Echo, Pixel and H. the Extraordinary Witch - L.H. Kronberg - ★★★

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AUTHOR: L.H. Kronberg
GENRE: Children's Picture Book.
PUBLICATION DATE:
RATING: 3 stars.

A sweet story of a good witch and her two dogs who help those in trouble.

H is a good witch who stays with her grandfather Pappa, and her pet dogs Pixel and Echo (who in turn has a pet lizard!) When H hears of anyone in trouble, she goes along with Pixel and Echo on her flying broomstick to provide assistance. There are two such adventures in this book – one where a deer’s antlers are caught in a tree, and one where all the toys go missing from the local orphanage.

The story focusses not just on how H solves the issue but also delivers a message about goodness, empathy, kindness, and other such virtues along the way. Having two adventures within a single book is a big plus point. The characters are all interesting. I just wish H had a different name. ‘H’ by itself looks so odd.

The illustrations are cute and colourful. But they don’t match the content at times. For instance, the vines that the deer was tangled in resembled ropes. On another page, when H is supposed to be using her magic to confront the dark witches (page 21), it looks exactly the other way around, as if she was the victim of the dark witches’ magic. All minor errors, but they take away from the experience, especially for younger children who rely heavily on the illustrations to make sense of what is being read to them. One thing I didn’t like at all was that after they turn good, one of the dark witches (who was green-skinned till then) is drawn with fair skin and beautiful long hair. What does a change of heart have to do with a change in skin colour? The other witch stays green, so I didn’t get this creative choice at all!

The language seemed a bit off. There is a fair amount of word repetition, which might have been a deliberate writing choice to emphasise words or to ensure they stay in kids’ memories. But the sentence construction is also awkward at times, with many run-on sentences and a few words in incorrect positions. I wonder if this is a translation gone awry, but there’s no note saying that it’s a translation, so I’m not sure.

Basically, it is a nice story with a great message. If you aren’t particular about the fiddly language and the mismatched illustrations on a few pages, you, along with your kids, might enjoy this tale.

My thanks to Pix-E-Paws and NetGalley for the DRC of “Echo, Pixel and H. the Extraordinary Witch”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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