development, but nonetheless there's a sense of real people populating the story, and Clara, who tells the story, is immediately likable. I very much look forward to seeing how she grows throughout the series - the second is on its way, I believe.The translation by Charlotte Barslund is excellent, and Wildwitch is delightfully illustrated by Rohan Eason.