Something very peculiar happened to a girl called Isis. Her nose ran away. And then all sorts of things started to happen at her school when the other children caught sight of it.

It’s all very strange indeed. But perhaps it’s not quite so extraordinary when you know that Isis went to the same school as Katie.

You may recall that we heard about Katie recently, when she got into trouble at school. If you heard that story- or her Halloween Tale - you’ll know that Katie is a witch and can do all sorts of magic.

If you like this story, you might like to trace its origins back to a Russian tale called The Nose by Nicholai Gogol.

Read by Natasha. Duration 20 minutes.

Loads of people are always saying that Isis is an exceptionally pretty little girl. They say things like, “What lovely blond hair she has! ” and “What wonderful blue eyes!” and “Such a sweet nose!” and “What a darling little mouth!”.

And Isis likes it when people say such things about her. And there’s something else that makes her happy - it’s that everyone at school wants to be friends with her. In fact, she’s so popular that every girl in her class is simply dying to go to her birthday party.

—-
In a moment, I’ll tell you all about the very peculiar thing that happened to Isis. But first I’d like to recommend an entire audio book that you can download from our sponsor, Audible. It’s a magical story that just about everyone loves, and it’s called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. And if you go to Audible’s website, you can choose from several versions. My own favorite is the BBC radio dramatization with great music and sound effects.

Audible have so many books about so many things that there’s sure to be one for you, And for mum or dad. You can get your first download from Audible - for free - at the following special web address. Audiblepodcast dot com forward slash storynory - or by following the link from Storynory’s sidebar. So drop by soon and pick up the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Now back to the story about the very pretty little girl called Isis. Where were we? Ah yes, her party.

—

But Isis couldn’t invite just anyone to her party. And especially, she couldn’t invite Katie.

You see, Katie was a bit strange. And not very pretty. Well at least Isis thought so. And she didn’t like the way she did her hair. And her shoes weren’t very nice.

And Isis couldn’t possibly invite a girl who wasn’t pretty to her party. So she didn’t.

But Katie has a secret that Isis didn’t know. Only a very few people, like Wendy and Alisa - know Katie’s secret - but I’ll let you in on it. Katie is a witch, and can do all sorts of magic spells. She tries not to do them too often - or else everyone will soon know her secret.

One day, Isis came to school with invitations for all the girls in her class to come to her party. All except for Katie.

And Katie felt a bit sad about that. Because although she wasn’t best friends with Isis, she felt, well, rather left out. It made her feel like there might be something wrong with her.

The next day, some of the girls were talking about Isis’s party. Samantha said, “I’m not sure what colour dress to wear, but I think I might go in pink.” “Yes,” said Trudy. “Pink suits you so well.”

When Katie walked past, Julia said, “I expect that Isis didn’t invite Katie because she’s got a nose like a pug.”

Katie heard this and she spun round: “I do not have a nose like a pug !’ she said. “And even If I did, Isis has a nose that points upward - and that means that she’s a snooty-nose.”

But the girls just laughed at Katie and they all chanted :

“You’re nose is flat
And you’re bum is fat.”

But when Isis heard that Katie had called her a snooty nose, she was cross. In fact, she was really really really cross, because she knew that there was a little grain of truth in it - and a true insult hurts more than an untrue you. Her nose did point up just a bit - but even so, she still thought it was the prettiest nose in the class.

When she saw Katie she said:

“How dare you all me a snooty nose? You just said that because I didn’t invite you to my party. Well I’ll tell you Katie why I didn’t invite you. I didn’t want you there because my mum says that your mum is weird and that your whole family is ugly, especially you!”

“I’m glad that you didn’t invite me,” said Katie. “Because I wouldn’t have come anyway. And besides, your nose does point up and that’s because you and your whole family are snooty. Your family is so snooty that they named you after an Egyptian Goddess - and if you look at a picture of the real Isis you’ll see that she had a pointy-up-nose too.”

