The Lunch Witch, graphic novel girl power with a witch twist

The lunch lady is one of the most mysterious people at a child’s school.  Lunch lady Dora comes to mind from The Simpsons.  I don’t specifically remember our lunch lady, but I suspect she was the third most feared person at the school, followed by the garbage man and the principal.  The Lunch Witch takes the child’s perspective of Grunhilda, an elementary school lunch lady and imagines her as a real witch as she tries to help Madison.

Madison is a shy girl who just moved into the district.  Grunhilda has just gotten fired from her job at the Salem Witch Museum because she wasn’t scary enough.  On the way to her job interview as the lunch lady, Madison sees her, notices the bats and realizes that something odd about the potential new lunch lady.

Madison keeps getting into trouble from their micromanaging principal.   On one trip out of the principal’s office she smells something strange coming from the cafeteria.  She follows it down, realizes that Grunhilda really is a witch and threatens to blackmail her unless she helps her.

Grunhilda debates the situation with her dog who is concerned that she’s thinking about using magic to help someone.  There is an old witch code that you should never use the book of potions to help people.  She realizes that if she turns Madison into a toad or does something bad then people would notice, start searching for her and discover her witch secret.

Madison receives a secret potion, but somebody has monkey with the ingredients.  Instead of it making her smarter, it turns her into a frog.  Grunhilda hops to it and goes about trying to correct the potion all the while being chased by her witch ancestors and an all too curious principal.

The Lunch Witch is drawn is such a manic, chaotic manner that it immediately grabs your attention.  Much the way that the pages of Battle Bunny became as much a part of that story, The Lunch Witch uses its pages to resemble a book that’s been used.  Some of pages have spaghetti stains, thumb prints, purple cabbage marks, coffee spills and more give the pages of the book, irrespective of the story, personality and flair.

But the story is fabulously cute.  It’s the story of a young girl and an elder who turns into her mentor/friend that will certainly resonate with young girls.  However, there are enough comedic, spooky and kid elements that young boy readers will also enjoy it.  It’s got plenty of dry humor and a couple gross out elements for the elementary school set that will have them in fits of giggles.

The Lunch Witch by Deb Lucke is appropriate for ages 7 and up.  The dialogue appears to be hand written and varies in size inside the speech bubbles.   It’s a charming book that’ll bring a smile to your face regardless of age.