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Witch Water

Feel the darkness,

touch the black,

hear the shadows whispers back…

Lynn and her best friend, Mouse, are convinced Mrs. Tuggle is a witch, even if no one believes them. Lynn thought they were safe after they escaped the witch’s clutches last summer, but the evil Mrs. Tuggle hasn’t finished with them yet.

A menacing flock of crows is following Mouse’s every move and the girls’ only protection against this dangerous woman is destroyed. Lynn and Mouse know they have to act fast. But they don’t know what Mrs. Tuggle is planning, and this time, they may not get away so easily…

The Witch Herself

From the shadows

of the pool,

Black as midnight,

thick as gruel…

Is Mrs. Tuggle a witch? Lynn and Mouse are sure she is – how else can you explain the frightening things that have been taking place over the past several months?

Now Lynn’s mom is planning to move her writing studio into Mrs. Tuggle’s house for the winter, and Lynn can’t imagine a more dangerous situation. If she and Mouse don’t do something, there’s no telling what horrifying things may happen. They’ve got to save Lynn’s mom before Mrs. Tuggle strikes again — but how?

The Witch’s Eye

Lynn knows she should feel safe now. Her family’s suspicious neighbor Mrs. Tuggle died in the fire that destroyed her house and things are returning to normal. However, Lynn can’t shake the feeling that Mrs. Tuggle’s evil presence is rising again. Lynn hears the old woman hauntingly calling to her at night. And her little brother is acting so strangely that Lynn is convinced Mrs. Tuggle is trying to harm him.

But Lynn’s dad won’t hear of it, her mom won’t talk about it, and her best friend wishes the whole thing would just go away. Lynn is determined to find out why Mrs. Tuggle is reaching out from beyond the dead. Or why she never really disappeared…

Witch Weed

“One of the most feared of a witch’s powers is that of the evil eye…”

After throwing Mrs. Tuggle’s evil glass eye into the creek, Lynn and her best friend, Mouse, anticipate a soothing summer. But when Lynn notices some strange-looking purple plants growing down by the creek, she begins to worry. Is she imagining it, or are the plants sprouting right near where she threw the eye? What’s worse is that some girls from school may be starting their own coven of witches — and Mouse might be getting sucked in!

Does Mrs. Tuggle have unfinished business with them? And if so, can Lynn fight her evil again?

The Witch Returns

Elnora Tuggle’s house on the hill has been rebuilt, and when Lynn meets her new neighbor, she is shocked to be faced with an old woman who is identical in every evil way to the witch who burned with her house in the third book in this series.

In this, the sixth and final volume, readers meet Greta Gullone, who claims to be Mrs. Tuggle’s sister. Lynn quickly realizes, however, that the name is an anagram of the original witch’s name, and she is off, with the help of her insecure friend Mouse, on another terrifying attempt to prevent the dark side from destroying her family and friends. All of the elements are here–uncertainty and fear, threat and terror, a power-hungry witch.

The suitably spooky pencil illustrations draw readers deeper into the spell and contribute to the menacing mood that builds as the story progresses. As pieces of the mystery come together, the personal problems of the characters that have been simmering below the surface throughout this cohesive series come to a rolling boil. The climax to which all six books have led is a powerful scene both visually and emotionally as the bonds of family and friends draw the characters into a position of great strength and morality. Finally, the books show themselves as what they were all along–a struggle between good and evil (one flaw is that the evil is not convincingly motivated, although this doesn’t detract from the ominous sense of danger) and a portrait of the power of family love in whatever shape it may be found.

The Boys Start The War

It’s not the Hatfields vs. the McCoys, but a feud nonetheless when the four Hatford brothers square off against their new neighbors, the Malloy sisters.

It begins when Caroline, Edith Ann (Eddie), and Beth Malloy catch the Hatfords dumping dead animals into the stream separating their properties; in response, Caroline–a consummate actress–plays dead, and as the horrified brothers watch, her sisters sadly throw her in.

Once school starts, it’s open war. With quick wits and inventiveness on both sides, the antagonists are evenly matched; and even when their pranks go awry, they suffer more fury (or embarrassment) than harm.

The Girls Get Even

In this sequel to The Boys Start the War, the feuding Hatford brothers and Malloy sisters continue to plot to get the best of each other.

The annual Halloween costume parade provides the opportunity for a bet, in which the losing team will become the winners’ slaves for a month. This leads to a flurry of spying, creative costume designing, and sabotage.

The tone of this book is lighthearted and humorous. One gets the impression that both parties in the feud are thoroughly enjoying themselves, though neither would admit it.

Boys Against Girls

This sequel to Naylor’s light comedies The Boys Start the War and The Girls Get Even continues the pattern of slapstick and practical jokes in a secure small-town setting.

The Malloy sisters and the Hatford brothers trick and humiliate each other and get even. This time, each group scares the other with tall tales about the abaguchie, a creature that prowls at night and leaves footprints and bits of fur. Wally even fools Caroline into searching for the monster’s bones in a cellar in the local bookstore.

In one hilarious scene, the boys bait a huge trap for the abaguchie–and they catch Caroline. But what about those yellow eyes that shine in the woods at night? What is making those growling, snuffling noises? Could there really be a monster?

Naylor mixes in some real suspense with the farce and the folklore. There’s even a glimpse of a truce: maybe the girls and boys could join together against a common adversary–parents.

The Girls’ Revenge

This fourth book about the Hatford brothers and the Malloy sisters begins shortly before Christmas, three months after the Malloys move to Buckman, WV. As the holiday season approaches, the boys and girls continue to play pranks on one another and begin to learn the consequences of their actions.

Caroline Malloy and Wally Hatford are partners for their fourth-grade December project and discover that, instead of annoying one another, they need to learn how to work together in order to receive a passing grade.

Told in their alternating viewpoints, the story moves quickly, continuing the mischief and humor of the previous novels. Readers will be especially taken with precocious and dramatic Caroline, who will stop at nothing for revenge. While it is not necessary to read the first three books, fans of the series will enjoy references to the characters’ past pranks and will delight in the promise of future additions to this ongoing battle between these rivals.

A Traitor Among the Boys

The fifth entry in Naylor’s refreshing series chronicling the feud between the Hatfords and the Malloys.

The Hatford boys’ New Year’s resolution is “the girls can stay . . . but only if they play by our rules.” Their mother insists that they “treat those girls as though they were your sisters.” Okay, but somehow the boys’ interpretation owes more to sibling rivalry than to brotherly love. The one weak link is young Peter, who doesn’t understand the rivalry, openly likes the girls, and sees nothing wrong with sitting in their kitchen eating homemade cookies and answering questions about his brothers’ plans.

Readers will find themselves laughing out loud at the pranks, the conversations, and one unforgettably embarrassing moment. The high-flying humor is juxtaposed with the budding affection between Josh and Beth and the way all the children pull together during a blizzard.