“Isis is a very pretty name,” said Isis. “At least it’s not a common name like Katie. You’re more common than a tin of baked beans. In fact, there’s nothing pretty or clever about you. You’re not even funny. You’re just dumpy, flat-nosed Katie, with stringy black hair, bandy legs, and wonky teeth. And besides, nobody likes you because there is nothing special about you at all. Not one thing - apart from the fact that you smell.”

And Katie was so cross that she started to mutter a magic spell to turn Isis into a snail - but then she thought that had better not, incase she got into trouble.

So that night, before she went to sleep, Katie sat up in bed reading her magic books. She was looking for a very special spell to get her revenge on Isis. And at last, just before her mum came in to kiss her goodnight, she found the perfect spell for the job.

In the morning, Isis got out of bed and went to look at her face in the mirror. She was just a bit worried because she thought she might be getting a spot on her nose - and that wouldn’t do at all. In fact, she had decided that if her nose got a pimple, she wouldn’t go to school until it went away.

But when she looked in the mirror, what she saw was not at all what she had been fearing. It was much, much worse.

It was her nose.

Or rather, it wasn’t her nose. Because it wasn’t there any more.

Isis had no nose. Her face was just flat where her pretty little snooter should have been. She let out a scream! And then another scream. And then another. Her mother came rushing up the stairs. And then she screamed too.

When they both stopped screaming, they looked under the pillow and in the folds of the duvet. Then they looked under the bed and in the cupboard. But nowhere, could they find her nose.

Then her mum wrapped a scarf around her daughter’s face and took her to the doctor’s. The doctor said not to worry. Isis wouldn’t die because she could still breathe through her mouth. But he said it was strange, very strange indeed. He had never seen anything like it. He gave her a bottle of pink medicine just in case it might help, but on balance he thought it probably wouldn’t.

And then Isis cried. And she cried. And she cried some more. Because she couldn’t possibly go to school without her nose. And she would have to cancel her party. And so long as she was noseless, she wouldn’t be popular.

Because nobody would want to know a girl with no nose.

In class, the teacher said that Isis had had an accident and wouldn’t be coming to school until she was better. When Katie heard this, she knew that her spell had worked, but of course she didn’t tell a soul about it. After school, Julia and Annabelle went round to Isis’s house to see if she was OK. Nobody answered the door, so they went around the back to see if she was playing outside on the lawn. They saw her sitting on a garden chair. And they both saw face. But of course, what they didn’t see was her nose.

After that, the news about Isis losing her nose spread fast around the school. Everybody was talking about it. And then some very strange things started to happen. Really strange things indeed.

When the art teacher, Miss Jenkins, opened her desk, she found inside it - a nose. It was a pretty little nose but slightly pointed up at the end - just like Isis’s. She thought it was a joke-nose that somebody had made out of play-dough. And that made her very cross.

“It really isn’t very nice at all, “ she said. “In fact, who ever did this has an extremely nasty little mind. It’s ever so cruel to make fun of somebody who’s had an accident!”

Everyone wondered who had made the joke-nose. But in fact nobody had. Because it really was Isis’s nose. And when Miss Jenkins wasn’t looking, the nose climbed out her desk, hopped onto her chair, and jumped down onto the floor. You see, it had grown two little legs and it could run. Toby spotted it - and he yelled out :

“Look Miss, Look! Look! There it goes. The nose is escaping! It’s running away.”

But Miss Jenkins didn’t look. She didn’t even believe him. She just went over to Toby and told him that he was a very naughty little boy and that he was in big trouble. In fact, she was going to ring his mother and tell her just what a mean and horrid thing he had done.

Nobody else saw the nose escaping - except for Katie - and she kept quiet. She felt a bit sorry for Toby, but not too much, because she knew that very soon more people would see some strange things. And they did.

When Samantha opened her locker, she screamed so loud that the whole school heard her - because Isis’s nose had been asleep on top of her fleece, and when she opened the door it sprang up and jumped out of the locker.

