Worst Witch Strikes Again by Jill Murphy Review and Series Giveaway

It's summer term at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches and Mildred Hubble has been allowed to return despite her unfortunate first year there.  Mildred is dreading this summer term, knowing that all sorts of mishaps could happen again, given how prone she is to accidents and messing things up.  And now, she is bound by promises to do better after the terrible report her parents had received from the school.

This term, a new girl named Enid Nightshade has joined Miss Cackle's and she has given Mildred the responsibility of showing Enid around the school for the next few days.  Mildred's teacher Miss Hardbroom is stunned by this decision, thinking her favorite student goody-two-shoes Ethel Hallow should have been chosen.  Even Mildred is a little surprised and not too happy about Miss Cackle's decision.

Neither is Mildred's best friend Maud Moonshine.  When she asks Mildred to hand Enid over to another girl and Mildred refuses, Maud walks off in a jealous huff, even though both girls think that Enid looks to be a pretty boring girl.

Boring, that is, until the next morning when Mildred discovers that instead of the permitted cat, Enid has a monkey in her room.  And that is just the beginning of accident-prone Mildred's summer term of chasing a runaway monkey, trips to Miss Cackle's office and a performance that even surprises Mildred and Enid at the end of term assembly.  There's even a good lesson on friendship for Maud.

But the biggest lesson of all is to not judge a book by its cover or the new girl at school by the way she looks.

This is the second fun book in the Worst Witch series, perfect for young readers ready to tackle chapter books, and too young for Harry Potter.

In fact, it is so much fun, that I am holding a HALLOWEEN inspired Giveaway, in which one lucky winner will receive a complete set of The Worst Witch series by Jill Murphy, books 1-6, courtesy of Candlewick Press.

The Rules of this Giveaway are pretty simple:

1- It will run from today until October 31, 2014 at 11:59 PM EDST
2- Follow Randomly Reading on Bloglovin'
3- Leave a comment related to The Worst Witch and a valid email address to reach you.
4- The winner has 48 hours to respond
5- This giveaway is open to residents of the United States and Canada
6- Allow a few weeks time for delivery.
7- Because your hostess is a certified dyslexic, and she has learned to keep things relatively simple,
    there will be one winner selected by Random.org