Ivy Newt and the Storm Witch
Ivy Newt and the Time Thief
Derek Keilty, illustrated by Magda Brol
Scallywag Press

These enchanting stories are set in the world of Miracula and in the Storm Witch, the first, Ivy Newt, daughter of the King and Queen of the Sand Witches is celebrating her birthday. However, due to inclement weather her friends are unable to come to her party and share the culinary treats such as scream cheese, lemon and slime cake with marsh maggots. No matter, her parents have prepared an extra special surprise for Ivy – a disappearing act; the trouble is that they really do vanish for good: a mistake or a sinister happening? It’s up to Ivy and her familiar, a shape-shifting wolf/boy Tom to discover what is behind this harrowing situation and bring back her parents. This means Ivy must fly way outside her comfort zone, but she and Tom are a great team and with the help of Felix, son of the Carpet Wizard King, determination and magic, they might just defeat the evil Queen Clawdelia.

New solo readers will delight in this charmer of a tale with its mix of frights and gentle humour, and Magda Brol’s fantastic black and white illustrations at every turn of the page; if you read this aloud to children make sure they see those.

The Time Thief takes place at Halloween when every year come sunrise, a spooky haunted house, appears near Newt Castle, only to disappear again at the stroke of midnight. Queen Fenella tells her daughter, the place is cursed and she’s to stay away and instead help with the preparations for the party in the castle.
However, Ivy’s disobedient streak wins out and off she goes with Tom to investigate and they hope, solve the disappearing house mystery. When they tumble in, the two discover an imprisoned witch in a sorry state, thanks to her own doing and that of sorcerer Thaddeus Creep from whom she stole a clock, a clock that is broken and needs to be fixed urgently, which means before the last stroke of midnight. With occasional tummy churning moments and some wonderful new characters all ends satisfactorily, and will leave readers eagerly anticipating further adventures.
Her latest being

Ivy Newt and the Swamp Dragons

Ivy has some unlikely adversaries in this story, they’re not the titular Swamp Dragons; rather a thoroughly nasty bullying character, Trouble Ivy who appears as the result of Ivy tipping a whole bottle of her Gran’s Double Trouble Bubble Bath into the tub before she takes a dip. Little does she know however that it’s so old the magic ingredients are well out of date and hence both she and Tom now have doubles – exceedingly troublesome ones as she’s soon to discover.

The purpose of Ivy’s stay at Gran’s is so she can see for the first time, the Swamp Dragons Gran is so excited about when they stop for a few days to rest on their way to their winter home in the Dragon Isles. Now with Trouble Ivy and some allies causing chaos, Ivy will have to use all her ingenuity and summon up her bravery to defeat her enemies, save The Book Wizard’s Library and prevent the kingdom of Miracula being incinerated. Can she do it? Possibly, with assistance from friends, be they established or new ones.

Readers will be rooting for eight year old Ivy as they’re whooshed along to the end, eager to discover how things turn out. It matters not whether they have met Ivy before or are new to this series thanks in no small part, to Magda Bro’s map of Miracula and potrait gallery of the characters. They are a great counterpart for Derek Keilty’s text with its satisfying mix of magic, mischief, drama and gentle humour.