And when Annabel looked in the mirror, she saw that her face had two noses - her own and Isis’s - and they seemed to be having a conversation with each other. Annabel didn’t even scream - she just fainted. When she came round, Isis’s nose had scarpered - and none of the teachers believed what she told them. They just said that she must have imagined it.

And Toby found the runaway nose once again. This time it was taking a nap in his lunch box. He was so frightened that he would get into even more trouble than before, that he didn’t tell anyone. He just grabbed the nose and let it loose in the playground where it ran off, no doubt to make more trouble elsewhere.

At the next staff meeting, Mrs. Hepworth, the headmistress, was in one of her flurries.

“What on earth are we going to do about all this nose business? The whole school has been traumatized by Isis’s terrible accident. All the children are imagining things. It’s a mass hysteria.”

A mass hysteria is when lots of people see the same thing which isn’t really true. Like the Indian rope trick, when a man appears to climb up a rope that isn’t attached to anything.

By now Katie had enough revenge. Perhaps too much. And she truly wished that she could send the naughty nose back to Isis’s face. But the trouble was, she couldn’t find out how to reverse the spell. She had found it in a very old book of magic, and some of the pages were missing - including the one with the reverse nose spell on it.

A few days later she saw Isis in the supermarket - well she didn’t actually see her face because Isis had wrapped a scarf around it. In fact, she looked like she was going out in a snow blizzard. Isis saw Katie - but she pretended not to. She felt ashamed that her nose had run away. And Katie felt, well, rather sorry for her, and just a bit guilty.

So that evening she asked her mum if she knew where the missing pages from the old spell book were.

“Oh yes, those. They’re in my desk,” said mum. “But there’s nothing very useful in them - unless you want to charm a runaway nose back to its owner. I had to learn that spell for the Witch Masters course at University. The professor said it had only been used once, and that was 150 years ago in the city of St. Petersburg when it was still the capital of Russia.”

But Katie said that she liked reading old spells, and besides, you never knew when they might come back into fashion.

And that night, she learned two sets of magic words. Both were very complicated. One for catching the runaway nose. And the another was for sticking it back onto its owner’s face.

The nose didn’t want to be caught, but Katie found it living in the school Kitchen where it could sample plenty of nice food smells. She said the magic words that she had learned off by heart, and it hopped into her hand. She wrapped it in a handkerchief.

And then she went round to Isis’s house. Isis’s mum answered the door and said that her daughter didn’t want to see anyone. But Katie told her that she had important news about the whereabouts of the runaway nose, and eventually she was allowed up to Isis’s room.

Isis hadn’t seen any friends for three whole weeks. In fact, she was actually quite pleased that someone had come to see her - although she hid her face behind a pillow so that her visitor couldn’t see her face.

“It’s very nice of you to come round,” she said from behind the pillow. “None of my friends want to see me anymore - not even my nose wants to see me. It ran off, you know. At least you are no longer the most unpopular girl in school. I am, and I suppose that serves me right for being so mean to you.”

And Katie said:

“You were mean to me. But I was meaner to you. You see, it was me who told your nose to run away.”

“You?” said Isis.

“Yes me. But now I’ve brought it back to you.”

And Katie took out a handkerchief, unfolded it, and put the nose on the bed.”

Isis had to see this, so she stuck her head out from behind the pillow and said.

“Oh Gosh, Golly golly gosh. It is my nose. Oh pretty little nose, why did you run away from me?”

And the nose said,

“I ran away from you because you were boring.”

“Me. Boring? But, but … I was the prettiest most popular girl in school.”

“And didn’t you go on about it? In fact, you went on, and on, and on, about how wonderful you were. So I got bored and ran away. “

“Oh! It was was ever so mean of you to run away,” said Isis. “I had to cancel my own birthday party.”

But Katie was getting fed up with all the talk. She put her foot down and said.

“It’s high time for you two to get back together. And no arguments. “

And with that she said picked up the nose, said a magic spell, and she stuck it back on Isis’s face.

Katie looked at Isis and checked that she had put her nose back on straight. She had. Then she noticed that while it had been away, the nose had grown a bright red pimple because it hadn’t been eating all its vitamins.

