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In this story, Katie and her best friend Isis go on a Pony Trek.    If you like horses, you’ll definitely love this story, and even if you aren’t quite such a horsey person,  you will learn about a scary modern legend  that has grown up in the western part  of  England called Cornwall.

Read by Natasha. Story by Bertie. Duration 19 Minutes. Pictures by CaiJia Eng

It was the first day of term in the New Year.  Isis was standing in the playground talking to Judith and Andy about their holidays.  All three of them had lovely suntans,  Judith and Andy from their skiing trips, and Isis from her stay on a Caribbean island.  When Katie joined them, she had her usual pale white skin, with a touch of red on her nose from the cold winter air.

“Oh hi Katie, what did you do for Christmas?” asked Isis.

“Oh Mum and I went to grandma’s as usual,” replied Katie.  

That evening, as Katie’s mum ladled out her home-made pumpkin soup for dinner, Katie asked:  ”Why can’t we be rich like Isis and her mum? I mean, we’re witches, so we could easily magic up some money and then we could go on lovely holidays and I could have a pony.”

“Oh Katie,” replied her mother. “We can’t do that.   Only the Government is allowed to make money. Using magic to do it is called alchemy, and it’s against the law.”

“Oh,” said Katie. “That’s a pity.  Isis is always talking about her pony, and I would really like to have one too.”

“Well maybe she will let you ride hers,” said her mother softly.  ”Ponies aren’t just expensive, they are a lot of work, and I’m sure that Isis could do with some help looking after hers.”

On Friday morning, Isis said to Katie, “Why don’t you come down to the pony farm with me tomorrow?  You can have a ride on Bessie if you like.” And Katie was thrilled.  ”What a clever mother I have,” she thought. “I’m sure she did a little magic spell to make that happen.”  But in fact, her mother had just dropped a heavy hint to Isis’s mum at the school gate, along the lines of “Katie’s always telling me how Isis adores her pony.  I think it’s a stage that every girl goes through, but we really can’t afford one.”

On Saturday, as they drove to the Pony Farm, Katie’s mum said: “Remember, don’t use any magic.  We don’t want Isis’s mum to seeing you doing any spells.”

“Promise mum,” said Katie who was very excited just to be going riding for the first time.  

When they arrived, Isis was already tightening the saddle on Bessie and expertly adjusting the stirrups. She knew all about how the reins and the tackle fitted.  Of course, she herself wore all the smartest riding clothes,  including jodhpurs, a trim tweed jacket, and buckled shoes.  Katie just had her jeans and trainers. She had to borrow a hard hat from the stable.

Isis lifted her foot into the stirrup, and swung her other leg over the pony. She looked a perfect picture sitting on top of the dapple-coated Bessie, and Katie could not help feeling a pang of envy.   Isis gave Bessie a little kick, and rode her over to the ring, where she cantered and jumped over some small fences.

When it was Katie’s turn to have a go, Isis said: “Now remember, the most important thing is to let Bessie know that you are the boss.  Horses can smell fear, so be firm.”

Katie found it a little bit of a struggle to climb up onto the saddle, but Bessie stood very still for her.  Isis said:

“Don’t slouch. Hold the reins low, you’re not a cowboy. Give her a gentle kick.”

Katie kicked, but Bessie didn’t move.

“She knows you’re a beginner,” sighed Isis.

“Yes,” thought Katie, “But I know she will like me. We witches have an affinity with animals.”  And she concentrated very hard before saying, “Click cluck” with the back of her mouth. Bessie started to walk.  After fifteen minutes, and a little coaching from Isis, Katie was already trotting.

Isis’s mum said to Katie’s: “She’s a natural.”  And at the end of the morning, Katie was really excited and thrilled just to have been on a horse.

After that, Isis often invited Katie to ride Bessie. And Katie helped look after her too.  When nobody was looking, she used just a little magic to clean up the stable, which gave Isis and her more time to brush down Bessie’s coat and to gossip about school.

At half term, Isis and her mum rented a cottage in Cornwall.  There was a stable nearby, and they planned to go riding every day.  Isis asked if they could bring Katie too, and her mum gladly agreed, because she knew it would be more fun for her daughter to have a friend with her.  

As Katie was packing, her mum said: “Remember Katie, no magic on this holiday.” And Katie promised, “Yes mum.  No magic.”  She kissed Solomon goodbye and said, “Be a good kittie while I’m away. Leave the mice alone. They have right to live too you know.” And Solomon rubbed her face against Katie’s, purred, and thought, “No chance.  I’ll get those pesky mice as soon as you’re gone.”

It was a long drive down to Cornwall, but Isis’s car was so comfortable that it was no hardship.  When they were off the motorway, they drove along long country lanes with high hedges on either side.  They were heading upwards, towards the moors.  The satnav  said, “Take the next left”  and they turned into a little farm.  Their cottage was in fact a newly converted barn.  It was extremely comfortable inside, with warm central heating, a huge flat panel TV, and a lovely pink bathroom.  Through the windows they could see the old stone farm house and the stables.

The next morning, Katie and Isis went to look at the ponies. They met a stable boy who was leading out a sleek black horse on long elegant legs.

“He’s a bit of an aristocrat of a horse,” said Katie admiringly.

And the boy said: (West Country Accent)

“He took a right fright yesterday afternoon and threw the boss.”

“What spooked him?” asked Isis?

“What else?” asked the boy, “But the Beast.”

“The beast?  You’re kidding us,” said  Isis.

But Katie said: “I suppose he means the Beast of Bodmin Moor.”

“That be the one,” said the boy.

“He’s like a big wild cat,” said Katie, “Some people think he’s a puma or a panther that escaped from the zoo.”

“Your friend’s got the low down,” said the boy. “Perhaps you’ll get a look at him yourself, if you’re very unlucky…”

Isis turned her nose up at him. She did not want to admit that he had got her rather spooked herself.  

“But most people think it’s just a rumour ,and the Beast doesn’t exist,” whispered Katie when he was out of earshot, “So he was probably just making it up to frighten us any way.”

They went inside the stable and found a girl who told them that the lad was always making up stories to scare the visitors.  ”He should be sacked,” she said, “Only ,he’s the boss’s nephew.  And it’s not true. Nobody was thrown off yesterday, especially not the boss, who isn’t even here this week.”

She found them two ponies, one called Yorkie who was black, and another called Steptoe who was brown with a shaggy mane and looked a little bit like a miniature carthorse.  As Isis was the more experienced rider of the two girls, she took Yorkie who was the most frisky of the two ponies.  Isis’s mum would have the tall black horse.

That afternoon, they set out on their first trek.  They rode up to a lake where their ponies waded in for a drink.  Over the next few days they explored the local paths and trails. It was not far from the farm before they were away from the hedges and long glass and up on more stony desolate country.  They rode to an old deserted prison, which was rather spooky. Katie managed a few canters, and Isis’s pony jumped over a ditch.

When they got back to the farm, they played hide and seek in the hay loft and watched DVDs on TV. Isis’s mum drove into the village to fetch takeaway dinners, and Katie tried Chinese food and learned how to use chop sticks.  All in all it was a perfect holiday.

On Friday, they took a packed lunch and rode out on an extra long trek. It was their aim to reach some ancient stones left on the moors by Druids centuries ago.  The sun was shining brightly for the time of the year, and it was a crisp bright day.  A bold fox sat on a stone wall and watched them approach, before slowly jumping down and trotting off to the woods.  Brightly coloured pheasants pecked the grass in the fields.  A scarecrow provided a perch for the beady-eyed birds.   Katie’s pony plodded on in his usual docile way, until, quite out of character, he shied back and gave Katie a jolt.  ”Whoa!” she said, what’s got into you?”  And then she saw an snake – probably an adder – slithering through the grassy ditch and disappearing into some long grass.

“That’s ok,” she said, “he’s gone.”

Further up the track ,they found an old deserted farm house.  They rode into the walls of its tumbled-down garden, and were thinking of stopping for lunch when all of a sudden a huge black cat jumped over the wall – only this was no kitty-cat like Solomon – this was the size of a large dog, only much thinner and sleeker.  He was black, with bright yellow eyes, yellow teeth, and a red tongue.  He was facing Isis who had her back to the farmhouse… her black pony started to rear and stomp all over the place… her mum screamed as Isis was flung clear of its back – one of her feet was caught in the stirrup – and oh it looked like it twisted nastily as she fell to the ground – the pony darted round the big cat and ran into the next field, but Isis was left on the ground.  Her mum was in near hysterics. She was crying. The cat growled and fixed her with his stare.  He looked like he was about to pounce.

“Katie, do some magic !” screamed Isis .

And Katie, who was already thinking of a spell, shouted “Catnip!”  And then she said:

“Hey Cat – Don’t hurt my friend!”… and the cat turned around and said:

“I don’t mean to!”

“Then why did you scare her pony like that?” asked Katie, with difficulty, because her own pony was fritting around, fairly unsettled, even at a distance.

Isis’s mum had stopped screaming and was watching in a amazement as Katie carried on this conversation with the creature…

“Well,” said the cat, “I wouldn’t have done if I knew you could talk… Listen, I’m hungry. I don’t suppose you have anything to eat with you do you?”

“Just a cheese sandwich,” said Katie, starting to take off her back back.

“No thanks,” said the cat.

“Sorry, I’m a vegetarian” said Katie. “I’m sure you would get better food if you went back to the zoo.”

The cat, who was now sitting in front of Katie’s horse, licking his paw, looked up and said:  ”I don’t come from the zoo.  I had an owner who kept me secretly in his back garden.  I was in a cage, and he fed me on tins of yucky cat food, so I ran away when he forgot to lock the door.  I’ve lived up here for the past few years.  I catch rabbits and pheasants, but I don’t like the cold or the rain.  Whenever I try to ask people for help, they get scared and run away. ”

“You’re lucky a farmer hasn’t shot you,” said Katie. “That will happen one day you know.  Hey, why don’t you let us take you to the zoo? I’m sure they will look after you.”

And since Katie seemed like such a nice girl, and so trustworthy, the cat agreed to go back to the farm with them.  Isis’s leg really hurt, and it was with much difficulty that her mum helped her back onto her pony, but it was either that or call the air ambulance, and Isis didn’t fancy flying in a helicopter which would be really noisy and uncomfortable.

The Beast of Bodmin followed them back to the farm, trotting behind the horses,  and when they saw the stable boy Katie called out : “Hey have you got any legs of lamb in the freezer. We’ve got a hungry Beast here.”

“Wow!” said the boy, and legged it for the farm house as fast as he could.

The Beast stayed with Katie while Isis went to the hospital with her mum.  They both promised not to breathe a word to anybody about the magic that they had witnessed, not even to Katie’s mum.  Katie gave him a pint of milk, a pot of cream, and some leftovers of duck in plum source.  

“I’m sure they will have steak in the zoo,” she promised.  And the Beast of  Bodmin purred contentedly, because although he was hungry,  he was at least warm by the radiator and looking forward to his new life in the enclosure, where food would be brought to him, and visitors would admire him.

And that was the story of Katie and the Pony who was spooked.

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Katie is helping her mother get her Magic Shop ready for Halloween – which as every kid knows is is on October 31 !!! (sorry we got that wrong in our song, ‘Don’t Be Scared of Halloween’) .

Katie’s Great Aunt Chloe is coming to stay for Halloween. Unfortunately her Great Aunt always makes Katie embarrassed by being just too “witchy”. She can’t resist flying on her broomstick and doing other tricks that draw attention to the fact that the family are witches.

This story features incidental music by Gabriella and Jay. And Natasha has made a Spooky Halloween Dance to go with the music and song (There are instructions in the story and you can read them in more detail on the song’s page).

Read by Natasha. Story by Bertie. Duration 20 minutes.

Katie’s Halloween Aunt

Hello, This is Natasha, and I’m dropping by with Halloween Story about our own Katie the Witch. I was just wondering, do you have any relatives that make you feel, well, just a bit embarrassed? You know, perhaps they dress in bad taste, or dance terribly at parties, or make awful jokes. Katie had a relative a bit like that. Her name was Great Aunt Chloe, and you can meet her in this story.

The trees were turning golden brown, the squirrels were busy burying conkers in the park, and the witches were getting ready for Halloween.

For Katie’s mum, this was the busiest time of the year in her shop called the Magic Lantern. If you
wanted to be a classy witch or a snazzy goblin, The Magic Lantern was the place to come and browse for a costume. Katie helped her mum cut out pumpkins, and at night, when the shop was closed, the door was guarded by ghoulish glowing faces. In the day, it was packed with mums and kids stocking up for Halloween. Many of them were from Katie’s School, which was holding a Halloween Ball.

Jennie’s mum came into the shop to buy some Halloween Lights, and as she was paying she said to Katie’s mum: “Of course your daughter doesn’t have to dress up for the Halloween Ball. She can just go as herself.”

And Katie’s mum fumed because she didn’t think that remark was meant as a compliment.

In fact, Halloween was far from Katie’s favourite time of year. It was the time when nobody would let her forget that she was a witch. Even her best friend Isis asked her:

“Katie, what do witches actually do for Halloween? I mean, they don’t really fly around on broomsticks, right?”

And Katie replied: “Don’t be silly. Of course they don’t.”

But actually, that wasn’t strictly true. Katie knew at least one witch who liked to take her broomstick for a spin on Halloween. And unfortunately, that person was her Great Aunt Chloe.

Great Aunt Chloe was the sister of Katie’s Grandma. But she was a very different sort of person. Grandma was extremely polite and proper. Aunt Chloe, as everyone in the family knew, had been a bit of a wild witch in her youth. She had been the first person to fly around the world on a broomstick. And she had been a member of The Red Sticks – a team of witches that did formation broom flying and death defying stunts, like loop the loop and vertical take-off.

And although these days she did not do so much flying, she still liked to keep up the tradition on Halloween.

People said that she had been extremely beautiful back in the old days, and she still was, in a witchy sort of way. And although it was good that she was proud of her magical heritage, it could also be a bit embarrassing for Katie and her mum who preferred to keep that sort of thing a bit hush hush.

