Once again fans of the Winnie the Witch series have a new story. After the first book first published in 1987 – 36 years ago! – we have a 26th book, Winnie and Wilbur: The Witches Sports Day.
In this story we see Winnie and Wilbur taking part in a local witches’ sports day. Every year all the witches and their cats from their local exercise class in the village hall have a sports day along with the fitness class for witches in the next village. The main event is the exciting broomstick obstacle race, which Winnie is eager to win and goes into training in her garden.
The story takes us through Winnie and Wilbur’s trails and tribulations as they do the race. The ending of the race is not quite the ending Winnie envisaged or dreamed off but it does make her realise that it was, in the end the fun of the race that made it special. Everyone celebrates the day together with a feast of food and we see Winnie and Wilbur flying off at the end, determined to win the race next year.
Winnie and Wilbur: The Witches Sports Day is an action-packed story brought to life with Korky Paul’s also action-packed illustrations, full of colour and humour that early years and KS1 children will enjoy. A story about the importance of enjoying the taking part and teamwork, that may also inspire children to create their own interesting obstacle courses!
This review was written by Jo Bowers
Jo Bowers is the reviews editor and book reviewer for Just Imagine and also writes teacher notes for the Just Imagine Reading Gladiators Book Club and sits on the Reading Promotion Committee with Books Council Wales, championing books set in Wales. Jo has worked in primary education for over 30 years, as a teacher and literacy lead in schools and lecturer in teacher training in Wales. Jo has sat on various book award panels including Books Council Wales Tir na n-og award, UKLA book awards and the English Association Picture Book Award. She has been editor of and sat on the editorial Board of English 4-11, led an Open University Reading for Pleasure Teacher Group (TRG) for teachers in Wales and is a Wales representative for the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA). She is passionate about children's literature and is happiest when she is reading and surrounded by books. You can find Jo on Twitter at @Jo_BowersCopyright: Just Imagine Story Centre Ltd 2012-2023. All rights reserved.