Isis looked in the mirror and saw the pimple. But do you know what? She didn’t even care because she was so glad to have her nose back. The next day she went to school. Everyone crowded round to welcome her back. And nobody minded that she had a pimple on her nose. In fact, Samantha said that nobody would have minded even if she had no nose at all - because there was more to life than have a perfect fact. In fact, being true friends was much more important than how anyone looked.

And Isis said.

“I want you all to come to my party next week. Especially Katie because now she’s my best friend.”

And that was the story of the nose that ran away.

Bertie says that there’s another story about a runaway nose It was written by a Russian writer called Nicholai Gogol, and if you would like to read it, Bertie has put a link to the text on the Storynory website. And there are loads more stories that you can hear on Storynory.com. You can also find our stories in the iTunes directory under Kids and Family podcasts. That’s the easiest way to put them onto an iPod.

Until next time, from me, Natasha, Bye! Bye!

Katie the Witch first came out and about around Halloween, and was a big hit with lots of Storynory listeners. (Her first story is here). Now she returns in a new tale in which she gets into trouble, big trouble, at school.

Katie has twice as much school work to do as all the other kids. She has to learn loads and loads of magic spells, as well as her spelling, arithmetic, geography, French and history. She finds that it’s ever so tempting just to use a little bit of magic in her ordinary school exams. And that’s when her trouble begins.

This story is sponsored by Audible. Please follow this link to claim your free Audio Book download. Natasha is recommending The Northern Lights or The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.

Read by Natasha. Duratioin 16.15

The Witch Who Got Into Trouble At School

Hello

This is Natasha

And this is a story about a girl we’ve met before. Her name is Katie, and she lives with her family and goes to school just like everyone else. But there is one thing that’s a bit different about her.

And one time, she got into big trouble at school, just because - she’s a witch.

Katie liked being a witch, because she knew how to do all sorts of useful tricks.

If she couldn’t find the remote control for the TV, she just snapped her fingers and it switched to her favorite programme.

And if her little brother pulled the arm off her favorite doll, she just said a magic spell to fix it back again.

But one thing Katie knew, was that if you do magic tricks at school, you can get into big, big trouble.

So she didn’t.

Well not usually.

Sometimes she just couldn’t help doing just a little magic spell . Like, there was the time Wendy called her an ugly toad, and Katie got so cross that she turned Wendy into one.

But she turned Wendy back into a girl again before any of the teachers got to hear about it.

And then there was the time that she missed the school bus, and it left without her. Katie said a magic spell and brought it back to her stop.

The driver was cross with her because she made his bus go backwards, and he said that was really dangerous.

But most of the time, Katie didn’t do any tricks at school. She just worked and played like a normal girl.

(Audible insert)

It was summer. The school year had almost come to an end, and everyone was looking forward to the long holidays.

In fact, everyone would have been really, really happy, except for one thing.

Before the holidays, they had to do exams. And nobody likes to do exams, unless they are the swottiest of swots.

And Katie didn’t think that exams were at all nice.

No matter how good you are at magic, you still have to remember things for yourself. And Katie had twice as much to learn as all the other children.

She had to do the witch exams as well as the ordinary school exams.

She did the witch exams in the evenings - and her mum gave her four and half stars stars for her work. But then she had to get ready for the tests at her school.

“Mum, it’s not fair” she complained. “I have to learn so many magic spells. And I have to learn all the school lessons too.”

“Well just think yourself lucky,” said mum. “Other children have to tidy their rooms, but you can just say a magic spell and it’s done just like that!”

So Katie sat in her room and tried to read her school books. But to tell you the truth, she also looked out of the window and made up fairy tales about herself.

Only in the stories, she wasn’t a witch. She was a beautiful princess who could also do magic tricks.

When exam week came, the first test was spelling. If it had been magic spelling, Katie would have been alright. But in this test the teacher read out words like “accommodation” and “Mississippi” and other words that are really tricky to spell.

