B*WITCH

by Paige McKenzie, Nancy Ohlin

Overview

When the new girl in school joins a group of teen witches, she and her friends must team up with a rival coven to take down a mysterious killer.


New girl and secret witch Iris just wants to get through her first day of school without a panic attack. The last thing she expects is to be taken in by a coven of three witches: soft-spoken Greta, thoughtful and musical Ridley, and fiery and spirited Binx. They may be the first witches Iris has met IRL, but their coven is not alone in their small northwestern town.


The Triad is the other coven at their school. When the Triad's not using spells to punish their exes or break up happy couples for fun, they practice dark magic. The two covens have a rivalry stretching all the way back to junior high.


When tragedy strikes and one of their own is murdered, the rival covens must band together to find out who is responsible before it's too late. Someone's anti-witch ideology has turned deadly . . . and one of them is next.


With an inclusive cast of teen witches who leap off the page with style, attitude, and charm, B*Witch is a bingeable read perfect for fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Mean Girls alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759556003
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	08/03/2021
Series:	B*WITCH , #1
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	669,652
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Paige McKenzie is a millennial hyphenate: a New York Times bestselling author, YouTuber, actor, influencer, creator, artist, and producer. Her first book series, The Haunting of Sunshine Girl, was on the New York Times bestseller list for over a month. Paige is constantly creating. Her Etsy shop the Homebody Guild is full of her art and designs, and she is always updating it with new creations. Paige also interacts daily with her Sunshiners across a variety of media including YouTube (where she has over half a million subscribers), Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Paige is a founding member of Coat Tale Productions, with three projects in active development. Paige lives in Portland, Oregon with the love of her life, a seven-pound Chihuahua named Pongo.


Nancy Ohlin was born in Tokyo and moved to the United States when she was nine. She has written, ghostwritten, or collaborated on over one hundred fiction and nonfiction books for children, teens, and adults, including her YA novels Consent, Beauty, and Always, Forever (Simon & Schuster). Most recently, she collaborated with Paige on The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl (Hachette Books), Quvenzhané Wallis on the Shai and Emmie chapter book series (Simon & Schuster), and Chloe Lukasiak on her forthcoming memoir Girl on Pointe: Chloe's Guide to Taking on the World (Bloomsbury). Learn more at nancyohlin.com and on Twitter (@nancyohlin).

Editorial Reviews

Praise for B*Witch:

“An honest, promising story . . . for readers seeking a diverse, witchy mystery.”

—Kirkus

“B*Witch is an inclusive, fun, and suspenseful book that teenage witch fans will enjoy, and many of them might identify with.”

—The Nerd Daily

“With faint traces of Harry Potter and whiffs of the television series The Secret Circle and Charmed, this will appeal to teens who love witches in contemporary settings and can’t get enough.”

—SLJ

From the Publisher

05/01/2020

Gr 9 Up—Iris, a teenage witch, is new to Sorrow Point High. To ameliorate her sky-high anxiety she performs a calming spell at school, breaking federal anti-witchcraft law 6–129 and potentially outing herself to any anti-magic Antima members operating at school. While no Antima see her, she is, however, noticed by Greta, Ridley, and Binx, witches and members of one of two feuding covens; the other coven is made up of three teens of the mean-girl variety. The two covens are both keen on recruiting Iris and Penelope, another potential witch, when someone is murdered and the teens must work together to solve the crime. The witches are a diverse bunch, including POC, lesbian, and trans characters, as well as one who is coping with a sensory processing disorder and anxiety. There are many characters to keep track of and the story line is elusive at first, but readers who persevere will be rewarded by an elaborately plotted, if unevenly paced, novel that is clearly the first in a series. VERDICT With faint traces of Harry Potter and whiffs of the television series The Secret Circle and Charmed, this will appeal to teens who love witches in contemporary settings and can't get enough of the subject.—Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's Sch., Brooklyn

School Library Journal

2020-05-02
Teen witches are tasked with finding those who are threatened by their existence.

Sorrow Point, Washington, seems like a typical American small town except for the two secret covens of sophomore witches who have been feuding since junior high. When newcomer Iris—who is just doing her best to manage her anxiety and sensory processing disorder—arrives, Greta (the levelheaded leader), Binx (the technomancer rebel), and Ridley (the studious and artistic one) make plans to recruit her before the rival coven does. Since the new president started stirring up venomous hatred toward witches, there have been more Antima (Anti-Magic) members lurking around. Suddenly, the girls start receiving threatening shadow messages. Their entire existence is illegal and could spell trouble if anyone ever found out who they truly were. As they attempt to track the notes’ sender, tragedy strikes, and now the covens will have to band together to find out who murdered a fellow witch. The author crafts an honest, promising story narrated through a third-person omnipotent voice and featuring an inclusive, distinct cast of young women who detail their unique struggles. The story fizzles at the very end with the setup for another installment, however readers will relish the character-building as they get to know these young witches. Greta is cued as Latinx, Iris is white, Binx is Japanese American, and Ridley is black and trans.

For readers seeking a diverse, witchy mystery. (Fantasy. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews