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The Upstairs Witch and the Downstairs Witch (1970) by Susan Terris ⭐⭐⭐
I read The Upstairs Witch and the Downstairs Witch by Susan Terris, illustrated by Olivia H. H. Cole. It was published by Doubleday & Company, and was inscribed “To Wendy From Grandad and Grandmaw Wallace 1971”. Super cute that the girl’s name was Wendy, and you will see why.
This is a cute little story about two nice witches, Wanda and Wendy who live in a house together. Wanda lives upstairs and is ready to do her Spring Cleaning, while Wendy lives downstairs and refuses to clean her dusty old living space, despite Wanda’s urging to clean.
Wanda happily cleans her area, and is proud of her work, but there’s a twist! Wanda soon regrets cleaning her area, because the house is being put up to be sold.
A man comes a few days later to look at the house and is persuaded to show his wife and son the house. The downstairs is filthy, but the upstairs is lovely and clean, so he can see there may be potential.
Neither of the witches want the house to be sold, so they devise a plan. They will mess up the house so bad that only they would want to live there! Wendy (the downstairs Witch) thinks this is great fun, and is all for it. They take two snakes, a mouse, and a bat inside as pets for the final touch.
When the man comes back with his wife and son, the woman is horrified to see the house in such disarray, saying she could never ever live here. Only a witch could live here! Wendy and Wanda hide in their areas when the family is looking at the house. Though he tries to tell his parents of the witches, mouse, and snakes that he sees, they shrug it off as the boy being silly. Finally, the bat is let loose, and that is the final nail in the coffin for this family ever to live there.
Of course, they don’t buy the house, and the witches get to keep their home. Every once in a while, the realtor comes and brings another family to look at the house, but no one ever agrees to buy it. For now on, whenever Spring rolls around, the witches do their annual Spring ‘mess up the house’ ritual, and Wendy doesn’t ever protest to that!
This book is just I love the illustrations in this. They’re just so *of the era*, and remind me a lot of the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. The story is funny, too, and took an unexpected turn! I would recommend this to any child, and at around 45 very illustrated pages, it is an adorable read.