Aunt Chloe had invited herself to come and stay. And the time she had picked for her visit was the Halloween weekend. Katie lay awake at night hoping that her Great Aunt would not do anything too embarrassing. But she knew that she probably would.

The school’s Halloween Ball went off just fine for Katie. One or two people – like Jennie and Jake – were nagging her to pull off a magic stunt or two, but most people just said how pretty she looked in her costume. She was wearing a blue and yellow caftan with lots of magical signs embroidered on the collar and cuffs. There was nothing too witchy about it all. And everyone loved the pumpkin dance that she performed with Isis.

This is how Katie and Isis did the pumpkin dance, to the song, Don’t Be Scared of Halloween. Firstly, they held their hands out to the side, holding pumpkins in their palms like weighing scales, and they swayed at the waist. They did a tap step from left to right, then they moved their shoulders up and down, they did a full turn and swivelled their pumpkin hands. For the verse beginning Witch’s Love to Fly on Sticks, they imagined they were flying on broom sticks, flinging sweets with flicking gestures of their hands.

Later on, when it was dark, the streets were full of excited kids going Trick or Treating. The little ones were all sugared up on sweets and shrieking like demons. The older ones tried to help their parents keep the smaller ones in check.

On the doorsteps of people’s houses, the kids screamed “Trick or Treat”, and if the people were nice, they gave them sweets.

But Katie and Isis collected the best haul of sweets because they charmed everyone with their pumpkin dance.

Great Aunt Chloe came along with Katie and her mum. She was wearing a black cloak and a pointed hat with red magical writing on it. Her eyes were covered with a mask, and she carried her broom stick in her hand. And although she blended into the general melee of weirdly dressed people, Katie could not help feeling anxious that she might do something just a bit embarrassing.

Two small kids ran past chanting : “Katie is a witch ! Katie is a witch ! ” and Aunt Chloe said, “I don’t think that’s very nice.”

“Oh I take no notice of little brats like them, ” said Katie. “They’re only small, and besides, they’ve scoffed too many sweets.”

Aunt Chloe dismissed them with a shrug.

But then one of the kids turned around and threw something at Katie. Isis shrieked. And Katie said, “Er what’s that.”

It was a Goo Bomb – a new kind of nasty toy that exploded with gooy green slime. Poor Katie was covered in it, and her hair was all sticky.

“HA HA ! Look at the ugly Slimy Witch ! ” shouted the kids.

But they weren’t so amused when Aunt Chloe raised her arm and pointed a lengthy index finger at them:

“No don’t, Aunt Chloe, Please !” pleaded Katie. But her Great Aunt was not listening. A green beam shot out of her finger and zapped first one and then the other kid. They both staggered backwards and sat down on a door step. When they tried to stand up, they couldn’t. They were stuck there.

“That will teach you to mess with a witch. You can stay on the Naughty Step until I release you …. which might be sometime next week if I am in a good mood. But on the other hand, I might just fly home and forget all about you.”

Both the children started to cry and their mothers rushed over and tried to help them to stand. But try as they might, they couldn’t. People were staring at Aunt Chloe, and Katie, and her mum, and accusations were starting to fly around.

“What have you done to our children?” demanded one of the mums.

And Aunt Chloe said, “I haven’t done anything. They are just naughty children. They threw goo all over my niece.”

Katie was so embarrassed, she wished that the road would open up and swallow her. Then she remembered that she shouldn’t wish too hard for anything like that because, after all, she was a witch, and it could actually happen

Katie’s mum pulled Chloe away from the crowd. “Please Aunt Chloe. Release them at once. ”

“In my day, children knew how to behave,” retorted Chloe.

“But if you don’t let them go them now, there will be a terrible scene and people will boycott my shop and bully Katie at school.”

“Oh all right then,” sighed Chloe. And she muttered the spell to unglue the two terrors from the step. The naughty kids were able to stand. There parents were hugging them. Nobody was quite sure what had happened. But a few people suspected.

Katie was fuming with her Aunt as they walked home with a bucket full of sweets. “It’s just awful,” she thought, “Now all the teasing and taunting about my family of witches is going to start all over again.”

She was glum when they got home, and went straight upstairs to sulk on on her bed. Her cat Solomon wasn’t there.

“I wish he hadn’t gone out tonight,” thought Katie, “There will be fireworks and they might scare the life out of him.”

Soon she heard some cracks and bangs in the sky.”Oh dear, poor Solomon,” she thought.

And then she heard a loud screech like a rocket going off – only it wasn’t quite like a rocket – it was more like a cat – “Oh NO !” exclaimed Katie, and she ran out into the garden.

The sound was coming from somewhere up on the roof. She looked up and saw not Solomon, but Great Aunt Chloe standing astride her broomstick on the tiles. A stream of red stars was pouring out of the back of her stick and she was waving her hat and screeching for all she was worth. Then she and her broomstick shot up into the sky, not quite vertically, but almost.

‘FZZZZZZZSHOOOOWOW ! ” went the broom stick, still pouring out stars like a firework. And she looped the loop, just like back in the old days.

“Wow, that’s cool flying,” thought Katie, “But I really really hope the neighbours don’t see, or if they do, that they think she’s a rocket.”

Chloe was writing twirly patterns of stars in the sky, and Katie was sure that lots of people must have noticed. She heard “oohs” and “ahs” from the next door garden – then she ran through the house and out the front and found that a small crowd of people were standing in the street gazing up at the magical display.

“That’s some firework,” said a bald man.

“Impressive”, said a woman. “Did it come from a back garden?”

But a little boy said something that Katie didn’t want to here “That’s not a firework. Fireworks don’t go on for a long time like that. Look it’s a witch!”

His mother ticked him off: “Don’t be silly, witches only exist in books,” but his sister shouted: “Yippee I’ve seen a real life witch!”

“Oh Yikes!” thought Katie. “I’ll never live this down.”

The bald man started taking pictures with his mobile phone: “I’ll put these on Facebook,” he said, “No better, I’ll take a movie and send it to the TV Station. ‘Witch Flies on Halloween !’ They’ll pay good money for pictures like these.”

But then the broom stick started to swoop back down from the moonlit sky – it was coming down really fast, and very steeply – and Katie wondered how her Great Aunt managed to hang on, especially at her age. But then, she wasn’t hanging on any more – she slid off the stick and was dangling by one arm:

Katie put her hands to her face: “I can’t bear to look anymore” she said. But through a chink in her fingers she saw her Great Aunt come tumbling off her stick and fall down somewhere into the park.

Kate screamed “AAAHH THAT’S MY Aunt!” and people stared at her. She was too alarmed to care. She was running down the road to the entrance to the park. The gate was locked, but she managed to vault over it with a quick little weight-defying spell that made her bound like she was on the moon.

She wasn’t quite sure where her Aunt had landed, but she thought that she must have broken every bone in her body. Then, as she got near the lake, she had another fright:

A weird creature was wading through the water. Katie froze. “Could it be,” she thought, “some kind of ghoul that wakes up on Halloween?” – but of course it wasn’t a ghoul – it was her Aunt who had landed in the pond.

“YEE-HA!” she called. “Did you see me fly Katie ? Just like the old days. Only I seem to have broken my broom. Pity. I’ve had that one since way back when. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.”

The next day, Isis sent Katie a link to a video on YouTube. It showed a Halloween Witch flying over the rooftops amid the fireworks and crashing. Only most of the comments were agreed on one thing: “NICE FAKE !”

Which was one of the good things about magic. If people don’t believe in it, they will think it’s just trickery when they see it.

When Katie got to school on Monday, nobody was teasing her. Emma even said: “I wish I had a Great Aunt like yours. She was really cool in her costume. All my relatives are so boring they are just embarrassing. ”

At first Katie thought, “If only my relatives were boring, I’d be so glad, ” And then she realised: “Yes, people are often a bit embarrassed about their family – but usually there is no need, because other people see them quite differently.”

But all the same, she was glad that Halloween was over, and that her Great Aunt Chloe had flown home safely on a new broom stick that couldn’t go nearly as fast as the old one.

And that was the story of Katie’s Halloween Aunt.

Before I go, I’d like to let you know that Storynory is now putting some books on Kindle, to see if people would like to read our stories that way. Check out the Kindle store on Amazon for our story Katie and the Witch’s Swap, as well as some others we’ve put up there. And just in case you don’t know – you can download the Kindle app for computers and mobile phones, as well as the Kindle device.

And Storynory has a new Katie song out. It’s all about Katie and it’s called, “Don’t be Scared of Halloween.” It’s sung by our very own Gabriella, so do got to Storynory.com where you can download the mp3 for free !

For now, from me, Natasha Bye Bye !

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This story is a song. Our spooky Halloween number is dedicated to Katie, the Ordinary Witch.

Poor Katie is scared of Halloween because it’s the time when the other kids tease her for being a witch. But you really shouldn’t be afraid of Halloween, especially if you are a witch.

Sung with great verve by Gabriella – you are really going to love this one.

Music composed and sung by Gabriella Burnel. Tabla and percussion by Jay Vadukal. Words by Bertie.

And here are Natasha’s Dance Moves to go with the song:

For the verse beginning:”Don’t be scared of Halloween”:
Hold two imaginary pumpkins in the palms of your hand.
Tap Step from left to right foot to find the four beat rhythm of the verse.
Move your shoulders up and down in opposite directions for ‘All the things that go unseen’.
Twirl to your right with a spinning action to show ‘no need to feel fear’.
Do a swivelling action of pumpkin hands to show the Pumpkins and ghouls are near by.

For the verse beginning “Witches love to Swoop on sticks”:
Move forward as if on an imaginary broomstick
Skip from left to right on your broomstick show you are in a witch broomstick formation
Twirl your hands in the air to show a looping movement and flinging sweets either side mime swinging hands from left to right with a flicking action

Don’t Be Scared of Halloween

People say the girl’s a witch
Kids are cruel and love to snitch
They say she’s got a funny squint
And sucks on garlic like a mint

Katie knows a spell or two
She can make a toad of you
So don’t go near or else you might
Crouch and croak throughout the night

October 30 is the time
They taunt her worst and it’s a crime
(chant)”Your family’s fiendish and a clutch
Of witches goblins ghouls and such.”

Chorus

Out on the streets there are sweets about
Katie, Katie – she’s at home and missing out
Out in the night the kids are tricking fun
Katie, Katie she’s at home and glum
Katie, Katie
She’s the Witch who’s scared of Halloween !

[back to verse]

Don’t be scared of Halloween
Or the things that go unseen
There’s no need to feed the fear
When the ghosts and ghouls are awfully near.

Witches love to swoop on sticks
Formation flying, stunting tricks
Loop the loop and scoop the earth
Flinging sweets for all they’re worth

Chorus

Out on the streets there are sweets about
Katie, Katie – she’s at home and missing out
Out in the night the kids are tricking fun
Katie Katie she’s at home and feeling glum
Katie, Katie
She’s the Witch who’s scared of Halloween !

[break out]
Baba Yaga, Whippety Stourie
Drac-ular and Frankenstein
Feel the fear
They’re frightfully near
creeping crawling, silently stalking
Inch by inch and bit by bit
Sweeping Slowly
Seething below thee
Nothing to do
Coming for you
Run for your Life! It’s Halloween !

Out on the streets there are sweets about
Katie, Katie – she’s at home and missing out
Out in the night the kids are tricking fun
Katie, Katie she’s at home and feeling glum
Katie, Katie
She’s the Witch who’s scared of Halloween !

There’s a moonlight mystery
It’s the goblin king you’ve got to see
He’s the guy, an ice cool dude
He drools and rules the witches’ brood.

The Goblin Dude now he’s the one,
Who calls on Katie to dance his song
Over the moonbeams and far away
Scattering stardust till the day

Katie, Katie
She’s the witch who’s loving Halloween !
[stop]

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This Katie story is just a bit different – because most of it is not even about Katie – but about her Mum. Of course Katie’s mum is a witch, and she always wanted to set up a magic shop. When she finally achieved her ambition, the other shop keepers started to get jealous – and to spread rumours about her being a bad witch. Katie’s friend Isis advises that the only solution is to go on a Charm Offensive…

The making of this story was more of a team effort than usual. Natasha really wanted Bertie to write a story about Katie’s mum, and she was keen on mentioning the persecution of witches. Along the way, there were some great suggestions from our listeners Eric and Melissa in Milford, Massachusetts, who saw an early version. They suggested the idea of the Street Festival and the intervention of Isis’s mum in the role of the head of the Chamber of Commerce. And finally our illustrator, CiaJia, thought up the idea for the storm.

There were so many great ideas that it’s a bit longer than usual. We hope you will enjoy this rather different Katie story.

Read by Natasha. Text by Bertie. Pictures for Storynory by CaiJia Eng. Duration 24 minutes.

Katie’s mother loved her job. There was nothing in the whole wide world that she would rather be than a witch. She loved the feeling of magic tingling through her fingers. The chanting of incantations was music to her ears. She always enjoyed meeting other witches and swapping spells with them. It was always satisfying to help people out with a little dose of magic, and most often, they did not even have an inkling about what she had done.

But being a witch wasn’t all hunkydory. These days, when everyone is so into high tech gadgetry, magic is quite out of fashion. It’s really tough to earn a living out of it. And you have to be very thick skinned. In fact, if some people find out that you are a witch, or even suspect it, that can become quite nasty about you – vicious and vindictive even.

But despite all the difficulties, Katie’s mother still believed that witchcraft had a great future. In fact, she had a little ambition. She had always wanted to own a shop where she could sell magical things. But of course she couldn’t say that they were magical, so she would just have to present them as a bit mystical and unusual. She would stock hard-to-find ingredients like Mandrake’s Root, Star Dust, and Glastonbury Grass Seed. Of course she would absolutely NOT sell Powdered Unicorn Horn, because, although it is very powerful in spells, Unicorns are an endangered species. She would also have things for about the home, like Pillows Stuffed with Dodo Down, Sweet smelling candles, broomsticks, and cauldrons. She wold have a jewellery counter, with pendants and bangles in the shape of magical symbols. And in the back of the shop, out of view from ordinary customers, she would stock a wide range of the best books and scrolls all about magic.

