'Leila, the Perfect Witch' - how I adore this little, perfectly witchy book!
The art is adorable - you'll fall under its nostalgic spell. It's like a colouring book designed and already filled in by a child, and I mean that as a compliment.I love the character designs, especially of little Leila's mum/baba, and her sisters, Adelfa, Fer and Lucy. Each member of the Wayward family is diverse and unique: examples - Leila has green skin and dark red-purplish hair; Fer has brown skin, a pointy, beaky nose, horns, and black wings for arms; Adelfa doesn't even look human, more like a grey, bald vampire, with a pointy nose and ears; and Lucy has fangs, too, plus black socks with pointy toes. All of this is never commented on. The Waywards are full of individuals, and they are utterly normal in their world. They are a playful, friendly, loving, supportive family of witches. It's fantastic.
The plot of 'Leila, the Perfect Witch' revolves around a 'The Great British Bake Off' parody, called the Magnificent Witchy Cake-Off, but there is so much more to it than that. There is a lot going on in each colourful, spooky, frightfully cute and wicked page. You do not want to miss anything in the art here. Therein lie clever, brilliant jokes that you might not get on the first read.
There is witchcraft - with surprisingly more details to it, including iconography, than you might expect from a "silly" children's picture book, and it's spectacular - and the Waywards live in a gingerbread house, and each witch has her own familiar: Basil the frog for Leila, Spirulina the spider for Adelfa, Mortimer the skull devil creature for Fer, Ignace the blue flame/ghost for Lucy, and Dr Blackwood the bluish-grey dog for Baba (Yaga!) (really, the only way to tell that he (or she?) is a dog and not a cat is his (or her) protruding nose).
There are also: a flying grey goat for Leila, a gingerbread man with an eyepatch, Hansel and Gretel as the witches' boogeymen, pumpkins, the Dark Arts of Patisserie, snakes, Greek myths, Russian dolls, fairies, crows, bugs, mushrooms, a goat Magnificent Witchy Cake-Off judge, a grim reaper judge, and lots of delicious-looking monster cakes!
Contrary to the book's title, the core message is that no one can actually be perfect. No one can be good at everything, even if they're a prodigy. Keep calm and relaxed during difficult and stressful tasks, including competitions. Let your loving family support you and help you.
And it is okay not to win. It is okay to lose sometimes. It is not the end of the world. You can only do your best, after all, and you can count on your family to always be there for you no matter what.
'Leila, the Perfect Witch' is a deliriously delicious treat, especially for lovers of witches and Halloween. It's cute, fun, funny, and delightfully spooky, like a big, Halloween-decorated cake. It's tremendously, wonderfully witchy. A terrific, modern fairy tale burlesque and farce (in their positive meanings). It should definitely receive a stop motion animated adaptation, destined to become a Halloween classic amid families.
Beginning book joke, on the publishing info page: 'No animals or magical creatures were harmed during the making of this book.'
Ending book joke, on a recipe for making a monster cake: one of the ingredients is unicorn farts.
Welcome to my witchy picture book shelf and coven, 'Leila, the Perfect Witch', alongside, *deep breath*: 'Witch in Training', 'Sunday the Sea Witch', 'The Witchling's Wish', 'My Mummy is a Witch', 'A Spoonful of Frogs', 'Witch Hazel', 'Once Upon a Witch's Broom', 'Griselda Snook's Spectacular Books', 'Millie Fleur's Poison Garden', 'Wicked: I Am Elphaba', and 'I Am Sally'. These books can also count: 'Imelda and the Goblin King', 'The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess', 'Heckedy Peg', and 'The Fairytale Hairdresser and Rapunzel'.
Let's all bake a magical monster cake together!
Final Score: 4/5
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