Witch Baby (Paperback)

This book is about a baby that a family took and called her Witch Baby and raised her as their own. She grew up in Shangri, Los Angeles. She had purple eyes, wild, dark hair and looked at the world in a very special way. Even though Witch Baby tried to fit in, she never felt as if she truly belonged. One day she packed her bat-shaped backpack and put on her black cowboy-boot roller skates and went into the world to find out who she really was.

The realism of this book is that there are some real character names like Rachel and Dirk and two other names, there are such things as surf boards and surfing and water and cars and roads, and a few other things, but other than that there is not a lot. The conflicts in this book there are a few like in the beginning Witch Baby wants to go with Dirk and Duck on their little adventure to one of their moms house. Then there was the conflict when Dirk and Duck found out that Witch Baby snuck into their car and ate all of the fig-newtons. The relevance of this book to todays world is that it almost has a lot of the same things we do as in cars, roads, people, water, surfing, surfboards, etc;. This book is pretty boring. So basically I did not like this book.

The kind of person that might enjoy this book is a person that enjoys mystery.

Witch Baby is a girl who has never quite felt at home in the family who adopted her. This book is all about her trying to fit in, to relate to the people around her, and to find her true niche in life. Although it all sounds very cliche, this is one of the most rewarding books I've read in a long time. The print is large, the book is small enough to read in an evening, and you walk away feeling as if it was more than worth the effort.

Written in fairly plain, even childlike language, using slang that could seem forced in another context, but fits in nicely, it is truly a work of art. At times it is hard to fit Witch Baby into an age bracket - at times she seems little older than ten, but at others she could be seven or eight years older than that.

With characters such as My Secret Agent Lover Man, and Angel Juan, again it seems childlike in its outlook. However, issues confronted in the book, like acceptance of homosexuality, being adopted and finding your true roots are deep and well presented in this book. In this kind of book, a younger reader could encounter, for example, homosexuality in a non-judgemental light, and completely accept it at a younger age.

This book is a jewel to read.