Wee Winnie Witch's Skinny

James Lee's mother refers to witches as 'Wee Winnie' in order "to make a witch sound small." James Lee's Uncle Big Anthony became a target for a Wee Winnie. She first removed her skin, and then snatched Uncle Big Anthony into the sky. Instead of riding in the sky on a broomstick, she "put the

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bridle bit in his mouth...and held on to Uncle Big Anthony's braided hair." Soon after, Wee Winnie came after James Lee, and she took him away in the sky on Uncle Big Anthony's back. James Lee's Mama Granny knew what to do, and "spooned her spice-hot pepper oil into the Wee Witch's skin hanging there on the wall." When the witch returned James Lee and his uncle, she then attempted to put her skin back on. The now-peppered skin "squeezed and squeezed until it took Wee Winnie's breath right out of her." Newbery Medal-winning author Virginia Hamilton created this very unique 'scary tale,' and is likely to capture the imagination of many young readers. Barry Moser, the illustrator, created colored wood engravings for each page, adding to the spooky mood of the book. His engravings are dark, with beautiful colored, etched lines that reveal the characters of the story. This tale would be best read aloud, and preferably with a very good Wee Winnie voice.

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This story is about a young southern boy named James Lee, and his encounters with a Wee Winnie (or small witch). We Winnie terrorizes James Lee and Will’s Uncle Big Anthony, and Mama Granny must figure out how to stop it all! Visually, the illustrations in this book are extremely creepy, but also

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extremely beautiful. All of the illustrations are actually pictures of colored wood engravings, and each is very detailed with a repetitive line pattern carving out pictures of Wee Winnie Witch in all of her forms, along with pictures of James Lee, Uncle Big Anthony, and Mama Granny (amongst others).

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For me this story was almost to disturbing to read to children and yet I couldn't stop turning the page to see what would happen. In the story James Lee discovers his Uncle Big Anthony has been cursed by a Wee Winnie Witch, who rides him like a broom across the night sky! When the witch captures

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James Lee and takes him along, Mamma Granny knows just what to do. She fills the Wee Winnie Witch's skin, which the Wee Winnie removes before her ride, with hot pepper. When it's back in place, Wee Winnie's burnt to a crisp! Story was too stomach turning for me.

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Celebrated children's author Virginia Hamilton, who was awarded the Newbery Medal for her 1969 novel The House of Dies Drear, and who often explored the world of black folklore in her work, created "An Original African-American Scare Tale" in this spooky picture-book. Narrated by young James Lee,

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Wee Winnie Witch's Skinny follows the travails of Uncle Big Anthony, whose life takes a dramatic turn for the worse late one night, when a witch known as Wee Winnie alights at his door, strips off her skin, and proceeds to ride him through the sky. Returning regularly, the malignant witch soon reduces the big strapping man to a shadow of his former self. It falls to Mama Granny, a "far-seer who could read the future and the past," to defeat the terrible evil of Wee Winnie.

As someone with an interest in witchy tales, whether sweet or scary, I was quite excited to pick up Wee Winnie Witch's Skinny, both because I admire author Virginia Hamilton and illustrator Barry Moser's work, and because so many stories in this vein that I have read seem to have a European or Euro-American cultural background. The cultural setting here felt authentically African-American (southern African-American, to be precise), with plenty of references to folk customs and beliefs, from black cats bringing bad luck, to "far-seers" being able to read the future, and an emphasis on the extended family. The story is quite horrific, with the details of skin-stripping, and the transformation of evil cats into evil witches, making it a good selection for children who want truly frightening tales. The artwork is terrifically effective at communicating the disturbing scenes being set out in the text, from Wee Winnie in all her skinless grotesquery, to a whipped Uncle Big Anthony, stumbling quietly past the group of boys at play.

All in all, this was a solid entry in the "scary witch story" category, with brilliantly evocative illustrations, and a reasonably well articulated tale - I think I enjoyed the story idea and elements here more than the actual telling - and is particularly recommended to readers looking for witchy stories with an African-American flavor. Given the disturbing nature of story and artwork, I'd say this was best suited, despite being a picture-book, to middle-grade readers and above.

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