THE SCHOOL FOR WICKED WITCHES

The adventures of rebellious 11-year-old water witch Ava Heartstraw continue.

The second book in the series picks up where the first ended: Ava, Crow Backpatch, and Henry Buffle return to Swickwit, the School for Wicked Witches, after realizing they didn’t belong at West Oz Witch Academy after all. But going back to the magical school, which is surrounded by a boiling lake and broken glass hills, comes with consequences. Ava and her friends must attend detention each day until they’ve repaired every brick from the Yellow Brick Road that was destroyed in their initial escape. While the first-year witches catch up on their classes, the evil Vivienne Morderay schemes to find a book that she’s convinced is kept at Swickwit, one that contains the secrets to becoming the most powerful witch in Oz. After their falling-out in the first book, Ava and her roommate, Tinabella, have made up, and now they’ll need to work together to face off against Morderay in a battle for the powerful book. Both young witches contend with their pride and ambition as they navigate a treacherous school campus that’s locked in Wicked Mode, alongside Crow, Henry, and the Moldy Horse. Clever entrapments and magical obstacles abound, although new plot points overshadow the development of some of the original characters. A cliffhanger ending will leave readers ready for more. The fantasy-diverse characters are varied in appearance.

A humorous, lightly characterized sequel that explores good and evil.