Crimson Twill: Witch in the City

Crimson Twill: Witch in the City is a delightful introduction to a ‘little witch’ with an independent streak as evidenced by her wearing gum boots instead of pointy shoes and a brightly-coloured hat with a bow rather than the typical black witch’s hat. The main action of this short novel has Crimson taking a long-desired shopping trip with her mother to ‘Broomingdales’ in ‘New Wart City’ in search of items on her mother’s list, items like a cauldron, potion bottles, and a new wand rack. The inventive ways that the author creates connections between Crimson’s world and the non-magical world begin as soon as she starts to plan her trip to the city (she remembers visiting an aunt there who works at a spell book publishing company along with a favourite ghost writer) and continue at a satisfying pace until the last page. References to flying along an underground ‘broomway’ busy with late night travelers, a department with appointments for permanent wart placement, or a fashion show featuring the designs of ‘Vera Fang’ can’t help but make the reader smile.

After agreeing to meet at the store’s café at midnight, Crimson and her mother choose to shop separately so that Crimson can focus on spending the five gold coins she has saved from completing chores like feeding frogs in the pond,. Each time Crimson stops on a new floor in the large department store, she overcomes an obstacle, such as helping to tame a broom that won’t stop sweeping or rescuing a lone puppy from the magical cat floor, but she isn’t able to find the right thing to buy with her savings. She almost finds a hat to suit her cheerful fashion sense but ends up giving it to another witchling who wants it more than she does. As Crimson arrives in the café to meet with her mother, she starts to wonder if she might find anything to take home before realizing that, although she won’t be going home with anything purchased from the department store, her visit gave her something special – new friends.

The novel is lightly illustrated in black and white with characters who have large, expressive eyes. When Crimson and her mother fly along the ‘broomway’, readers can see that every other witch is looking glumly ahead, perhaps thinking of what they will be cooking up in their cauldrons that night. Despite the lack of bright colours in the book, it is still possible to feel a sense of magic from the images included, particularly when colour is removed to represent ghostly figures or eerie candlelight. Excellent details are included in many of the panels, such as the advertisements for magical products like ‘More warts cream’ or for the variety of cats displayed on the cat floor.

Crimson Twill is a young person to admire and enjoy, one who walks with curiosity and kindness through an unfamiliar and formidable place like ‘Broomingdales’. This short novel would be an inventively spooky treat for anyone to read aloud and a treasure for a reader to keep on their bookshelf to return to frequently so that they might spend time with Crimson again and look forward to any future adventures she will have.