One afternoon the school gate, Katie said to her mother:

“Mum, I would love to be a famous film actor when I grow up”

And her mother said:

“Well, if that’s what you want to do, you should do something positive about it: like audition for the school play.”

“Mum, I ever so want to do the auditions, but I’m afraid that people will laugh at me. Jenny said that I can never be a film star because I look way too geeky.”

“And since when was Jenny Miss know-it-all about Hollywood? Don’t listen to her opinion. I’ve learned one thing in my life, if you want something you’ve got to just go for it, or else you will spend the rest of your days living with your regrets.”

And Katie kissed her mother because she always gave her such good advice. That evening, Katie’s mum put a new spell into the dishwasher that magically collected all the dirty dishes, washed them, and then put them back in the cupboard. She was particularly proud of that spell because it improved on modern technology, and she had written it herself. And Katie thought “I must have the cleverest mum in the whole school.”

Later on, when Katie was in bed, and about to turn out her light, her mother popped into her room to wish her sweet dreams. And Katie said: “Mum, you know what you said about not going for what you want, and then regretting not doing it.”

And her mum said, “yes. What about it?”

And Katie said: “Is there anything you regret not doing?”

And Katie’s mum thought for a while, and replied: “Well you know I’ve always wanted to open a magic shop, but I’ve never got round to doing it..”

“Well why don’t you?” asked Katie.

“Because people might say it was a bit strange… ”

“Don’t listen to ‘people’,” urged Katie, “just do it. Or you will always regret not doing it. You know you will.”

And Katie’s mother said: “Time for you, my little witch, to go to sleep now.”

“Oh go on mum. Say you will.”

“Well perhaps I shall.”

In the morning, Katie’s mother woke up with fiery determination in her belly. She had already spotted that there was a little shop for rent on the high street. After shed had dropped Katie off at school, she went to speak to the landlord of the shop, who told her how much it would cost every month. First she thought that the rent was rather a lot of money, then she remembered how she would have to buy all the stock, and then she thought that going into the shop business was so terribly risky. And then at last she thought: “Well Katie’s right. If I don’t give it a try, I will always regret it.”

And so the following weekend, Katie and her mother started to decorate the shop. They painted it white, because they were white witches, but they decorated it with all sorts of wavy magical patterns. They called it, “The Magic Lantern” and inside, where nobody could see, they used just a little magic to whitewash all the walls. Katie’s mother ordered all the stock, which arrived by magic, and they were able to open it within a week.

“Magic might be a bit old fashioned,” said Katie’s mum, “But it’s still a big time-saver.”

But Katie and her mum weren’t the only people to see how quickly and easily things were getting done around the shop. From the shop next door, and from the window across the precinct, eyes were watching them. The owner of the home furnishings shop that had been there simply for ever, saw that she had a rival shop. She went to see her friend, the owner of the launderette, and said:

“You’ve go to watch these witches. They will be washing clothes by magic next, and that’s what I call unfair competition.”

And she went to see the owner of the patisserie shop and said: “She’s not exactly friendly is she? She hasn’t been over to say hello yet.”

Perhaps the ears of Katie’s mum should have been burning with all this gossip about her buzzing around the street, but she was far too excited about her new business to notice that sort of thing. On Monday morning she snapped her fingers and the sign on the door flipped from Closed to Open. She sat down with a cup of tea and waited for her first customer:

“I mustn’t be too impatient,” she said to herself, “Monday morning is bound to be slow.”

But at 9.15 her first customer came in. He was a young man, and it was so exciting watching him browse through her wares. First he looked around the home accessories, and then his eye caught the jewellery counter. She guessed that he was looking for a present for his girlfriend.

She summoned up all her courage to speak to him:

“Can I help you with anything?” she asked.

“Er yes, my girlfriend loves all this magical sort of stuff and it’s her birthday tomorrow.”

She was dying to ask if his girlfriend was a witch, but she thought that it might be tactless to ask. She didn’t want her first customer to think she was being rude.

When the young man chose a pendant and paid for it with his credit card she wanted to hug and kiss him, though of course she didn’t, she merely said, “Thank you sir. I hope your girlfriend likes the present.”

When had gone out of the shop she did a little dance and shouted “Yippee !”. By eleven o’clock there were three or four customers browsing around the shop and in the early afternoon a tourist bus broke down just outside window, and the passengers poured out onto the street. Most of them poured into her shop and were saying things like, “Oh Hank, just look at this little lantern, isn’t it adorable?”

None of this went unnoticed by the other shopkeepers.

“She’s a witch you know,” said the baker.

“She put a spell on that bus”, said the newspaper agent

“And on all her customers”, added the gift shop owner.

Just before 4.pm Katie’s mum put a sign on the door saying, “Back Soon”, and she ran down the road to pick up Katie from her school, which fortunately was not far away. As soon as Katie saw her mother’s face, she knew that her first day of shop-keeping had already been a success.

“How many customers?” she asked eagerly.

“I’ve lost count”, said her mum.

And they both rushed back to the shop where they found a couple of customers peering through the window at the Wizard’s Writing Desk which was the most expensive item on view. Not long after, the credit card machine was cheerfully printing out a receipt.

Customers continued to drop into her shop, including some local witches, and even a wizard who had flown a 100 miles by broomstick just to come to it. But to even with all the customers, there were quiet times when it was quite lonely in the shop, and she longed to chat to the other shop keepers nearby. But they all gave her a cold shoulder. And things got worse. One morning when she came in, she found that somebody had spray-canned some dreaded words over her window:

“Witches Out !”

“Oh dear,” said Katie’s mother, “somebody doesn’t like me.” And without thinking she snapped her fingers, and the window was immediately clean again. And then she thought, “Oh Silly me. I hope nobody saw me do that.”

That afternoon, Katie left the school in happiest of moods. She had just been given a lead part in the school play. It was called The Witches of Salem, and was set in New England in the 1690s when women were put on trial for being witches.

“Mr. Holkham said the part was just made for me!” said Katie with a huge smile on her face.

“Oh that’s fantastic darling. You’ve done so well,” said her mother as they sat in the car. But by the time they reached the traffic lights, Katie could tell that something was troubling her mother. Later that evening, when she was making soup in the kitchen, she told Katie all about the “Witches Out !” graffiti.

“Oh dear,” said Katie, “I think you are being persecuted.”

And her mother had to wipe a tear from her eye as she tried to look brave.

They next day, when Katie told her best friend Isis all about what had happened, she said: “It’s just like in the school play. It’s a witch hunt. I’m just so afraid for my mum. She’s so nice. She hates fighting.”

And Isis thought and said: “If she hates fighting, she shouldn’t do it. She needs a charm offensive.”

“What’s a charm offensive?” asked Katie.

“It’s like when you think up a plan to win over people’s hearts,” said Isis. “She mustn’t get hurt. She mustn’t hit back. She must be true to her self and be nice to everyone. That’s what I think anyway.”

Katie thought that a charm offensive sounded like a brilliant plan, and after school she told her mother what Isis had said.

“Well of she’s right,” said. her mum, “I must try to win over the shopkeepers. But it’s hard not to feel paranoid when everyone’s out to get you.”

What Katie’s mum needed was a little sign to point her in the right direction, and very next day she found one quite unexpectedly. She received a visit in the shop from somebody she knew, although not very well. The visitor was dressed in a smart two piece suit, she wore a string of pearls around her neck, and carried a little briefcase. She was head of the local Chamber of Commerce, which is like a club for all the local shops and businesses, and as it happened, she was also Isis’s mum.

“I thought you might like to help us,” said Isis’s mum, “We are holding a street festival and we need lots of things.”

“Like what?” asked Katie’s mum.

“Oh like food, and balloons, and party games for the children.”

“Well I think the Magic Lantern could help with that,” she said. “And if you like, I’ll help with the organisation too.”

“Brilliant,” said Isis’s mum.

And for the next six weeks, Katie’s mum worked ever so hard at organising the street party. She made a brochure and a website which advertised all the local shops. She drew up plans showing where all the stalls would be. She cut out bunting, blew up balloons, baked cakes, and she ordered a bouncy castle, a childrens’ magician, and a jazz band.

On the morning of the big day, the sun was shining, and the crowds came out to mill around the open-air stalls. Women browsed through designer clothes, husbands looked for nice but not too expensive presents for their wives, and childrens’ faces were all messy with ice cream.

The lady from the gift shop brought her family dog with her. It was a lovely great big bouncy red setter, who liked nothing more than to jump up and lick your face. His owner unclipped his lead and whispered in his fluffy ear:

“Tiggy darling, go and find the witch,” and because he was a clever dog he understood exactly what she meant. He bounded over to the stall where Katie’s mum had set out her wares. He jumped up onto it and liked her face, sending pendants, rings, and magic charms scattering in all directions. The whole stall tipped over and Katie’s fizzy orange drink spilled all over a customer’s dress. The gift shop owner came running over and said to Katie’s mum:

“Did you just try and put a spell on my dog? He’s as good as gold except when there’s a witch around.”

And Katie’s mum was so upset that she didn’t notice that a thief was picking up rings off the ground and palming them, while his accomplice was helping herself to the upturned cash box.

“Oh dear,” she thought, “I wish I could use a bit of magic to tidy all this up, but I can’t with so many people around.”

But Katie and Isis helped her to sort out the mess and set things right in no time, and before long the customers were buying her things again.

The lady from the flower shop whispered to the newsagent, “You just can’t keep a bad witch down.”

But around lunch time, grey clouds began to blow over the sky, and the street became darker and quite chilly. Some people went into cafes, but others started to drift away back home. Drops of rain were already starting to land on the stores.

“Now might be a good time to make the sun come out, ” said the lady from the patisserie shop to Katie’s mum, not actually saying that she was a witch, but just making sure that they both understood what she meant.

Just then a gust of wind blew down the street and blew away all cards from the gift stall. Instead of picking them up, she ran over to Katie’s mum and screeched:”You did that on purpose didn’t you?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” protested Katie’s mum,

“Yes you do you witch. You  are getting your own back.”

While she was accusing Katie’s mum, the rain was soaking the clothes, and ruining the cakes. The store owners were hastily gathering up their things and taking them back inside the shops.

“Oh dear, the party is ruined,” said Isis’ mum. But the storm only lasted half an hour, and afterwards the sun came out shining in all the puddles and making the whole street look glistening and beautiful.

‘Well it’s too late for us,” said the gift-shop owner to her dog, “Because half our cards and gifts are soaked, and the other half are lost, thanks to that witch.” Then she looked up and saw Katie standing there: “What do you want?” said the angry shop keeper.

“WE want to help you,” said Katie, “Why don’t you take Tiggy for a walk down the street for fifteen minutes, and when you come back, I promise that things will be much better.

“Pah”", said the lady,” “More tricks and witchery,” but she was so fed up, that she did take Tiggy down the road to the park.

While she was a way, Katie’s mum said a little magic spell. She didn’t actually collect all the lost cards in one go, because that would be too noticeable, but it did help Katie and Isis find them all ten times as quickly as they would normally, and when they picked them up, they were all clean. All the way down the street, the stall owners were making light work of setting up everything again, and Katie’s mum, who had already reset her stall, was lending a helping hand wherever she could.

Everyone was saying how unlucky it had been that the storm had blown down the street, but as everyone was helping each other, there were cheerful smiles and jokes all round. When the gift store owner returned, she found that her store was set up as well, if not better, than before.

“Well thank you,” she said grudgingly to Katie.

“Don’t thank me, thank my mum,” replied Katie.

And although the gift store owner did not quite go as far as to thank Katie’s mum, she never said a bad word against her again, and from that day on, all the other shop keepers on the street said things like

“Well she might be a witch, but she’s still a nice person”

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A girl at school called Samantha plays a series of mean tricks on Katie’s best friend Isis. Isis begs Katie to use her magic powers to help her get revenge, but Katie insists that she can only use her powers for good, and in any case, “two wrongs don’t make a right”. But when Samantha’s tricks get more and more spiteful, Katie starts to wonder if it is right to
stand by while a friend suffers.

And if you enjoy our Katie stories, do check out Katie and the Witch’s Swap, our new app and download.

Katie’s Revenge is a little darker and deeper than most of our Katie stories, and it has a moral dilemma for you to contemplate. Katie and the Witch’s Swap is rather lighter and more cheerful – and is one of our top favourite stories … so don’t miss it.

Read by Natasha. Duration 18.34. Story by Bertie.

Katie and her best friend Isis were really not at all like each other in so many ways:. Isis was neat and tidy and Katie was rather messy. Isis was sporty, and liked swimming and gymnastics, and Katie liked reading books and drawing pictures. Isis was pretty and popular, and Katie looked a bit out-of-the ordinary, and lots of people thought she was weird because they had heard that her mother was a witch.

But they say that opposites attract, and perhaps that’s what drew Katie and Isis together. They sat next to each other in class, and they were always
swapping stories and jokes at break time.

But Isis had friends who didn’t like Katie, and Katie had friends who didn’t like Isis. Take Samantha for example. She was one of the most fashion-conscientious and trendy girls in class – and so naturally, she was friends with Isis. But she hated Katie, and she began to get annoyed with Isis for spending so much time with the strangest girl in school. In fact, she felt quite insulted really. Why did Isis sit next to Katie and not her at
lunchtime? Why why did Isis say that she couldn’t come over to Samantha’s house because she was going to the cinema with Katie and her mother who was a witch?

She decided that she didn’t like Isis anymore. She decided that Isis needed to be taken down a peg or two, because she had bad taste in her friends. And she also decided that , if anybody asked, who was the most popular, brainy, and best dressed girl in school, people shouldn’t point to Isis, but to Samantha.

But Isis didn’t even have an inkling that her friend was thinking any of this – not yet at any rate. So as they were leaving school one Friday, she said said to Samantha:

“Why do we have to read such boring books for English? I’m going to spend all Sunday afternoon ploughing through chapter 9 of The Adventurous Six and it’s so dull that I will keep falling asleep and it will take simply ages to finish.”

