Worst Witch

With Halloween on the way, I find myself getting the silliest urges …

I want to craft my own broomstick, stir up a cauldron of sparkling cider, and play with potions (like soaps and lotions!).

Do you feel it too?

October is a month of magic, casting a spell with its windblown golden leaves and tendrils of wood smoke curling through the early morning chill.

I’m bewitched!

And speaking of witches, I want to introduce you to one of the most spellbinding little sorceresses of all time:

Her name is …

Mildred Hubble.

If you don’t know Mildred already, then this is the perfect time to get acquainted.

Affectionately known as The Worst Witch, Mildred Hubble is a blithely bumbling student of sorcery at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches.

No sooner has Mildred stumbled into the hallowed halls of her new school than she realizes she is not quite the same as any of her classmates. Like any growing girl, though, she does her best to roll with the punches. Take, for instance, the initiation ceremony in which black kittens are bestowed on the new class of fledgling witches …

Mildred, stuck at the end of the line, gets the last kitten—and it’s a tabby who can’t balance on a broomstick.

Rallying with resourcefulness, Mildred tucks Tabby into a tote bag and flies on.

And then there’s the incident when Mildred works her most potent pre-teen magic in an attempt to turn the academy’s biggest bully, Ethyl Hallow, into a frog. The result is much more malodorous and more fitting for a girl of Ethyl’s nature. Mildred, kind soul that she is, makes the best of her mistake by telling Ethyl she doesn’t smell that bad.

Mildred’s misadventures span an entire series of books written by British author Jill Murphy in the early 1970s. Rumor has it, Murphy began writing the series when she was just 15 years old, and her books kindled inspiration in J. K. Rowling (and we all know where that led).

But years before Harry Potter was conceived, Mildred made it to the big screen in her own cute, kitschy movie that is a must-see for any young girl (or girl-at-heart) who is getting giddy about the prospect of Halloween.

Happy haunting!