The Witches (Lilia Araujo)

 2nd Reading Report

A brief summary of the chapters.

The boy and her grandmother had planned a journey to Norway, but before that she got pneumonia so they could not go. Even though she was somewhat better later, she still had to be careful. Because of this, they stayed at a place called the Hotel Magnificent instead of going all the way to Norway.

As a consolation, the woman gave him as a present two mice, which he named William and Mary. They had issues with the hotel because of the mice and he was asked not to let them out, yet he decided to look for an empty room where he could continue on training them. Later, he found The Ballroom, where he entered since it was empty.

Sometime after, hundreds of ladies came and filled the place, all of who, surprisingly, fitted with the witch description. Then, a beautiful woman appeared, who would stand at the front, on the platform. Suddenly, she took away what seemed to be a mask, revealing her frightening self and who she really was: the Grand High Witch.

She began explaining her plan to get rid of all the children in England. She stated that all witches should resign from their jobs and buy the most respectable sweet shops. Subsequently, they should prepare a Great Gala Opening offering free sweets, which will be filled with the Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse-maker. This formula would take effect the following day at 9 o'clock when children were supposed to be at school.

With the purpose of showing the effectiveness of the formula, the Grand High Witch invited a child to the place, which she had previously given a bar of chocolate filled with it. They only had to wait for the child, whose name was Bruno Jenkins, to turn into a small brown mouse.

After that, Bruno disappeared running in the form of a mouse, and the event finished. Seconds before leaving the place, one of the witches recognized the smell of a child and, then, everyone was able to do so. Not so long after that, they found the main character hiding and forced him to drink the formula, turning him instantly into a mouse.

Finally, he decided to find Bruno and, by the time they got together, the boy suggested going to consult his grandmother.

Brief description of new characters that have been incorporated into the novel.

The Grand High Witch finally appeared, being the only one that used a mask and who truly needed to, otherwise, people would run away from her. She had a peculiar way of speaking, pronouncing the 'w' as 'v' and rolling her r's too much. She used to turn into dust those who disagreed with her.

Bruno Jenkins was the name of the child who was invited to The Ballroom, expectant of getting more chocolates.