When Sophie stands up to the witch, the witch casts a spell on Sophie which turns her into an elderly woman.įearful that no one, not even her loved ones, will recognize her, Sophie leaves home at last, intending to find a way to undo the spell. Even the ones Sophie suggests she try on meet with contempt. One day, the Witch of the Waste stops at the hat shop in order to sneer at the hats on display. Sophie worries that she’ll be stuck in the hat shop for the rest of her life, but fate has something different in store for her.

But Sophie isn’t very assertive, and when she returns home she doesn’t pursue this strongly enough. Martha warns Sophie that Fanny is working her to the bone and tells Sophie she deserves a wage. Martha and Lettie, it seems, switched places in order to do the things they are most interested in doing. One day she forces herself to do so and goes to visit Lettie at the bakery. The longer she stays at the shop and house, the harder it becomes for her to leave.

Hat-making bores Sophie, but she is good at it. Sophie will remain in the hat shop, since she is skilled at sewing. Fanny, Sophie’s stepmother, decides to place her beautiful middle daughter Lettie as an apprentice in a bake shop, and her youngest, Martha-the one most likely to find her fortune should she seek it-with a friend who happens to be a witch, so that Martha can learn some magic. Hatter, Sophie’s father, dies early in the novel, leaving behind considerable debts. And Sophie, as the narrator tells us, isn’t even the child of a poor woodcutter, so she feels she has no chance of success at all. Oldests are merely the ones who fail first. You see, as everyone in the land of Ingary knows, the role of successful fortune-seeker is reserved for youngest children. For Sophie, being born oldest of three is the beginning of her troubles. The protagonist of Howl’s Moving Castle is seventeen year old Sophie Hatter, the oldest of three girls raised by a couple who owns a hat shop in the town of Market Chipping, Ingrary. It was a fun and funny novel and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it as much as my husband did. My husband and I read the classic YA novel Howl’s Moving Castle recently. Since beloved children’s book author Diana Wynne Jones passed away a few years ago, this review is addressed to you. Janine B- Reviews Fantasy / witch / wizards / YA 33 Comments JanuREVIEW: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

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