Ask a Kid: W.I.T.C.H.

It’s all well and good to have adults recommend books for kids, but sometimes you need to go right to the audience. 

My 12-year-old adores the graphic novel series W.I.T.C.H. (published by Disney Comics in the JY imprint starting in 2017). There are more than 20 books based on the concept created by Italians Elisabetta Gnone, Alessandro Barbucci, and Barbara Canepa. We collaborated on today’s post.

Lisa: Why do you like this series so much?

Kid: It’s a graphic novel series where the protagonists are girls, which is great. It’s a really new idea compared to a lot of other fantasy books I’ve read. They go on so many great adventures. 

What does W.I.T.C.H. stand for?

Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin, the five main characters. It’s an acronym of their names.

What are the books about? 

Each book has multiple chapters in them. In the first book, Will moves to a new town and meets some of the other main characters at her new school. They start to become good friends and go to a Halloween party. At the party some weird things happen, and they decide to to to Hay Lin’s house to talk about it. At Hay Lin’s house, her grandmother shows them the heart of Kandrakar, and after some argument, the main characters form a group. The first arc is called Twelve Portals, and it’s about how an evil tyrant from this world called Meridian is trying to take over Earth.

What kind of readers would like W.I.T.C.H.?

Anyone who likes fantasy. Anyone who likes graphic novels and wants a longer series because there are at least 25 books. Each book is about 200 pages long. 

What kind of powers do the characters have?

They are based on elements — Hay Lin has air, Cornelia has earth, Irma has water, and Taranee has fire. Will holds “the power that binds them together.” What this means is that she has energy powers and holds the amulet that releases the other’s powers.

Is it important to start at the beginning of the series?

Yes. You should read through in order. Once you’ve read it in order you can go back and skip around. The first three books introduce the characters and the format. The next two arcs start to show the different interactions between the characters and how the story evolves.

Is there anything else people should know about these books?

If you are doing a book report on one of these, the author is technically Elizabeth Gnone, but each chapter, if you look in the back, are written by a lot of different people. She came up with the original idea, though.

Conclusion

They’re really good. Like, really, really good.