And Samantha, seeing an opportunity to make mischief, said: “Oh I already read chapter 9, so don’t bother reading it, because I’ll tell you what happened.”

As bad luck would have it, on Monday Miss Vile asked Isis to stand up in front of the class and summarise chapter 9. As Isis hadn’t actually read it, she felt a bit put on the spot, but she glanced at Samantha who gave her the thumbs up. She launched into what her friend had told her to say:

“This was a very exciting chapter in which the heroine, Jemima, was kidnapped by robbers
on the way to school, and her dad had to pay one million dollars to get her back. I liked this chapter because it was full of suspense and intrigue.”

The teacher glared and said, “Isis – Did you read chapter 9 at the weekend?”

“No Miss Vile, “ admitted Isis with her eyes downcast.

“Then why did you just make up that prefect load of old nonsense?”

“I don’t know Miss Vile,” said Isis,
covered in shame.

“You don’t know…… Well I know that you can stay in on Friday evening and do detention while you read Chapters 9 and 10,” said Miss Vile, “And you can write out a detailed summary for me of both chapters.”

Isis sat down at her desk and fumed at Samantha.

Later, when she had asked her why she had tricked her, she just said, “Well it’s your fault for being too lazy to
read the book,” and all Isis could do was to gnash her perfect pearly teeth

So when she got home, she rang her real best friend:

“Katie, help me get my revenge on Samantha,” she said. “Think of meanest, nastiest, stinkiest magic spell in the book and do it against Samantha with all your might.”

But Katie replied, “I”m sorry Isis. I don’t do black magic. My mum will only let me use
my powers for good.”

“All right, well if that’s the way it is, “ said Isis, “Then, I’ll just have to get my own revenge.”

“Remember, two wrongs don’t make a right,” said Katie, but Isis didn’t hear her, because she had already hung up her phone. And now she was really, really angry, not just with Samantha, but with her best friend for not helping her out in her hour of need.

The

next day, Isis came into class early, and opened up Samantha’s desk. She found her English exercise book, turned the pages, and started to underline letters here and there. If you were smart, you could see that it was a sort of code, because although the letters looked like they were chosen at random, in fact if you put them all
together they spelt “Miss Vile is Vile.” You would have to be sharp-eyed to spot it, but Miss Vile had eyes like an eagle. She was sure to see it, and to think that Samantha had been trying to sneak a secret message into her homework.

But just as she was slipping the book back into the desk, Samantha said:

“Isis, what were you doing with my work?”

And Isis, who totally taken
aback, said: “Nothing.”

And Samantha yelled: “Yes, you were, you were writing in my English book. I just came in now and saw you !“

“I wouldn’t touch your smelly English book in case I caught something off it,” said Isis.

“You thought you would get me into trouble, didn’t you? ” said Samantha walking
towards her menacingly.

And Isis felt quite afraid about what she might do. She was almost relieved that Miss Vile chose that moment to come into the room, and Samantha had to back off. But then Samantha told Miss Vile what she had seen Isis doing, and her book was taken out and examined, and the teacher spotted the
underlined letters and said:

“Isis, was it you who did this?”

And Isis said:

“Yes, Miss Vile.”

And now she was in double detention on Friday, and even worse, Miss Vile wrote a letter to Isis’s mum explaining how badly behaved her daughter had been recently, and warning that she was heading for serious trouble.

But still Samantha wasn’t satisfied. She whispered to Isis that she would pay her back for trying to get her into trouble. And at lunchtime, she found an opportunity. While Isis was hanging upside down from a trapeze in the
gymnastics club, Samantha sneaked into the changing rooms, took her tie out of her bag, and stuffed it into her pocket. Then she went to eat her lunch, and Isabelle and Tabatha laughed while she dipped Isis’s tie first in gravy, and then in chocolate sauce. As soon as lunch was over, she sneaked back into the changing rooms and
returned the now heavily stained tie, back into Isis’s clothing bag.

The first thing Isis noticed about her tie was that it felt greasy. Then, she saw it was all stained and thought that it must be somebody else’s – but it couldn’t have been – because it had her name sewn on the back. She did her best to wash it under the
tap, but the stains wouldn’t come out. When she came into class, Tabatha said:

“Oooh, Look Samantha, Isis is a messy eater.”

And Samantha said:

“Well that’s hardly surprising, since her best friend is Katie who can’t even tuck her own shirt in.”

That evening, Isis rang up Katie in
tears and said: “Please Katie, Please help me. Miss Vile has got me on her watch-list. My mother thinks I’ve become a problem child. And none of my friends are talking to me. You’ve got to help me. I know that revenge is bad, but I’m not talking about revenge – I’m talking about justice. It can’t be right to let Samantha get away with all these mean tricks. I’ve always stuck up for you. Now you’ve got to stick up for me, or you are no true friend.”

And Katie, who really did feel sorry to see her best friend in such trouble, swore that she really was her friend, and that she would do anything she could – but not black magic.

Katie was lucky, because when she had a problem, her mother usually knew a clever thing to do. And so she went to ask her if it would be ok to use magic to teach Samantha a

lesson, just this once, because the circumstances were very special.

“No,” said her mother, “It’s always wrong to use magic to hurt somebody. That’s what gives witches a bad name.”

And Katie protested: “But it can’t be right to stand by and watch all these bad things being done to my best friend, can it?”

And her mother thought and said: “ What you need to do in this case, is to turn
Samantha’s meanness against herself. Help her to do a nasty trick against herself. It will happen anyway, but a little magic might help it happen sooner rather than later.”

Katie was puzzled by her mother’s words, but her mum said: “Just keep my advice in mind, and I promise you will know what to do when the time

comes.”

The next morning before school, she saw Isis in the playground. At that moment, Isis was texting a her gran, And Katie thought: “I know who has a phone just like that….”

And she said to Isis: “I’ve got an idea. I won’t tell
you what it is now. Just wait and see. It won’t be long now.”

In class, just before break, Katie quietly said the words of a little magic spell that made Miss Vile take her phone out of her bag, put it on her desk, and then leave it there. As soon as everyone else was out of the room, Katie took Miss Vile’s phone and put it on Isis’s desk. Then she went out into the playground and said another little spell to make Samantha go back into the classroom to fetch her woolly hat, because it was winter and it was cold outside.

She knew that Samantha would see the phone. She knew she would think it belonged to Isis. And she knew exactly what mean thing she would do. Samatha picked it up and started to text all the names in
the phone’s memory with messages like,

“I hate you because you are a silly cow,”

and

“Your face is an official disaster zone”

and

“I hope you leave soon and don’t come back.”

She sent a nasty message to everyone in the address book. She thought they would all see
Isis’s name and number flash up, and assume that that it was from her. …. and then all her friends would be angry with her.

In the staff room, Mr. Brain, the maths teacher said:

“Violet, did you just send me a text?”

And Violet, better known as Miss Vile , – said:

“No. I think I left my phone in
the class room”.

And Mr. Philpots said: “I just got one too. It says: “Hop off you smelly toad.”

And Mrs Jones said: “I think one of the kids has got hold of your phone and is playing a prank.”

And of course Miss Vile was back in the classroom in a flash.

Samantha was caught red handed with the
teacher’s phone in her hand. It didn’t help her case when she said that she had thought it belonged to Isis. It was still one of the meanest tricks that anyone had ever played in school.

At lunchtime, Isis could hardly disguise her delight: She held Katie’s hands and said: “So you did do a spell against Samantha….after all. Thank you Thank you. You’re the best friend ever.”

But Katie said: “I
’t exactly do a spell against her, because that would be wrong… All I did, was to
redirect her own nasty trick against herself….. And that’s the best sort of revenge, because it should teach her a lesson not to be mean.”

PCR Katie and Using Magic Powers only for Good

Dear Listener’s,

Katie’s Revenge, all about Katie learning to use her magic power’s affectively

against the school bully Sammantha who
threatens through jealousy to take away her best friend Isis. I really like this 12th Story in the Katie and The Ordinary Witch Series, which I think most young school girls could relate to.

The character of Isis has to step up to the challenge of making Katie help her in her hour of need by using her magic witch powers effectively against the mean and cruel Sammantha. Katie after consulting with her mum, finds a really good way of tricking Sammantha by leaving Miss Vile’s phone on the desk, which she knows Samantha will steal, as a result she gets a double detention.

I particularly like this chapter as we see the relationship between Katie and her mum evolving as she wisely guides Katie with her mystic witch’s wisdom, that leaves me wondering how Katie’s path to witch-hood will turn out but with her best friend Isis Im sure she’ll find a way.

I hope you enjoy listening to it, and of course the previous Katie and The Witch’s Swap story available as a Digital App. There will be more Katie Stories that I look forward to reading and hearing your comments on. So do drop me a line and Ill get back to you. In the mean time this PCR goes out to Emma K, my best friend from school, who know’s all about time keeping and the rules

Bye Bye

And hear from you soon

N *

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A fortune telling craze is spreading through school. Katie warns her friends that predicting the future can be dangerous, and is proved right in this story that is just a little more SPOOKY than usual.

NATASHA’S COMMENT ON THIS STORY
I love the Seance scene and it really reminds me of experiences with scary Halloween antics that I shared with school friends. I also enjoyed the classical story that Katie’s mum shares with her about the kingdom of Croesus, that reminds me of stories my mother would tell me and when we all dressed up as witches for Halloween and would go out trick or treating.

Do you have any Halloween stories or experiences you could share with us from school or home?

Maybe you have a spooky costume for Halloween.

Share your comments with me and  I’ll respond back to you!

Read by Natasha. Story by Bertie. Duration 19.40 minutes.

It was the long-hour of the school lunch break. In a corner of class 4a, a group of children huddled around a desk. In the midst of them, Samantha was nimbly shuffling a deck of cards. Not just any old cards, like ones with clubs and hearts, but an especially beautiful and mystical kind known as Tarot cards.

Samantha fanned out the pack and invited Isis to pick a card, any card. Isis thought carefully and pulled out one to the side that looked like it was almost hiding from her. She turned it face up on the desk. Its picture showed a maiden dancing on top of a globe with a wand in each hand.

“Ooh, you lucky beggar !” exclaimed Samantha. “You picked “The World”. That card means you’re going to be so horribly rich and successful. “

Isis wasn’t entirely surprised by this result. She flicked her hair and said modestly,

“Oh well, we’ll just have to see about that… but if it does come true, I promise I won’t forget my friends, not ever, not even when I’m really, really rich and famous !”

You see, Tarot cards carry images like The World, the Fool, The Magician or The Hanging Man, and some people believe that they hold secret meanings that can predict your future.

Fortune telling was the latest craze to sweep through Katie’s school. Before that it had been kiss chase, and before that swapping Pokemon cards. There had even been a craze for collecting smiley frog pens.

It was only a matter of time before Mrs. Hepworth, the head teacher, would ban fortune telling, just as she had banned all the previous crazes. But for now, just about everyone kept a pack of Tarot cards, or mystic crystals, or even just a pair of lucky dice in his or her desk, or pocket, or school bag. Everyone – that is – except for Katie. Katie didn’t believe in fortune telling. Her mother had always warned her against it, and to underline the perils of glimpsing the future, she used to tell Katie the following story:

Long, long ago, a king called Croesus ruled the land of Sardis. He enjoyed great wealth, but instead of being satisfied with his comforts, he longed to conquer lands and found an empire. In those ancient times, there were mystic fortune tellers called Oracles. Croesus consulted the Oracle of Delphi about his future. She told him that if he declared war on Persia, a great kingdom would fall. Croesus was encouraged by this prediction. He returned home and led his armies against Persia. A great kingdom did indeed fall, but it wasn’t the Persians’, as he had understood the oracle to mean, but his own.

“You see Katie,” said her mother, “Sometimes you can correctly predict part of the future, but you can never see the whole picture, and that can be very misleading and dangerous.”

And so Katie felt a little bit left out when the fortune telling craze gripped the school.
It all began when Jennie came to school one Monday morning with a tiny slip of paper that had written on it “A great future lies ahead of you.” She had found this divination in a fortune cookie at the Magic Duck Chinese restaurant where her parents had taken her on Saturday to learn how to use chop sticks.

She was a bit disappointed when she learned that Max had discovered the same prediction in another cookie when he had visited the restaurant the week before.

Then somebody else brought a cardboard wheel of fortune that had come as a free toy with a comic. If you spun it, you could get predictions like “You will make a new friend” or “If you work hard, you will pass your exams”. They weren’t exactly thrilling fortunes, but they helped idle away some dull moments in the lunch break.

But when Samantha brought her mystic cousin’s Tarot cards to school, that was it: the fortune-telling craze spread like chicken pox.

On the day that Isis picked “The World” card, everybody was talking about it.

Katie said: “Don’t be silly. Only a mystic person can tell fortunes, otherwise the cards don’t mean a thing. They’re just pretty pictures.”

“Katie’s jealous,” whispered Isabelle .

“She thinks she’s the only one who knows anything about magic,” said Samantha, “But my cousin Maureen is mystic, so I think I can be too. It runs in my family.”

“Well you’re not,” declared Katie. “And if you carry on like this, no good will come of it. You’ll see soon enough. I’ll give you that prediction for free! ”

And although Katie suspected that Isabelle was pulling a face behind her back, she didn’t really care, because if being unpopular was the price of telling the truth, then it was a price worth paying.

As it turned out, Katie’s prediction was one that did come true. The very next day, Samantha fanned out the Tarot pack as usual, and Jennie picked the wrong card. When I say the “wrong card” I mean it was totally freaky: it showed a tomb-stone, with the letters “RIP” written on it.

“What does it mean?” she asked in almost a whisper. Her face was white. She knew what it meant.

“Rest In Peace,” replied Samantha solemnly. “You picked the Card of Death.”

Later that afternoon in class, when Miss Vile asked Jennie if she knew what was the biggest animal that ever lived on earth, Jennie didn’t reply. She didn’t even hear the question. Her mind was frozen with fear.

After school, people were trying to cheer her up. Ravi said, “Don’t fret Jennie, perhaps it’s only your cat that’s going to die.” And Jennie burst into tears.

