A Reluctant Witch's Guide to Magic: A Fantasy Adventure for Kids (Ages 8-12) About a Girl, Witch Wars, and Wild Magic

Kiki's Delivery Service meets Cressida Cowell in this "exciting and imaginative" (Kirkus) middle grade fantasy about a non-magical girl who discovers she does, indeed, have magic—and she must choose between two warring witch covens or she'll explode!

Willa lives in the Wild, in a city squished between two warring witch covens. The non-magical Wildians spend their days dodging wayward spells—from raining frogs to dancing chickens—all because of the witch war raging around them.

Being stuck in the middle of a magical war means the Wildians hate witches—none more so than Willa, whose parents were turned into clouds by a misplaced curse. Willa spends her days with her army of cats, dreaming of an end to the war and her parents’ return.

So when Willa is accused of being a witch after witnesses catch her accidentally stopping a spell midair, she's certain there's been a mistake. She can't be a witch! Yet Willa is dragged to the palace, where she's given one year to master her volatile magic and choose a coven to join. If she doesn’t, she’ll explode.

But her attempts to control her magic are interrupted when a rogue witch begins nefarious spells against the Ordinary Folk. What does the witch want and what does it have to do with Willa? She must unravel the mystery to save her city, her friends, and herself.

Can Willa control her powers and find her place in a world she never wanted to be a part of?

• Unlikely Friendship: With the help of a scrappy royal dogsbody and a bookish princess, Willa might just survive the year with her sanity—and all her limbs—intact.
• Found Family: She’s always been an outsider, but Willa soon discovers that family isn’t just about who you’re related to…especially when your parents are clouds.
• Witchy Hijinks: Welcome to a magical world where spells go haywire, frogs rain from the sky, and chickens can’t stop dancing.
• Magical Creatures: From an army of loyal cats to monstrous, mixed-up jumbles, the Isle of Dreary is full of strange beasts and even stranger magic.
• A Perilous Choice: Willa must investigate a sprawling castle full of secrets to unmask a rogue witch, all while deciding which coven to join before her time runs out.

Shivaun Plozza is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Frankie, which was a YALSA Teens’ Top Ten pick and on the ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list, and Tin Heart, which was nominated to the ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list, as well as the middle grade novel The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars. When she’s not writing, she works as an editor and manuscript assessor. She lives in Victoria, Australia, with her cat.