The Midwinter Witch, the best in the series yet

The Midwinter Witch is the third and final graphic novel in this series by Molly Knox Ostertag takes the Vanissen family and their ancillary witches to a family reunion. The Midwinter Festival is when Aster’s family get together, talk about what’s new and bond as a family. They’re just like your family reunion, except they have competitions in witchery and shape shifting. If you read the first two books in the series then the personalities, quirks and powers of everyone involved will come back to you quickly.

Aster is a teenage boy who is also a witch. At first he was a bit on an unwilling witch, unsure if his family would be OK with it (they were) or if he really wanted to be one (he did). Ariel is a teenage girl who is also a witch; she doesn’t have good study habits (because even witches have to study) and serves as the potentially more powerful witch force than Aster.

For us The Midwinter Witch works the best out of the three books in the series.  The characters are the strongest that they’ve been, both in terms of the direction of the story and their personal strength that middle school readers will understand. Aster and Ariel know the general direction that they’re both going, they’re just figuring out the best way for each of them to get there using their respective talents.

In this book they each have their own challenge. Ariel is being tempted by a dark force who claims to be related to her. But this sudden family outreach has come at a bad time because she’s just starting to feel at home where she is. It’s through this sudden introduction that she realizes that there are darker forces to magic then she’s seen and that she just might be able to channel some of them.

Set against these personal issues and the family competition are friendships, jealousy and knowing when you’re being a good friend and when you’re too full of yourself. There are issues that any middle school aged student will be able to relate to in The Midwinter Witch. I’ve read some reviews that said that the book isn’t a good fit for students because of the ‘witch’ elements. If someone that age really wants to read the book then they’ll find a way. If you’re the parent of one such child or think like that, don’t worry. The ‘witch’ elements are tame and your young reader will learn more about family bonding and friendships than casting spells or black cats.

There are affiliate links in this post, because….witches.