“What’s all this nonsense about now?” butted in Katie.

In answer to her question, Ravi drew his finger across his throat and said “kikkkkkkkh”. And Isis whispered in her ear that Jennie had picked the Card of Death. When she heard this, Katie marched up to the culprit who was the cause of all this worry and confusion, and in a flurry of righteous fury she said:

“I told you, Samantha Jones, that no good would come of fortune-telling – and now look what’s happened. You’ve terrified the life out of poor Jennie. You’re a dangerous amateur and you don’t know what you’re doing. The Card of Death isn’t necessarily a bad one. It can mean positive things like, unexpected change, or a new beginning. “

“And how come you’re suddenly such a Miss Knowall about the cards?” demanded Samantha.

“Because I am,” stated Katie firmly. Of course, it’s an open secret that Katie is a witch, and that she knows a great deal about anything magical or mystical. And poor frightened Jennie, who was listening to all this, began to see a glimmer of hope that she might live to see her next birthday after all.

Katie went home with a certain satisfaction that she had been proven right. But the next morning Jennie came to school looking more sad than ever. You see, it was true, her cat had died.

After that, Samantha’s reputation as a mystic and fortune teller was firmly established. The word reached the ear of Mrs. Hepworth and she duly banned fortune telling at school. Nobody was particularly surprised. But even Mrs. Hepworth’s stern writ did not reach into her pupil’s time at home. The following Friday was Halloween, and while the other kids went out trick-or-treating, Samantha’s best friends gathered at her house for a seance, which is like, when you try and get in touch with people who have departed this world to the other side of life.

Isis, Jennie and Isabelle were there – and so was Samantha’s cousin, Mystic Maurine. They went down to the basement of Samantha’s house, which was used as a games room. The family kept things there like a ping-pong table, a bar-football set, a wendy house, a punch ball for her brother, and a wooden puppet theatre. It was a cool hang-out, but the light was low, and at night, especially on a date like Halloween, it could be rather creepy.

Mystic Maureen sat at the table. Before her was spread a board that depicted the Sun and the Moon encircled by letters and numbers.

“How do you play this game?” asked Jennie, a little timidly.

“This is no pretty game for little children, my dear,” said Maureen.

Although Maureen was only three years older than Samantha, she had an air of being very grown up, and seemed to model her look on a vampire. She had a pale face, straight black hair, and blood-red lipstick.

To play the Ouija board, the children had to place their hands in a pile on top of a heart-shaped float.

Maureen asked “Spirit are you with us?”

And the float started to skate across the board, as if propelled by a mystic power. Everyone’s hands followed, as it visited the letters Y-E-S.

“Spirit, do you have a message for us?”

For the next couple of minutes, the float spelt out the following message:

“Beware False Magic. Beware Black Friday. Beware Beware Beware ”

“Oh Pooh,” said Isis, “This is nonsense.”

Suddenly the float stopped moving.

“The spirit is gone,” said Maureen, “It is offended by what you said.”

Samantha was cross with Isis, but both Jennie and Isabelle were relieved that that the spirit had departed. The girls went upstairs to drink hot chocolate, and as they sat round the rather more friendly kitchen table, they discussed what the psychic message could mean.

“It’s obvious,” said Samantha, “Beware False Magic” – that can only mean Katie. She lets everyone think she’s a witch, but she isn’t, she’s just weird. “And Beware Black Friday” – That means Katie’s birthday, which is next Friday. Everyone should stay away from her party, because something really bad is bound to happen. The spirit world is angry with her for doing false magic. The board doesn’t lie, does it Maureen?.”

And Maureen agreed: “I wouldn’t got to that party next Friday for love or money.”

On Monday, the news soon spread that some terrible catastrophe would hit Katie’s party on Friday.

Katie was furious with Isis for taking part in Samantha’s seance.

And Isis was furious with Katie, because she didn’t know that the Ouija board was going to say bad things about Katie’s party, and besides she had pooh-poohed it.

“Well you didn’t pooh-pooh loud enough because everyone thinks my party’s jinxed.”

And Isis went off in a huff because her friend was being totally unfair to her. Some people started to make excuses about not being able to come to Katie’s party – like Isabelle who said she had to go to the doctor’s, and Ravi whose aunty was suddenly having her 60th birthday party that night.

Lots of people just didn’t say if they were coming or not, so Katie’s mother didn’t know how many chocolate toad-stools or candy-floss cobwebs to make for the party.

In fact, Katie wasn’t even sure if her best friend Isis was coming, because they weren’t talking to each other.

Even on Friday morning, Katie was still wondering if anybody at all would come to her party. She arrived at class feeling rather lonely and sad – but at least she wasn’t hopping mad like Samantha, because on the way to school Samantha had stepped in some dog poo.

Their teacher, Mrs. Vile, announced that there would be a surprise Geography test, and anybody who didn’t get 7 out of 10 or more would have to stay in at lunch break and learn the names of the longest rivers in the world. Katie didn’t mind this at all, because Geography was one of her best subjects – but Samantha hated Geography, and she knew she would fail the test, and she duly did.

After lunch, Samantha decided to put chewing gum on Katie’s chair. When Katie stood up at the end of the lesson, Samantha called out;

“Ooh Yuck. Katie’s got chewing gum stuck to her bottom” – and several people laughed. Mrs. Vile suspected that somebody had played a trick on poor Katie, and she came round to inspect everyone’s desks. She spotted Samanatha trying to sneak a packet of chewing gum out of her desk and into her pocket, and she gave her double detention for having illegal chewing gum and for playing a mean trick.

Katie ran out of school to get home quickly, get changed, and ready for her party. She was excited now, because even if none of her school friends came, at least her mum and dad and her cousins would be there.

Samantha was feeling more than just a bit gloomy when her mother asked her : “How was your day sweety?”

And she replied

“Rotten.”

Her mother said; “I’m sorry darling, but I’ve got a disappointment for you. Dad doesn’t want to get a puppy after all. He says that a pet would be a nuisance when we want to go away on holiday.”

“Oh Poo, Double Poo and Pants ! “ exclaimed Samantha, because that news just about rounded off the worst Friday ever for her.

Meanwhile the door bell rang at Katie’s house. She ran to open it, and was given a card, a present, and a kiss by Paul, who didn’t go to her school anymore, but whom she really, really liked a lot. Soon after, Jennie rang the bell. And then Judith. And then Rishi, and then Winston.

There were quite a few absences, but she knew that those that those who were there were her best and bravest friends.

But there was no Isis. Katie was too excited to worry about no-show Isis right now, but every now and then she had a feeling that she going to be sad later when she remembered how she had lost her best friend over a silly quarrel.

But at half past six, just as Katie was about to blow out her candles, the door bell rang again, and of course it was Isis, and had spent rather a long time deciding which party frock to wear. Hardly anybody was surprised because Isis was known for being late. In fact she seemed to make a point of it.

But Katie was all the more pleased to see her friend because she hadn’t expected her. And of course nothing went wrong at Katie’s party because it wasn’t her Black Friday, but Samantha’s.

And that was the story of Katie’s Black Friday.

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Katie is an ordinary girl, but there is one thing that is rather unusual about her. She’s a witch and can do magic spells. Her grandmother is a witch too, and she has a beautiful and very unusual umbrella. When Katie takes it to school, it is confiscated by Miss Vile. Then some unfortunate things start to happen.

Read by Natasha. Pictures by Tia. Story by Bertie. Duration 17.36.

Katie’s grandmother had all sorts of beautiful, but rather old fashioned, magical things. Many of them weren’t so useful these days, because science has caught up with magic in so many ways. For instance, before electric kettles were invented, witches had magic cauldrons that boiled the water without any need to put them on the fire. Well Katie’s Grandma still used one of those to make her tea and coffee. Before phones were invented, witches used to call one another using crystal balls, and Katie’s Grandma absolutely refused to get a mobile phone or a computer, so if you wanted to send her a text message, you had to use a crystal ball. And of course she still kept a witch’s broomstick, though these days most witches prefer to drive a car or take the bus, because broomsticks are not very comfortable, and it’s all too easy to slide off them and hurt yourself.

One of Grandma’s most beautiful possessions was her umbrella. It had a golden handle that was shaped like the head of a griffin. The fabric was decorated with old fashioned magic symbols, which Katie could not understand, because these days most witches learn to do spells in modern languages like English or French. But they were very beautiful and Katie loved looking at them.

Grandma was always a little scatty, even in her younger days, but as she got older, she became more and more forgetful. One day she left her umbrella in the patisserie. She only realised that she no longer had it when it rained the following Wednesday. She remembered that it had been raining when she visited the patisserie. The shop was near to where Katie lived, and so Katie went to fetch it. As Katie left the shop, it began to rain, and naturally, she opened the umbrella.

Other people on the street were turning up their collars or dodging into doorways to avoid the downpour. Katie ambled along enjoying the dryness of her umbrella. But as she was passing the mobile phone store, a man barged into her.

“Oy, you could say ‘sorry’, or ‘excuse me!’” exclaimed Katie. The man turned around and stared at her blankly like she wasn’t there.

Katie continued home, but it wasn’t long before she collided with a traffic warden and then was nearly run over by a woman with a pram.

“Aren’t people rude these days?” thought Katie, “It’s just a little bit of rain. They are all in such a hurry, you would think they were all running away from a rampaging elephant or something.”

As she stepped through the door of the house, she half closed the umbrella, meaning to leave it in the hallway to dry off. And that was when she noticed something very peculiar about it. Because, until the umbrella snapped shut, she couldn’t see it. And then, when it went “click”, it appeared again.

“Ah,” thought Katie, “there’s more to Grandma’s umbrella than meets the eye – in fact, you could say that nothing of it at all meets the eye.” She tried standing in front of the mirror with it open above her head – and do you know what? She was looking straight through herself. But if you could have seen Katie’s face, you would have seen a mischievous grin on it. She thought:

“I’m going to have fun with this.”

The next morning promised a bright and sunny day – but all the same, Katie took her umbrella with her to school. She hung it up on her peg in the cloakroom, but then she thought:

“What if somebody steals it?”

So she left it open, just a little, which made it invisible.

At break-time, Katie’s friends, Jenny and Isis, were talking about their favourite TV programme. It was one of those talent contests which are so popular these days, and they were discussing who was going to win. Suddenly they heard Katie saying:

“I think it will be Annabelle McTabith, because although she’s not beautiful like most stars, she’s got an amazing singing voice.”

“Ooh, Katie, you shouldn’t sneak up on people like that. It’s creepy!” exclaimed Isis. But when she looked round, Katie wasn’t there, and that really was creepy.

Outside, some boys were playing football. Katie didn’t like that, because they hogged a big part of the playground, and careered all over the place, getting in people’s way. When the ball rolled past Katie’s feet, she pulled it up under her umbrella so that it became invisible like her. She laughed as she heard Steve Smart saying, “Where did it go?” and all the boys were looking round all over the place. Then she carried the ball over to near the goal posts – which were actually two bags on the ground – and kicked it through them. That really got the boys exclaiming, “What the?” and “Where did that come from?”

Next, Katie did something she had always wanted to do. She went into the Teachers’ Staff Room. She saw Miss. Vile and Mr. Gorm sitting very cosily together, and she heard Mrs. Jefferson saying, “That boy Darcy Thomas has so many airs and graces that you would think he was royalty,” and Miss. Thomas was nodding and saying, “Well you should see the parents, they’re so stuck-up that I feel I ought to curtsy to them.” Katie snickered because Darcy really did fancy himself rather too much, and then she remembered that she had to keep quiet.

The bell rang for lessons and Mr. Hutchinson said: “Oh no, I don’t think I can face the hooligans of Class 4 C.”

Katie hurried back to her class room. She sat down next to Isis and held the umbrella over both of them so that they were invisible together.

Miss. Vile came in, and the babble of children’s voices died down. The teacher cast her steely gaze over the room and noted the empty seats where Katie and Isis normally sat. When she turned her back, Katie let down the umbrella. There were gasps from those who saw the two friends appear. Miss. Vile span around and stared at them. Katie put on her most innocent face, and Isis didn’t have to put on a face because she really was innocent. Miss. Vile said:

“Katie, there’s no need to bring that umbrella into the class room. It’s got a sharp point on the end and it’s against Health and Safety.”

“But Miss. Vile, it’s valuable, and I don’t want to leave it in the cloakroom.”

“Well give it to me, and I’ll look after it.” And Katie had no choice but to give it to the teacher.

At the end of the lesson, when Katie asked for her umbrella back, Miss. Vile said: “It’s confiscated Katie. You can ask me for it at the end of term.”

It was supposed to be a secret that Katie was a witch, but of course Miss. Vile had seen more than a few odd things happen during her time teaching her, and she had her suspicions. Her instinct told her that there was something pretty unusual about the umbrella, and of course, she was right.

Suddenly it seemed like Miss. Vile was everywhere, all at once.

Some boys who were kicking bags around the cloakroom didn’t notice that Miss. Vile was watching them.

In class 4 C, when Mr. Hutchinson’s back was turned, the “hooligans” started chatting to each other. Somehow they didn’t see that Miss. Vile was in the room and noting down their names.

When Isis and Katie were trying out lipstick in the girl’s loos, they didn’t realise that Miss. vile was standing behind them. Makeup was banned in school and they were both in trouble.

In fact, it seemed like nobody could get away with anything anymore. No illegal snacks, no talking out of turn, no play-fights, no sneaking into out-of-bound places like the bike sheds, and no mucking around of any kind at all between lessons.

On Friday evening, the detention class after school was the biggest that anyone had known. It had 30 people in it, and 27 of them had been put there by Miss. Vile. And there are no prizes for guessing which teacher was wearing a very smug and satisfied smile on her face.

Of course, Katie understood that Miss. Vile was using the umbrella to make herself invisible. But there was nothing she could do about it. It was a good thing that nobody else knew, or they would have all blamed Katie for the new reign of terror that was gripping the school.

That weekend, grandmother came to visit, and Katie had to admit what had happened to her umbrella.