Katie was really cross. She thought the teacher had chosen the most difficult words just to be mean.

That wasn’t fair.

So she tried a little magic. She couldn’t say a spell out loud, because everyone would hear.

So she just thought the words in her head really hard - and Wow ! It worked. Her pen wrote the correct spellings all by itself.

Next they had to do maths problems. Katie could do the first few - because they were easy peasy - but then there was a mean question about a monkey and some bananas.

So she thought up another magic spell, and again her pen wrote down the right answer.

In history, she had to remember all the names of the gods of Ancient Egypt

And in geography she had to remember the Capital Cities of Europe.

And in French she had to remember some really, really tricky words like “le sange est sur la branche “ which means “the monkey is on the branch”.

In fact, all the exams had mean questions in them. And in every case, a little magic spell came in handy.

In fact, the magic worked so well for Katie that she thought to herself: “Why should I bother learning all these stupid thing? I can just say a magic spell and my pen will write the answer.”

The week after that, the teacher, finished marking all the papers.

She told the class that they had all done very well, especially Katie who had scored top marks in every exam.

In fact, she hadn’t got a single answer wrong.

“Wow Katie, “ said Julie. “You’re a genius.”

The teacher said, “Congratulations Katie. You certainly did very well. Maybe too well. I think that you and I should go and have a little talk with Mrs. Hepworth.”

And Katie felt just a bit worried.

Because Mrs. Hepworth is the head mistress.

And when you go to have a little talk with Mrs. Hepworth, that usually means that you are in trouble.

Big Trouble.

At lunchtime, the teacher took Katie to see Mrs Hepworth. She explained that Katie had got top marks in all her exams and hadn’t got a single question wrong.

“You are a very naughty girl,” said Mrs. Hepworth.

And Katie started to cry.

And to cry.

And to cry.

And the teacher dried her tears with a handkerchief.

“There there,” she said.

Eventually Katie stopped crying.

“Do you know why you are a naughty girl?” asked Mrs. Hepworth.

Katie said: “You’re just cross with me because I’m a witch and I know how to do magic. That’s really mean of you because I can’t help being a witch. I was born that way.”

“Now you are talking nonsense.” said Mrs. Hepworth. There are no such things as witches or magic. You are in trouble because you cheated in the exams.”

“I did not not NOT !.” said Katie.

“Just tell us how you did it, and we will let you off - this time,” said the teacher.

Katie knew that she was in big trouble. She just wanted to run out of the study and all the way back home to her mum. But she couldn’t do that, so she thought she had better own up.

“Well I did do a few magic spells,” she said. “Just little ones”.

But they didn’t believe her.

“Oh dear. What are we going to do with this problem child?” said the teacher.

“Katie.” said Mrs. Hepworth. “You are in big, big trouble. You have till the end of term to tell us how you cheated in the exams. If you don’t tell the truth by then, you won’t be coming back to school next term. We don’t have girls who make up stories about witches and magic in this school. Goodness gracious! You’ll be frightening all the other children with these silly stories.”

And Katie was very very sad about that.

Because she was telling the truth about being a witch.

And it wasn’t fair.

It was the last week of term. And before the holidays, the school always had a special treat. This term, Katie’s class went on a trip to the safari park.

It was a big park full of wild animals from places like Africa. There were giraffes, and elephants, and long-legged deer called Gazelles.

Katie’s class were all safe inside the bus, and they looked out of the window at all the animals. It was ever so cool. Everyone was really excited and happy.

Except for Katie. She was sad because she was still in big big trouble.

The best animals were the chimpanzees. They climbed all over the bus. The driver got really cross when they stole his windscreen wipers. Everyone else thought that was ever so funny.

And the lions were good too. Even if they were a bit scary .

They had lunch in a restaurant on top of a tall rock. The rock was on a big island surrounded by water. And in the water there were crocodiles.

And the crocodiles were really scary.

Even more scary than the lions.

There was boy in Katie’s class called Clive. Clive was always doing silly things. But the teachers didn’t seem to mind.

