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A Little Witch in All of Us: Witchy Reads for Spooky Season
Double, double toil and trouble! Here's our list for some magical and spooky October reads.
There’s a little witch in all of us… celebrate your inner spell caster with a fun witchy fiction title this October! Or if you’re more of a history buff, read up on the real life tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe you’re a dabbler in witchcraft, yourself. Check out a title on modern day Wicca! This list has something to enchant every reader.
Digital book (DB, DBC, DBF, DBG), braille (BR), and large print (LT) copies of these titles are available from the Perkins Library or the Worcester Talking Book Library. Please contact the library to order any of these books.
Prepared by Chelsea Wood
Senior Reader Advisor
Perkins Library
Blair Witch
Starring James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, and Brandon Scott
DVD 1454
A group of college students venture into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of their friend’s sister, who many believe is connected to the legend of the Blair Witch. At first the group is hopeful, but as the endless night wears on, the group is visited by a menacing presence. Slowly, they begin to realize the legend is all too real. Rated R for strong language and violence. 89 Min. 2016.
Circe
by Madeline Miller
DB 90711, BR 22648, LT 24623, Available as BARD Download
Circe grows up in the court of her father, the sun god Helios. Despised by her parents and others, she falls in love with a mortal who shuns her. When she takes revenge, she is banished. Those who wish her and others harm are transformed into pigs. 2018.
The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts
by Arthur Miller
DB 32974, BR 9499, Available as BARD Download
A drama based on the Salem, Massachusetts, witchcraft trials of 1692. The play deals with the consequences of fear, insecurity, the power of suggestion, and the hounding to death of a nonconformist. 1954.
A Discovery of Witches
by Deborah Harkness
DB 72629, available as BARD Download
After scholar and witch Diana Bishop requests an alchemical manuscript from the depths of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, she finds the magical power within the leather cover disturbing and hastily sends it back. But the book’s reemergence causes a chain reaction through the paranormal community. Descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2011.
Equal Rites: A Discworld Novel
by Terry Pratchett
DB 52704, BR 20841, Available as BARD Download
Wizard Drum Billet is dying–in about six minutes–and wants to pass on his powers to the eighth son of an eighth son who is just being born. The wizard’s staff is placed in the child’s hand immediately after birth. But, the child is a girl! For senior high and older readers. 1987.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
by Kelly Regan Barnhill
DB 85739, BR 21836, LT 22385, Available as BARD Download
Every year a community leaves a baby as an offering to a powerful yet misunderstood witch named Xan. One infant–now a young girl–is being raised by the witch and must unlock the powerful magic buried deep inside her. For grades 4-7. 2016.
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
DB 37043, BR 21217, LT 25601, Available as BARD Download
Armageddon is scheduled for next Saturday! But demon Crowley and angel Aziraphale aren’t excited. To prevent Armageddon, they must kill the Antichrist, who is living on Earth as a young child. Three children were switched at birth, however, and no one knows which one is the Antichrist. 1990.
The Heretic’s Daughter
by Kathleen Kent
DB 68114, Available as BARD Download
Colonial Massachusetts, 1690s. Ten-year-old Sarah Carrier and her family contend with Indian raids, cold weather, poor land, and smallpox. Disputes with neighbors bring witchcraft charges against Sarah and her brother, father, and mother Martha. Taken to trial in Salem, Martha urges Sarah to save herself by confessing. Violence. 2008.
I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem
by Maryse Condé
DB 37420, Available as BARD Download
Tituba is born in Barbados to a sixteen-year-old who was raped on a slave ship. When her mother is hanged for fending off another sexual assault, Tituba is raised by an old woman who teaches her healing and communing with spirits. Against the advice of these spirits, Tituba gives up her freedom after falling in love with enslaved John Indian. They are shipped to Salem where Tituba’s powers make her suspect. Violence and explicit descriptions of sex. 1986.
Into the Woods
Starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, Tracey Ullman, Christine Baranski, Johnny Depp
DVD 1261
A modern twist on several of the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales, intertwining the plots of a few choice stories and exploring the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests. This humorous and heartfelt musical follows the classic tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel, all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife, their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch who has put a curse on them. Rated PG. Based on the musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. 125 Min. 2014.