“I’m really, really sorry Gran,” said Katie. “It’s terribly unfair and I don’t know what to do about it.”

At first, Gran was a little bit grumpy about her missing umbrella. All Sunday she kept on making remarks like, “I only asked you to fetch it from the patisserie, not take it to school,” and “It’s an antique not a toy, ” and “You can’t get another one like that these days for love or money.” And mum chipped in too, telling Katie that it had been extremely silly of her to take such a valuable thing to school, and she only had herself to blame for what had happened.

But by evening, Gran had softened her tone a bit, and just as she was getting ready to fly home, she said:

“You know Katie, I’m probably a fool to do this, but I’m going to lend you my spare spectacles. And this time you do have my permission to take them to school, only you must promise to be very careful with them.”

She rumbled in her handbag – which was always so full of many more things than could possibly be kept in there, except by magic – and finally she found the case with her spare spectacles in them.

Katie put the glasses on and looked at herself in the mirror. They were a very ornate pair, made of gold and decorated with precious stones.

“Hmm, they don’t really suit your face, do they?” said Grandma. And she said a magic spell which made them look trendy – or rather Grandma’s idea of trendy – which meant the frames were large and square and bright blue.

“Thanks Grandma,” said Katie,”But why are you lending them to me?”

“You’ll see,” said Grandma. “Or rather, they will help you to see.”

On monday morning, Katie wore Grandma’s glasses to school.

Jenny said, “Hello four eyes,” and Michelle thought they made her look cute. But Isis said that they were a total fashion disaster. Michael said, “I didn’t know you were short-sighted Katie,” and Katie replied, “Neither did I until yesterday.”

It wasn’t until the break at lunchtime that Katie understood what the glasses were for. Isabelle was walking down the corridor and she sneakily took a piece of chewing gum out of her pocket and popped it into her mouth. Katie was walking towards her, and was trying to signal frantically that Miss. Vile was standing in a doorway and had seen the whole crime – but it was too late. Isabelle was signed up for detention.

But of course what Katie also had seen, was that Miss. Vile was holding up her umbrella over her head. Now she understood that the glasses enabled her to see everything – even things and people that were invisible.

She decided to follow Miss. Vile and see what she did next. She saw her go into the playground and catch a boy who climbed over the fence into the caretaker’s yard to retrieve a lost football.

Then she saw Miss. Vile go into the staff-room – and do you know what? She didn’t take down her umbrella.

“That’s a naughty Miss. Vile,” thought Katie, “She spying on the other teachers.”

After school, Katie saw Miss. Vile standing standing by the school gate and watching them all. She was holding up her umbrella and nobody could see her except Katie.

Katie came up to her and said: “Hello Miss. Vile, would you like a piece of chewing gum,” and Miss. Vile replied:

“Katie. You know perfectly well that chewing gum is illegal.”

“But nobody will see you, will they Miss?”

And Miss. Vile smiled. “No they would’t, would they? But as it happens, teachers can’t break the school rules. It would be setting a bad example and I would have to put myself in detention.”

Katie laughed and said, “That’s good, because I don’t actually have any gum. But Miss, I’ve got a question. Do you think it’s OK for teachers to use magic?”

And and a rather uneasy smile passed over Miss. Vile’s face, because she knew just as well as Katie that magic was against the school rules. And not just a little bit against them.

“I mean,” said Katie, “if Miss. Hepworth was to find out that your recent success at crime detection was all down to my Grandma’s magic umbrella, do you think she would be pleased?”

As Miss. Hepworth was the head-teacher, Miss. Vile realised that was something she would not like to happen at all. Not one little bit.

“Well Katie,” she said. “I heard on the radio this morning that the weather forecast is for rain. I don’t think it would be right for me to hang on to your grandmother’s umbrella anymore. Perhaps you could take it home for me?”

And of course Katie was happy about that.

“You won’t say anything about this will you?” said Miss. Vile.

And Katie promised that not a word about it would pass from her lips, because magic is always meant to be a secret.

Text copyright hugh fraser 2010

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Katie, the ordinary witch, returns for story in which her mother buys her a black kitten to help her with her magic. Katie puts a spell on the cat so that he can talk. Soon
he is not only talking, he’s gossipping about all her friends.

Pictures by Tia. Acknowledgement to Saki. Duration 12.51

Every Saturday, not far from where Katie lived, there was a market. Farmers came into town and set up their stalls in a car park. They sold the tastiest apples, the freshest eggs, and all sorts of vegetables that still had the mud from the fields on them. Katie liked to go there with her mum who looked for unusual herbs like sorrel, angelica and coltsfoot. Sometimes she made spells with these herbs, but quite often she just put them in her soups. One morning, as they were leaving the market, they passed an old lady who was standing on the corner holding a wicker basket.

“Little girl, do you want to see what I have inside this basket,” she asked.

Katie was a bit afraid, because she thought that perhaps she had something bad in the basket, like apples that were poisonous. Besides, she knew that she must never speak to strangers. But then she heard a little sound.

“Mee-ow”

“Oh mum, can we look please?” she asked.

Katie’s mum was curious to see too. The old lady pulled back the cloth and they saw that inside the basket four little kittens clambering over each other.

“Oh please, they are so cute, mum, can we have one?”

Mum shook her head.

“Oh please, please, can we have a kitten? I want one so much. I promise to look after it and besides”, she whispered, “a cat could help me with my magic.”

One of the kittens was black. Mum picked it up by the scruff on the back of its neck – the way a mother cat picks up her kittens. She examined it closely and made sure that he was completely black without even the smallest white mark on its paws.

“Alright,” she said. “We’ll buy this one.”

Back at home, the fluffy little creature did loads of incredibly cute things like playing with a ball of wool, looking in the mirror and thinking there was another cat there, and climbing in and out of Katie’s shoe.

“Mum, what sort of magic can cats do?” asked Katie

“Cats are very clever and can be your ears and eyes,” said mum, “But you must be very careful. Cats don’t have much tact. They can get you into all sorts of trouble.”

“By my cat’s clever,” said Katie. She picked up her kitten and kissed him. “I shall call you Solomon,” she said. “Because you are so much wiser than ordinary cats.”

The months passed and Solomon grew up into a serious young cat who liked to sit and watch Katie do her homework. He often went out for long walks on his own, and Katie wondered where he wandered and what he saw.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to ask him,” she thought. And then she had an idea. She went into her mother’s room and pulled down a volume from the Encyclopedia of Magic. There were some spells in there that were so secret that they weren’t even on the internet yet. She turned through the pages of magic instructions that began with “C” and she found the one that looked the most promising for her purpose. It was called “Cat’s Tongue”

Katie went out into the garden to pick some catnip. She said a magic spell over it, and came back in to the kitchen to give it to Solomon. He purred appreciatively because there was nothing that he liked more than catnip.

“Now Solomon, “ said Katie, “Can you tell me where you went on your walk today and what you saw?”

“Murrrrr,” said Solomon.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand cat talk,” said Katie.

“I was just thinking,” said Solomon, “What to tell you first. Would you like to know about the mouse that I caught and ate for breakfast?”

“Not really.”

“Or would you like to know about the oak tree where I sharpen my claws?”

“Not especially.”

“Then shall I tell you who I saw with your friend Isis?”

“Yes,” said Katie. “That would be rather more interesting.”

“I saw Isis sitting in her garden with Tim eating ice creams, and do you know what? They kissed !’

“Hu! They didn’t “

“They did, I saw it. “

And Katie was so excited that she couldn’t wait to tell everyone at school all about Isis and Tim, but of course she wasn’t going to tell Isis or Tim themselves, because they obviously already knew about it.

“Wow,” you don’t say?” asked Emma.

“Ugg, how could she? He has blackheads on his nose,” exclaimed Jane.

“But how do you know?” asked Ravinia.

As Katie couldn’t say how she knew, because her talking cat was meant to be a secret, so she just said that she saw it all with her own eyes.

The next day, when Katie came home, she found Solomon sleeping on top of a pile of laundry.

“Solomon, wake up you sleepy moggy, What did you see today?”

“Well,” he said with a stretch and a yawn, “I was walking along the top of the school wall when I saw your friend Isis again. She was talking to Ravinia and she said that you were a spy and a tell-tale-tit. “

“She didn’t !” exclaimed Katie with great indignation.

“Of course, You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to.”

“I do believe you Solomon. I just meant, like, how dare she say a thing like that? She’s my friend. Well you know what? I’m not speaking to her anymore.”

And for the rest of the week at school, Isis and Katie pretended not to notice each other, even though they were normally the best of friends. When they weren’t falling out with each other, Isis and Katie would share secrets and problems, and quite often, when they got home from school, they would chatter on the phone because they liked each other’s company so much. Now Katie wasn’t speaking to Isis. So she called Paul who used to go her school.

Isis was looking out of her bedroom window at the spot where she had sat with Tim. Tim had given her one tiny little kiss, as an experiment, just to see what all the fuss was about that sort of thing. And she had liked it. She would have liked it less if she had known that Katie was spying on her? But how? The garden had a high wall all around it. Had she climbed up a tree? Or flown over on her broomstick, more like. But however she had spied that kiss, the hurtful thing was that she had gossipped about it. When the rumours started to spread around school, thanks to Katie and her big mouth, Tim became embarrassed and stopped being her friend. While Isis was thinking these sad thoughts, she noticed that a black cat was sitting in the apple tree, watching the birds flutter around the nut container that swung to and fro from a branch.

“I know you,” she said. “You’re that witch Katie’s cat.”

And then Isis thought to herself. “That’s it ! The cat is Katie’s spy…. but I bet I can turn that cunning creature into double agent. Soon he’ll be spying for me. It doesn’t take much to win a faithless cat’s heart. “ She knew exactly what to do. Two minutes later she was walking down the garden path carrying a saucer of clotted cream.

“Here kitty kitty,” she called. That was all it took. Soon Solomon’s rough tongue was lapping up the cream. “Now would you like to come inside and have some gorgeous smelly sardines?” asked Isis.

“I don’t mind if I do,” said Solomon.

When Solomon had eaten the tinned sardines in the kitchen, Isis lifted up the feline fellow and took him to her room where she put him down on her big soft pink pillow. As he stretched out she tickled his belly.

“Mrrr. You sure know how to spoil a cat,” said Solomon.

“I sure do,” said Isis. “And you can come here, drink cream, feast on sardines, and lie on my pillow any time you want. But tell me. Who is your owner and what is he or she like?”

“Oh nobody special, just a little witch called Katie,” purred Solomon.

“I know her. She has a boyfriend, doesn’t she?” asked Isis, taking a stab in the dark.

“Not really. She just holds hands with Paul sometimes,” he said.

And Isis thought that was rather interesting. “And tell me, “ she said, “What does she say about the other kids at school?”

“Oh nothing worth knowing. Just that Annabel has bandy legs, and Georgie is a cry baby, and Ravinia can’t be trusted to keep a secret, and Laura is so stupid that she takes notes when she’s watching cartoons on TV.”

That was more than enough information. Five minutes later Isis had dialled Katie’s number and was relating back all the interesting facts that she had just learned.

“That’s s all rubbish,” said Katie. “It’s a tissue of lies.”

“No it’s not. It’s the perfect truth.”

“Prove it,” challenged Katie. And she immediately wished that she hadn’t said that.

“Alright I will prove it. Your black moggy is lying on my pillow in my room and I’m going to invite to invite Annabel,Georgie, Ravinia and Laura round to hear what he has to say. And then I’m going to tell the entire world about you and Paul. In fact, I’m going to send record dedications for soppy love songs to all the radio stations on your behalf.”

“No you wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

And Katie realised that she was in a tight spot – one that magic wouldn’t necessarily get her out of.

“Ok,” she said. “I’m sorry that I gossipped about you.”

And although Isis didn’t accept her apology right away, the next day at school, when she found herself next to Katie in the dinner queue she asked:

“How’s your cat?”

“I don’t know. He’s not talking to me,”

“You mean that even your cat doesn’t talk to you any more?”

“Not since last night. I took the spell off him. I’m not so sure that a talking cat is such a good idea. “

And after that, Isis and Katie became friends again – because everyone needs somebody special that they can talk to.

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In the previous Katie story, somebody stole her spell book and started doing bad spells all over school. Naturally most people assumed that it was Katie who was to blame. The head teacher has discovered who the real culprit is – and it’s not Katie. But Katie still does not know the identity of the thief. In this story, we will find out who stole Katie’s spell book.

Read by Natasha. Pictures by Tia. Text by Bertie for Storynory. Duration 16 min.

Katie was in the clear. The head teacher knew for a fact that it was somebody else who had been doing all the bad spells around school. But not everybody knew that she was innocent. In fact, as far as most people were concerned, Katie was still the Number One Suspect. This unpleasant state of affairs became home to Katie when somebody stuck a horrid poster about her on the classroom pin board. It showed a picture of a witch with a pointed hat and a broom, and beneath the picture was written

WANTED
Dead or Alive
For Black Magic
Katie The Witch !

Katie did not notice the poster at first, but then Isabelle said: “Hey Katie, you’re notorious.”

Katie wasn’t quite sure if notorious was a good or a bad word, but when she saw the poster she realised that it was definitely bad. She ripped the poster off the wall and tore it up. Then she saw that Isabelle, Mandy and Judy were smirking at her.

Mandy said: “Ooh Katie. I put up the poster. Are going to turn me into a toad?”

And Katie felt ever so tempted to do just that. But she held back because that would be doing Black Magic. And that really would be bad.

Katie knew that almost all the girls in her class were gossiping about her. Isis remained her only loyal and true friend. The boys didn’t seem to care if she was a witch or not, but the boys didn’t talk about anything much anyway, apart from football and action movies. Except for one. And that was Paul.

You might think that Paul would be more wary of Katie than most. He had been acting the lead role in the school play that had gone embarrassingly wrong when somebody put a spell on it. He was good looking, and clever – so Katie thought – and the school play was the first time he had ever been in trouble.

But Paul didn’t seem at all cross with Katie. In fact, he was really nice to her. For example, on Friday afternoon in the art class, when Katie was painting a black cat, Mandy whispered that it was a witch’s cat.