Clive never go into trouble, however silly he was.

But then, he didn’t know how to do magic. So that was probably why he always got away things.

In the restaurant, Clive did something very silly indeed.

He asked to go to the loo. And on the way back, he went through a door that said

“Staff Only.”

And from there he went down a corridor and found a special room.

It was the room which they used to feed the crocodiles.

It had a window and the keepers threw meat out of it, down into the river.

And somebody had left the window open.

Clive climbed up to look through the window. Then he saw that if you climbed out of the window, you could get onto the rocks. He thought it would be really cool to walk around the rocks, and look in at the other children eating their lunch.

They would get a really surprise to see home out there.

So that’s what he did.

Only he slipped on a banana skin left by a monkey.

He fell down the rocks and broke his ankle. Fortunately, one of the keepers saw him and sounded the alarm.

Everyone in the restaurant rushed to the window to look out, and they saw Clive lying on a rock near the river. A crocodile was waddling slowly towards him. Its face had a sort of smile on it, and its tale was swishing.

Everyone screamed.

Except for Katie and Wendy.

Wendy knew that Katie was a witch because she had once turned her into a toad for a short time.

“Katie. Do something. You’re the only one who can save poor Clive. Just say a magic spell. Quick !!!!!”

Mrs. Hepworth heard this. But she was too frightened to tell off either Wendy or Katie. After all, poor Clive was looking into the jaws of a crocodile.

Katie thought really hard what would be the best magic spell do do. And then she decided: “I know. I will make Clive fly.”

Fortunately, she knew the spell to make somebody fly off by heart. She had learned it when she was getting ready for her witch exams. Now she shouted it out at the top of her voice.

I can’t tell you what she said, because it’s a secret. But it worked well, because everyone saw Clive rise up in the air, and gently fly back up to the restaurant.

Even the crocodile was impressed.

Then Katie said another spell to make everyone forget what they had just seen .

Except for the crocodile.

And Mrs. Hepworth.

After that, Katie wasn’t in trouble any more. Because Mrs. Hepworth now knew that she was telling the truth when she said she was a witch.

And Katie was glad that she had worked very hard that term - to learn all her magic spells. And when she got home and told her family what had happened, her mum gave her another half star for passing her witch exams.

So now Katie was a five star witch.

And that was the story of the witch who got into trouble at school.

I do so hope you enjoyed it. There are loads more stories at Storynory.com, and if you go to our page in iTunes, you can easily download several at once. iTunes also makes it easy to put our stories on a iPod or any mp3 player. That way you can take them where-ever you go.

For now, from me, Natasha. Bye Bye

As every kid knows, Halloween is both spooky and sweet. It’s spooky because there are witches and wizards about, and it’s sweet because children go in search of treats.

This story is about a little girl who is a witch, and it’s fair to say that it’s more sweet than spooky. Her name is Katie, and her school mates think she is rather odd, and don’t really believe that she can do magic. She’s afraid of Halloween, because she thinks they will tease her more than usual, but in fact she has quite a few useful tricks and treats up her sleeve.

And while you are in witching mood, you may also enjoy a special Bertie story from our archive called Halloween on the Pond.

Read by Natasha. Duration 8.52

Is Halloween your favorite time of the year? Check out the best selection of halloween costumes on the net! Whether you are looking for kids costumes or your favorite character from the hottest movie, we have all of the costumes you need. So during this Halloween there is only one place you need to look for the lowest and most affordable prices. Once you see how easy your Halloween season shopping can be, you will never go any other place!

——————-

Once upon a time, there was a girl called Katie.

Katie was seven.

And she lived in nice house with her mum and dad, and her little brother Joey, and a dog called Muffin.

And it was all quite normal really.

Except for one thing.

They were witches.

Well, except for her Dad, who was a Wizard.

And the dog, Muffin, who was a D-witch, which is a dog who casts spells.

Anyway being a witch wasn’t so bad.

Mum would just twitch her nose and all the cleaning would get done.

Dad would wave his stick, and the lawn would cut itself.