Practical Magic
by Alice Hoffman
DB 40461, Available as BARD Download
Sally and Gillian Owens are raised by their unusual aunts and cruelly teased by the other children. The older Owens sisters cast spells at twilight for women having problems with love. Gillian leaves home as soon as possible, breaking hearts along the way. Sensible Sally stays, marries, and has two daughters, until tragedy sends her packing, too. Now an event has gathered the Owens women together again. Strong language and descriptions of sex. 1995.
The Ruin of All Witches
by Malcolm Gaskill
DB 112044, Available as BARD Download
In Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails, property vanishes, and people suffer convulsions as if possessed by demons. A woman is seen wading through the swamp like a lost soul. Disturbing dreams and visions proliferate. Children sicken and die. As tensions rise, rumours spread of witches and heretics and the community becomes tangled in a web of distrust, resentment and denunciation. The finger of suspicion soon falls on a young couple with two small children: the prickly brickmaker, Hugh Parsons, and his troubled wife, Mary. 2021.
Strega Nona: An Old Tale
by Tomie DePaolo
DB 44296, BR 17034, Available as BARD Download
In the town of Calabria, a long time ago, there lived an old lady known as Strega Nona, who owned a magic pot. One day, when Strega Nona went visiting, her helper, Big Anthony, almost destroyed the village by disobeying Strega Nona’s warning not to touch the pot. For grades K-3. 1975.
Toil and Trouble: 15 Tales of Women and Witchcraft
by Tess Sharpe
DB 92465, Available as BARD Download
Compilation of fifteen feminist tales of women embracing their magical powers and witchcraft. In Tehlor Kay Mejia’s “Starsong,” sixteen-year-old Esperanza, a bruja, surprises herself when she connects on social media with a skeptic, a NASA-loving girl. Strong language. For senior high and older readers. 2018.
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
by Gregory Maguire
DB 55810, LT 8784, Available as BARD Download
Traces the life of the witch Elphaba from the Wizard of Oz (DB 51047, BR 7872, JL 67, DVD 508), both before and after Dorothy arrives. After attending a university with her roommate Glinda, Elphaba learns that a despotic Wizard is threatening animal rights in Oz. Some explicit descriptions of sex. For senior high and older readers. 1995.
Witches of America
by Alex Mar
DB 84904, BR 21590, Available as BARD Download
A journalist and documentary filmmaker investigates the world of modern witchcraft. She looks at the roots of Wicca in the 1950s and explores the many modern varieties of pagan practice, attending events such as a pagan conference and the meeting of a Feri coven. Some strong language. 2015.
Witches of Eastwick
by John Updike
DB 20906, BR 18429, Available as BARD Download
A witty, audacious novel about three modern-day witches living in Eastwick, Rhode Island, in the 1960s. Divorced and in their thirties, they would eventually like to conjure up new husbands for themselves. But their powers remain largely unfocused until a rich, vulgar, sexy stranger moves to town. Some strong language and some descriptions of sex. Bestseller 1984.
Witches: Salem, 1692
by Stacy Schiff
DB 83010, Available as BARD Download
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra (DB 72130) examines the Salem Witch Trials, which began in 1692 in Massachusetts, ending less than a year later with nineteen men and women hanged. Schiff details how the panic spread during a pivotal moment of American history. 2015.
A Year and a Day of Everyday Witchcraft
by Deborah Blake
BR 24424, Available as BARD Download
Features simple yet meaningful ways to integrate witchcraft into your daily life, inspiring you to take your magic to a new level whether you’re a beginner or an experienced practitioner. Deborah Blake guides you on a journey through the Wheel of the Year, providing witchy wisdom, affirmations, spells, questions to ponder, and much more. Explores a variety of modern Pagan practices to help you get more in touch with your personal path of witchcraft, from working with herbs and gemstones to connecting with deities. 2017.
Download Braille, A Year and a Day of Everyday Witchcraft, BR 24424