But Paul said that the eyes in Katie’s painting were just like his own cat’s. And that he really liked his cat because she was mysterious and did her own thing.

“Well Paul likes weird things,” said Mandy. “In fact, he likes Katie.”

And Judy asked “Hey Paul, why do you talk to Katie? She put a jinx your bid for stardom.” And the girls sniggered.

And Jemma, who had also been in the play with Paul, and who was still crushingly embarrassed about saying all the wrong line in front of all the parents and governors – not just any old wrong lines – but really stupid ones – she was furious with Katie and she said:

“Look Paul, don’t you ever learn? Stay away from Katie. Witches are bad news.”

And Paul got really furious and said:

“All you girls ever do is gossip and whisper nasty things. You don’t know everything. You just think you do. It wasn’t Katie who did those spells. Somebody stole her magic book.”

“Oh yeah, if you believe that you’ll believe anything”, said Jemma. And then they all had to be quite because Miss Stripes the art teacher was looking at them.

And for the first time in a week, Katie felt really happy. In fact, she felt especially happy because Paul was sticking up for her. She knew that Jemma was particularly peeved because she really liked Paul. And that made her feel even more pleased, though perhaps it shouldn’t have.

In fact, if there was any boy in the class who was ok, it was Paul. He was so nice that he was almost like a girl, only he was a boy. In fact, he was perfect.

But perhaps Paul wasn’t quite as perfect as he used to be. The next week he was late for school on Monday, and then on Tuesday, and then if he was late on Wednesday he would be in serious trouble.

It was 9.30 on Wednesday morning. Miss Vile was taking the register. And Paul’s chair was empty.

Miss Vile said: “Imran – “Yes Miss Vile”,

“Jemma” – “Yes Miss Vile” ,

“Katie” – “Yes, Miss Vile,”

And Katie thought: “Shall I, just this once, do just a little spell to help Paul out? ”

Miss Vile had reached Mathew. Next it would be Nathan and then it would be Paul.

Katie wasn’t supposed to do spells at school, and but then on the other hand, she really did owe Paul a favour, and she really didn’t want him to be in trouble, because that wouldn’t be fair, because normally he was so good.

“Paul,” said Miss Vile. And before the teacher could look up at Paul’s empty chair, Katie quickly said a spell and made it look like he was sitting there and saying:

“Yes Miss Vile,” in a voice that sounded almost like his real one.

But just as the magic Paul was answering the register, the real Paul walked into the room. So if anyone else looked up, the would see two Pauls. And that really could cause double trouble and confusion. Katie quickly said another spell to make the real Paul disappear for a moment while sorted out the mess. Fortunately everyone was quite sleepy because it was first thing in the morning, and nobody seemed to notice the strange comings and goings of Paul’s likeness.

Katie was pleased because she had helped Paul, even though he didn’t know that she had – or so she thought. Just before the first lesson, Paul said:

“Thanks for helping me out Katie. But there was no need. I don’t want you to get into trouble for doing magic.”

And Katie was surprised, because she didn’t think he could see through her magic.

“Oh really it was nothing, she said. “I owed you”

But Paul kept on getting into more trouble at school, and Katie wasn’t always there to help him. He forgot his homework, he lost his text books, and pretended to be feeling poorly when the class had to go on a long run around the playing fields even though it was raining. Mr. Sadie, the games teacher didn’t believe him and made him run twice as far as everyone else. On that occasion, Katie gave Paul just a little help, and said a spell to make him run faster.

“Thanks once again,” said Paul later on.

“Thanks for what?” asked Katie.

“Thanks for making me run faster.”

And this time Katie asked him how he knew that she had done some magic, because most people wouldn’t have noticed. And Paul let her into a secret. He told her that his grandfather had been a wizard. But his family were really embarrassed about it, and they hushed up this chapter in the family history and made Paul swear never to do any magic. His mum and dad thought that magic was something you should be ashamed of.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Katie. “But then, they aren’t the only ones who think like that. There’s a lot of prejudice against witches. People are afraid of us because they don’t understand us. That’s why it’s supposed to be a secret that I’m a witch.’

“It’s not a very good secret,” said Paul. “Everyone knows it.”

“And everyone blames me when it goes wrong.”

“Yes, I’ve noticed” said Paul.

Although what Paul had told Katie was a secret, she shared it with Isis because she was her best friend. And when Isis heard she said.

“Now it all makes perfect sense. It was Paul who stole your book. That’s why he’s sticking up for you. He feels guilty that everyone is blaming you for his naughty spells.”

And at first Katie couldn’t believe that Paul would do something bad like stealing her book. But then she thought some more, and she had to admit that whoever stole her book seemed to have a talent for magic. Because it was one thing to read the spells in a book, and it was another to actually do them. In fact it was really only supposed to be witches and wizards who could do them.

“It’s obvious, ” said Isis. “You can’t see it because you’ve got a pang for Paul. ”

“I have not.”

“Yes you have.”

“Well perhaps just a bit, ” admitted Katie.

The next week Paul did something really, really bad. He sneaked out of school at lunchtime and went for a walk around town on his own. And then some rough boys started picking on him. A police car was going by and saw that there was a fight about to happen. They stopped to help Paul and that was how they found out that he was playing truant from school. Now he was in big trouble. Like getting excluded from School kind of trouble. Miss Hepworth the head teacher called his mother in for a chat. The word was out that Paul was going to get the Big Push.

Paul wasn’t in school, but Katie really wanted to talk to him. She had never been to Paul’s house, and she didn’t have his phone number or email address. But that didn’t stop her. Her mum had a magic phone that knew everyone’s number in the entire world, even the numbers of people like the Queen, or the President of the United States, or Sir Paul McCartney.  Mum never used it to call like that, because she said they were busy and in any case, they didn’t need any help or advice from a witch because they had their own kind of magic. But the phone was incredibly useful when you lost a friend’s number, or didn’t have it in the first place. Katie picked it up and just said:

“I’d like to call Paul please,” And the phone understood which Paul she meant and it called him right away.

Pual’s mum answered and she heard her call up the stairs “Paul. There’s a “Katie” on the phone for you.”

And a bit later Paul Picked up the receiver and said, “Hello Katie. Or perhaps I should say goodbye. You know they’re going to kick me out of school.”

“I’m so cross with you,” said Katie. “Why have you been acting so bad recently? You’ve always been so well behaved. In fact, up until recently you were Mr. Perfect.”

“Well I suppose I got bored with being Mr. Perfect,” said Paul. “Being bad seems like more fun. And besides, I’ve got something to confess. It was me who stole your spell book. ”

“I figured that out for myself already,” said Katie. “But now I’m going to save you one last time. I’ll do a mind wipe on Mrs. Hepworth so that she forgets all the bad things you’ve done.”

And Paul said something that really surprised Katie. “No don’t do that,” he said. “I forbid you. I don’t want to be saved by your magic. I’ve got to face this myself.”

And although Katie argued with him, and she meant to ignore what he said and do the spell anyway, later that evening she decided to call Isis and ask her advice. And Isis said that yes, Paul had to take his lesson. It would be good for him.

And so Paul was expelled from school. And before he left, Paul told his friends that it was he who had stolen Katie’s spell book, and people understood at last that Katie really was innocent of doing all the bad spells around school.

Katie was really sad that she wouldn’t be seeing Paul at school anymore. But she had one compensation. She did have his telephone number. And now all she had to do was think of a reason to invite him round in the holidays so that her mother could explain to him the difference between good and bad magic.

And that was the story of Katie’s Who Dunnit. I do hope you thought it was worth the wait to find out who stole Katie’s spells. And don’t forget there are loads more Katie stories on Storynory.com. So drop by soon and listen to some. For now, from me, Natasha, Bye Bye.

Text Copyright, Hugh Fraser 2009

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Katie, the ordinary witch, loses her spell book at school. This is bad enough, but then somebody starts using her spells to play tricks. Of course when magic happens at school, it’s only natural that people blame Katie. She must become a detective and discover who the theif is before things go too far.

This is a two-part story. The Conclusion is here.

Read by Natasha. Pictures by Tia. Story by Bertie. Duration 19.47.

Katie had loads and loads of books. Books about stories, books about interesting places, books about famous people in history, books about weird but true facts, books about – just about anything you can think of. But the most important one of all was a special secret book that she had written herself. It was her spell book. And every time she learned a new piece of magic, that was where she wrote it down.

Normally, Katie kept her spell book at home and that was where it stayed.
But just once, she took it to school to show it to her friend Isis. She let Isis have a very quick look, so that she could see how all her spells were written in beautiful letters, and how she drew pictures to explain the difficult parts. And then, as the geography class was about to begin, she quickly slipped the book into her bag with her other books. Normally she would have made all the writing inside it invisible, but it was against the rules to do magic at school, and she didn’t want anyone to hear her saying the invisible spell.

At exactly 12 o clock, the school bell rang six times. That meant it was a fire drill , and everyone had to go outside into the playground with running or panicking, and line up in their classes. Katie took her bag and started to walk quickly to the door. Her teacher, Miss Vile, said:

“Katie. Don’t run and leave your bag. It is not the procedure to take anything with you.”

And as Katie really, really didn’t want to leave the bag behind, she pleaded,

“But please Miss Vile..”

“Katie. Answering back is holding everyone up and putting them in danger. Just put the bag back and follow the procedure.”

And although Katie thought it was a waste of time to put her bag back on the desk, she did as she was told.

There wasn’t really a fire. It was just a practice. And soon everyone allowed back inside to continue their lessons. It was only later that evening, when Katie got home and took out all her books, that she realised that the most important one of all was missing.

At first she couldn’t quite believe it. She looked through all her books again and again. But no. The spell book wasn’t among them. And then she thought back through the day.

“The Fire Drill!” she said out aloud to herself. “That was the only time the bag was out of my sight. Somebody must have stolen my book !”

And although she was very worried, she didn’t tell her mother because she knew she would be cross. Instead she said to hesself.

“I’ll just have to be a detective and discover who took it !”

Later that day, the whole class had to do a spelling test. Not a magic spelling test, but the ordinary sort where you have to write down tricky words. At the end, the children had to swap books with their neighbour and mark each others’ tests. Katie marked Isis’s book. And do you know what? She scored 10 out of 10.

And Katie thought: “Nobody could know how to spell all of those horrible words. She must have cheated with magic. Isis must have stolen my spell book !”

And as soon as the bell rang for the end of class she turned to Isis and demanded:

“Alright. Hand it over!”

“Hand over what?”

“You know perfectly well what. My spell book. You stole it yesterday during the fire drill !”

And Isis looked like she was going to cry. “Katie. How could you say such a nasty thing. I”m your friend. And besides, I left for the drill before you and came back after you. So if anyone stole your book. It wasn’t me.”

And Katie remembered that it was true. Isis had left before her, and come back after her, so it couldn’t have been her that stole her book.

“Yes, that’s right,” she said. “I’m sorry I accused you. But who could have taken my book?”

“I know who,” said Isis. “It was Isabelle. When you were showing me your book, she was kind of hovering around, pretending not to be interested. But she’s a nosy parker and she was listening in. She’s the one who took your book. I bet.”

Katie and Isis decided not to accuse Isabelle right away, because then she would be on her guard. Instead they watched her closely, to see if she gave herself away.

The very next day, Isis came into class very excitedly and whispered into Katie’s ear.

“Have you seen Isabelle yet? She’s smiling all over her criminal little face. Mrs. Hepworth has said that she can go on holiday two weeks during term time. Her Dad is going to California for his work, and he’s going to take the family with him to see Disneyland. Mrs. Hepworth never lets anyone take time off school. Isabelle must have put a spell on her.”

And Katie was sure that her friend was right. But then it turned out that it was all a mistake. Isabelle’s Dad had promised to take her to Disneyland, but he hadn’t asked Mrs. Hepworth, who was the head teacher. And when he did ask her, she said “No. Not under any circumstances can Mickey Mouse be more important than Mathematics.” And Isabelle didn’t go to Disneyland with her family. So it couldn’t have been Isabelle who stole the spell book.

And then some strange things started to happen around school. Mr. Cotton liked to put his gloves on the table. One time when he turned his back to write on the WhiteBoard, the glove stared to walk across the table on two fingers. When he turned round it flopped down again. The whole class started laughing, and Mr. Cotten said:

“All right. Will somebody let me in on the big joke?”

And Moyra said: “Katie did a spell!”

And Katie would have been in big trouble. Only Mr. Cotton was nice and didn’t tell Mrs. Hepworth.

And another time, when Mr. Corneau was teaching French, a marker pen drew funny faces on the white board behind his back. Everyone laughed again. But fortunately he was too confused to understand what had happened, because he didn’t speak very much English, and even if he did, he probably wouldn’t have believed it.

Somebody was using Katie’s spells to play pranks. And Katie was extremely cross about it.

For a while she suspected Jemma, because she won a poetry competition and was invited onto TV to read her poem. But then it turned out that she had written her winning verse long before the spell book was went missing, and Katie understood that she hadn’t composed it by magic, but by skill.

And then Isis suspected Paul because he suddenly grew taller and became quite good looking. But Katie thought it couldn’t be him, because he was too nice.

And then something serious happened. It was the evening of the school play, and the children, parents and school governors packed into the hall to watch it. Mr Appleton had been rehearsing with the drama society for weeks and weeks. Some of the teachers said it was the best thing the school had ever done. It was called Romeo and Juliet. And when they got to the famous part where Juliet stands on a balcony – in this case a stepladder – and says:

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

Romeo replied:

“I’m here you silly bat. Have you gone blind or what?

That wasn’t anything like the right line. But Juliet carried on:

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy:
What’s in a name? That which we call a sock
By any other word would pong like your feet

And Romeo said

What’s up Juliet? You weren’t supposed to say that.

And Mr. Appleton had to jump up on stage. And Juliet fell off her stepladder. And generally the evening was the biggest disaster in the whole history of the school.