Muffin would click his paws, and a few dog treats would tumble out of the sky.

They’d even taught Katie some magic.

She knew how to make her homework do itself.

And her room got tidied just by twitching her ear.

But there was just one thing Katie really didn’t like.

Halloween.

Once a year, when the leaves were falling off the trees, and the nights were getting longer, all the children in her school and along her street would get terribly excited about Halloween.

They made costumes of horrible looking witches.

With long pointy noses, and spots, and nasty black hats, and broomsticks.

And Katie said in school: “Witches aren’t like that, really. My mum looks quite nice.”

And all the other girls fell about laughing.

“Katie thinks she’s a witch,” they laughed. “She’s ugly and horrible, just like a witch.”

And when Katie went home that day, she was really upset.

She cried and cried and cried. And when her mum asked her what the matter was, she said: “Everyone hates witches. And they especially hate them at Halloween.”

And her mum tried to explain that although some people didn’t like witches, it was also quite useful sometimes, like when the washing up got done all by itself.

“I don’t ever want to have anything to do with witch-craft again,” said Katie angrily.

But on Halloween night, all the girls from her school were organising a trick or treat tour of the street.

And Katie didn’t want to go, because she’d decided she didn’t want to have anything to do with witch-craft.

Never, never, never….

But her mum said she had to.

Because a witch can hardly stay in on Halloween.

And she whispered something in Katie’s ear.

Do you know what it was?

Well, I’ll tell you in a minute.

Anyway, Katie went to join the other girls.

And some of them started laughing at her.

“Katie doesn’t have to dress up, because she’s already a witch,” they laughed.

And Katie felt cross.

And embarrassed.

But she decided to say nothing.

At the first house, they got a load of sherbet lemons.

At the second, a jumbo pack of sweeties.

At the third, loads and loads of crisps.

And at the forth, a giant packet of chocolate biscuits.

But at the fifth house, there lived a man called Mr Bones.

And Mr Bones didn’t like children.

He certainly didn’t see why he should give them any treats.

“Buzz off, you stupid kids,” he said when they knocked on the door.

“Trick or treat, trick, or treat…” cried the girls.

“Yes, well, I think I’ll take the trick, if it’s all the same to you,” said Mr Bones.

And a horrible smile creased up his face.

“Because you’re just a bunch of stupid little girls, and you don’t scare me.”

“But one of us is a real witch,” said Amelia, the biggest of the girls.

“Yes, yes, Katie’s a real witch,” they all cried.

But Mr Bones just laughed and laughed.

“That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard,” he said.

“Go on, Katie,” said Amelia. “Let’s see if you really are a witch.”

And so Katie stepped forwards.

“You don’t look scary to me,” said Mr Bones. “You’re just a stupid little girl.”

But Katie remembered what her mum had whispered in her ear.

Do you know what it was?

A special spell.

So right then, Katie recited the magic words.

And she wriggled her ear.

And all the girls gasped in amazement.

Because suddenly Mr Bones wasn’t Mr Bones anymore.

He was a little brown, fluffy hamster. Inside a cage. Running around and around on a wheel.

All the girls laughed and laughed.

Katie leaned into the cage. “Is it fun being a hamster?”

The little creature squeaked and shook its head.

And Katie spun the wheel, so that he had to run faster and faster.

And then she recited the magic words and Mr Bones was turned back into a man again.

“I’ll get you some treats, girls,” he said very quickly and nervously.

And he came back with tons of chocolate bars, fizzy drinks, biscuits, and even a new Barbie DVD for each girl.

“Please come back next year girls,” he said. “I’ll have even better stuff for you.”

And he went back inside, looking very nervous.

And as they went down the rest of the street, everyone had heard that there was a real witch out trick and treating tonight, so they all gave the girls even more sweets and biscuits than usual, and even some toys.

And Katie was the most popular girl in her class.

“You know, maybe it’s not so bad being a witch after all,” she said when she got home. “And I think I’m going to enjoy Halloween from now on.”