Even though Pillywiggins gets top billing, Natasha is the real heroine of this book. When Natasha and her family move to The Deepings, she feels the magic of the place, but it’s a frightening magic to begin with when she sees a tree who is also a witch, and meets Jamie who shows her Pillywiggins, a fairy turned to stone by the Tree Witch whose baby has been stolen by the fairies. Working together, Natasha, Jamie, and Pillywiggins herself, who comes alive during the full moon and on Midsummer Night’s Eve, must find the fairy ring in Natasha’s house and enter Fairyland to rescue Green Baby, the witch’s child. But will Natasha be able to come back? Pillywiggins and the Tree Witch seems just a bit too scary for really young children, but second and third graders who don’t mind a bit of a spine-shiver should like this story of two brave children and an unjustly imprisoned fairy, free at last.

by Julia Jarman

London: Andersen Press, 2012. 116 pgs. Intermediate Fantasy.