Romeo and Juliet were played by Paul and Jemma. And normally they would have been in big big trouble. Like expelled from school type of trouble. But both of them swore that they didn’t mean to say those words. And Mrs. Hepworth believed them because they were both star pupils and always very well behaved. She thought that somebody had put a spell on them. And she suspected that that person was Katie. Because, you see, Katie was the only witch in school that she knew about.

Of course Katie understood right away that she was the prime suspect. She worked up all her courage and went to see Mrs. Hepworth in her study.

The headmistress said: “So. You have come to confess.” And she said it with such certainty that for a moment Katie felt guilty even though she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“No,” she said. “Truly, Honestly, I’m totally innocent. Somebody has stolen my spell book and is using it ! ”

Mrs. Hepworth did know whether or not to believe her pleas.

“Well Katie. I hope you are not telling lies,” she said. ” Because I shall find out the truth.”

And this is how she got to the bottom of the matter. Katie’s class was looking forward to a special treat at school. The Animal Man was coming with his travelling zoo. He was bringing rabbits, and guinea pigs, harmless snakes, big spiders, and colourful birds, and the children would be allowed to touch them and pick them up.

Unexpectedly, Mrs. Hepworth turned up in place of their usual teacher. Under her arm she held a file on which was written.

“Questions and Answers.” She told the class:

“We are going to do a test. And if anyone gets less than seven out of ten they won’t go be seeing the animal man tomorrow. Instead they will stay in with me and do mathematical problems.”

And the whole class felt gloomy, because this was a nasty surprise.

Things got worse. The questions were really hard and quite random. Like,

“What is the capital of Mongolia?”

And “Let ABC and DEF be two triangles in which angles B and C are equal respectively to angles E and F; If AB is not equal to DE, then one of them is greater?”

And

“Who was the seventh president of the United States of America?”

Katie did not know the answer to a single question. She looked at Isis. She could see her pen hovering above the paper.

“Katie,” said Mrs. Hepworth. “Stop copying your friend.”

And Katie thought: “What’s the use copying Isis? She’s as stumped as I am.”

At the end of the text, Mrs. Hepworth collected all the papers and made everyone read quietly while she did the marking.

At the end of the lesson, Isis asked. “Please Mrs. Hepworth. Did anyone past the test?” And Mrs. Hepworth gave a reply that nobody understood. She said:

“Which is the wicked witch that wished the wicked wish? Soon we shall find out.”

When she was gone, Isabelle was saying to her friends: “It’s all Katie’s fault. We’re being punished because she put a spell on the school play.”

And several people said. “Yeah. Katie, you should stop doing spells.”

As Katie was about to go home later that day, Mrs. Hepworth caught up with her in the corridor and asked her to step into her study.

“I’ve got something for you,” she said as she closed the door behind her.

And Katie saw that on the head teacher’s desk was something very precious. It was her book of spells.

“I promise I haven’t looked at any of your spells,” said Mrs. Hepworth. and then she looked a bit guilty because head teachers aren’t supposed to tell fibs. “well just a little peak,” she admitted.

She handed the book to Katie.

“Thank you, Mrs. Hepworth,” said Katie. But how….?”

And Mrs. Hepworth explained.

“The test I set today wasn’t an ordinary one. It was a witch test. A certain somebody answered all the questions. And that certain somebody used magic spells: your magic spells which he or she stole.”

“But isn’t that unfair?” asked Katie. “What if that person was just brilliant and knew all the answers?”

The headmistress tapped her nose and her lips formed a smug smile:

“You see they didn’t give the right answers. They gave the wrong answers. But not just any old wrong answers. They wrote down the very same wrong answers that were in my file. And the only way they could have seen what I had in my file was by magic.”

And Katie understood that `Mrs. Hepworth had played a very clever trick. Although she wouldn’t say who the “certain somebody” was, Katie waited to see who got expelled. But in fact, nobody did. Because Mrs. Hepworth thought that if the school governors learned about her special test, they might accuse her of going on a witch hunt, and witch hunts are supposed to be wrong in this day and age. And so the certain somebody went unpunished. But Mrs. Hepworth knew who that person was, and she was watching them.

And that’s the story of the Witch Who Lost her Spells.

And Bertie says he hopes that you never lose anything important. And if you do, he hopes you find it again with out any resort to magic.

And there are loads more stories about Katie at Storynory.com. Stories like: The Witch Who Got into Trouble at School and The Valentine Witch. And of course we have stories on just about every subject. So until next time….

Text Copyright Hugh Fraser 2009

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One term at school, Katie’s form teacher was especially moody and grumpy. When Valentine’s Day was coming up, Katie and her friend Isis hatched a plan to make her teacher fall in love so that she would be “dancing on air” and in a good mood.

But Katie discovers that True Love must come from the heart, not from a magic spell.

And if you like Valentine stories try:

• St. Valentine
  
• Bertie Valentine.

Read by Natasha. Duration 17 Minutes. Story by Bertie.

Katie went to a nice school where most of the teachers were kind, but some of them were quite strict, and all of them could be moody and grumpy at times, just like anyone else can be. Unfortunately, Katie’s form teacher was more grumpy and more moody than most, and more often. She was the only teacher in the whole school who the children hadn’t given a nick name to. For instance, Mr. Philpots was known as Potty, which seemed to suit him quite well. Mrs. Woodruff was called dandruff, and Miss. Tidy was called Untidy because she was.

Katie’s teacher was called Miss. Vile. That was her real name. So she didn’t have a nickname, because quite frankly, she didn’t need one.

“Katie ! ” she said on morning, “This homework looks like it was done in about five minutes. You know that you are meant to spend at least half an hour on it. You will stay in at playtime and do it again. ”

“Katie ! ” she said another time, “Those tights are not regulation school uniform. I will call your mother, she must take you home, and you must change them.”

“And Katie ! ” she said yet another time, “Stop muttering to yourself. You know that magic spells are against the school rules.”

When anybody misbehaved Miss. Vile wrote their names up on a board called “The Wall of Shame”. Everyone’s name was on it, except for Samantha’s and Matthew’s, because they were both goody-two-shoes who never did anything wrong. But Katie’s name was written on The Wall of Shame more than anybody else’s. In fact, it was written right at the top of the board in large red letters with ten exclamation marks after it.

Katie didn’t feel ashamed. But she did feel cross because it wasn’t fair.

It was the end of January. Katie’s form was learning about the Chinese New Year, and how each year is named after an animal. Miss Vile asked Katie what was her Chinese symbol, and she said that she was born in the Year of the Cat, and then Miss Vile told her that that was impossible, because there wasn’t a Year of  the Cat, and Katie said.

“It’s possible for me because I’m a witch, and all witches are born in the Year of the Cat.”

And the whole class laughed, but Isis said, “That’s right Miss. Vile. Katie’s different because she is a witch.”

“What utter clap-trap!” exclaimed Miss Vile. “I’ve told you before not to talk nonsense about magic and witches. You will  go and see the head teacher right now ! Both of YOU ! And take this note with you to explain all about your naughtiness !”

And while Katie and Isis were waiting to see the head teacher, they both felt very sad and wondered what they could do about Miss. Vile.

“Couldn’t you turn her into a toad or something?” asked Isis. But Katie shook her head. If Miss vile suddenly turned up to school one day as a toad, everyone would know who was to blame, and Katie would be in a huge heap of trouble. She might even get expelled for turning a teacher into a toad.

And then the Head Teacher called Katie and Isis into her study. She read the note, and shook her head. But she wasn’t too cross, because she knew all about Katie.

“I know that you are a bit different, ” she said to Katie, “and that you can do all sorts of magic spells, but it’s best not to mention it to anybody, OK? Somethings are best kept a secret. Now go back to your lessons both of you. ”

Katie and Isis didn’t see much point in hurrying back to the class, and so they both sat in the cloak room and talked over the problem of Miss. Vile.

“Well if you can’t turn her into something horrid, maybe you can turn her into something nice,” said Isis.

And Katie thought about this. But she couldn’t imagine Miss Vile being anything nice, and  she thought that the magic wouldn’t work.

“I’ve got it ! ” said Isis. “It will be Valentine’s Day soon. Why don’t you make her fall in love ! Grown-ups are always in a happy mood when they are in love, and she’ll be nice and kind to us.”

Katie thought that was a brilliant idea, because Witches know all sorts of magic spells for making people fall in love. But there was only one question. Who with?

“Why with Potty of course, ” said Isis, “He hasn’t got a wife. Why don’t you make him send her flowers and chocolate, and then she’ll be dancing on air.”

Katie and Isis both had a fit of giggles, and when they got back to class everyone wondered why they were both looking so happy after a visit to the Head Teacher’s study.

At home that evening, Katie opened up her mother’s book of spells and turned the pages to “L” for Love. There were loads and loads of spells, but some of them were a bit impractical. For instance, if she followed one spell she would need to get hold of some big toe nail clippings from Mr. Philpots and a loch of hair from Miss. Vile. That didn’t sound very easy. For another spell, she need some mandrake’s root from the magic grocery shop, and mandrake’s root was very expensive. And then she found a spell that just required pictures of the two people who were to fall in love, and that was easy because she had a photograph of the whole school from the end of summer term. It was a shame that she had to cut it up with a pair of scissors, but it was in a good cause.

On February the 14th, which as everyone knows is Valentine’s day, Miss. Vile came into class looking quite different. Isis said afterward that she looked like she was lightly tripping on air.

When they saw her, Katie and Isis both felt sure that she had found a box of chocolates, a bunch of red roses and a card next to her locker in the staff room.

“Miss Vile. I’m really sorry, but I didn’t have time to do my home work last night.”

The whole class went silent and you could have heard a drawing pin drop. But Miss Vile said,

“Never mind Katie. It wasn’t very important anyway.”

And every one gasped.

And then Katie said:

“Actually, I was just joking. I did do it really !”

And Miss. Vile smiled and said. “Ah yes, that’s a funny joke. You got me there.”

And everyone was totally amazed. I mean like gobsmacked. And Katie smiled to herself. She knew that her spell had worked.

But what Katie didn’t know was that Miss. Vile had not just received one box of chocolates, and one bunch of flowers that morning. No. She had received two of each ! And two Valentine’s Day cards. No wonder she was in such a good mood.

That evening, Isis and her mum were out shopping in town, and Isis saw Potty and Miss. Vile standing outside a restaurant window and looking at the menu. And Isis said to her mum:

“Look ! How romantic ! Our teachers are going out for a candle-lit dinner on St. Valentine’s day !”

And her mum thought that Isis was getting very grown up to make a remark like that.

But what neither of them could hear what Mr. Philpots was saying to Miss. Vile. His words were.

“My oh my. Just look at the price of steak and chips at this place. Let’s find somewhere cheaper.”

But because Miss. Vile was in love, she didn’t think that her dear Potty was stingy. No, she thought how clever he was to be careful with money, and what a good husband he would make.

For the rest of term, Miss. Vile was a sweet as could be, but when the children came back for the summer term, they were in for a big disappointment.

Her first words were:

“The first person who so much as whispers will be picking up litter after school for the rest of term.”

And Katie and Isis both knew that she Miss. Vile must have fallen out of love.

Katie was disappointed because it seemed that her spell had not worked entirely as it was supposed to. And so she asked her mother whether the love spell using pictures was any good. She was careful to explain that it wasn’t for her, but for somebody else. And her mother said:

“Love spells work, but only for a while. It’s only True Love that lasts for ever, not magic love. True Love must come from the heart.”

And when Katie heard that, she understood that it wasn’t her fault that the spell hadn’t lasted. And when she told Isis about this they both felt a bit down. But at least they only had one more term with Miss Vile – and after the summer holidays they would have a new form teacher.

And Miss Vile was her old grumpy moody self for the next five weeks. But when after the half term holiday, everyone had a pleasant surprise. She was back to being lovely and carefree.

“Katie, did you put another spell on her?” asked Isis.  But Katie hadn’t.  No what had happened was that Mr. Cotton had worked up the courage to ask Miss. Vile to go to the opera with him.   Mr.  Cotton had two nicknames.  One was ” Socks” as in “cotton socks” and the other was “Mr. Rotten.”  But the second name was unfair, but because Mr. Cotton was the sweetest and kindest teacher in the whole school.  And now Mr. Cotton and Miss Vile had found their  True Love.

Text Copyright Hugh Fraser 2009.

Download the audio of The Nose That Ran Away

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

href=”http://storynory.com/2007/10/14/the-witch-who-was-frightened-of-halloween/”> 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. Pictures by Tia. Written by Bertie. Duration 20 minutes. 

PCR Katie and Isis, Friendship Put to the Test

Dear Listeners

The relationship between Katie and Isis is often put to the test in the the Katie and The Ordinary Witch Series, In, chapter 4, ‘The Nose That Ran away’, Isis doesn’t invite Katie to her party and she puts a spell on her that has her nose run away from her face. Isis, a popular girl at school is faced with loosing all her friends, as she can’t bear to go to school without her nose. However Katie sees right and uses her magic
to reverse the spell to put the nose back on Isis’ face, and it is the beginning of their friendship, to come.

In the last audio Chpt 12. ‘Katie’s Revenge’, Katie must find a way in which to re tie their friendship when the jealous Samantha threatens to take it away with her mean
doings, which get katie into trouble with her school teacher Ms Vile. The tables have turned and it is now Katie who may loose all her friends at school if she doesn’t get
help from Isis. The only thing that saves them every time is Magic.

Can you think of any other chapters in the Katie series, where their friendship is put to the test?

Bye Bye

N*

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.

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.”

Later,  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 untruth. 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, in case 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 face. 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.”

Text Copyright Hugh Fraser 2008.

Download the audio of this story (right click, save as)

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 written 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.

Read by Natasha. Duration 16.15.  Written by Bertie.

Read PRC: Katie & School

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 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 singe 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.  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 with 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 big surprise to see him out there.

So that’s what he did.

Only he slipped on a banana skin left by a monkey. Then, 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 tail was swishing.

Everyone screamed.

Except for Katie and Wendy.

Wendy knew that Katie was a witch because once 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 is a five star witch.

Download the mp3 audio of the story (right click, save as)

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

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.”