The Last Task

by Maeve Friel, Nathan Reed (Illustrator)

Overview

The eighth title in this magical series, fizzing with fun and excitement.

Jess is off on a quest to find Dame Walpurga's stolen shoes. But to get them back, she must tackle a rude giant, trick a grumpy gnome and uncover a secret hidden deep underground…

A sparkling new adventure about Jessica, the lively young witch-in-training.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780007185276
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	06/05/2006
Series:	Witch-in-Training , #8
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	7 - 9 Years

About the Author

Maeve Friel was born in Northern Ireland and went to university in Dublin. After many years working and travelling in Spain, Italy and England, she now lives in a small village near Alicante (Spain). She has a son and a daughter. Apart from the Witch-in-Training series, she has published four novels for older readers, a book for young readers and a book of non-fiction as well as featuring in many short story anthologies. She has been short-listed three times for the Irish Children's Book of the Year (Bisto), has won a Bisto Merit Award, was twice nominated for the Reading Association of Ireland literary awards and won the Hennessy Literary Award. She has also had stories broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and RTE.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for ‘Broomstick Battles’:

‘The story has great pace, energy and interesting characters. The illustrations are lively, fun and full of enchantment.’ The School LIbrarian

From the Publisher

Gr 2-5-This audiobook combines the four books by Maeve Friel about 10-year-old Jessica Diamond who discovers that she is a witch. In Flying Lessons (HarperCollins UK, 2002), we meet Jessica as she finds herself in an unfrequented and strange hardware shop where things don't appear to be what they seem. Under Miss Strega's guidance, Jessica develops her skills as a witch in the subsequent volumes, Spelling Trouble (HarperCollins UK, 2003), Charming or What? (HarperCollins UK, 2003), and Brewing Up (Roaring Good Reads UK, 2003). Phyllida Nash gives an admirable performance as she interprets the plethora of female characters in these four books. While many of the voices are not distinctively different, her pacing, enunciation, and familiarity with her script give the rather tedious text some zip. While her voice for Jessica seems a bit too deep and full for a youngster, she gives the adult characters, such as Miss Strega, Hecate Darling, Dr. Crank, and Pelagia, a believable authority. Her measured timing and clarity with the dialogue provide an easy format for young listeners, especially as the stories focus on the mechanics of Jessica's training and scene descriptions, rather than high adventure. Some British pronunciations might be difficult for young listeners to understand. A supplemental purchase for collections serving elementary age girls.-Tina Hudak, St. Bernadette School, Silver Spring, MD Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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