Winnie The Witch is a series of eleven picture books, written by Valerie Thomas

Valerie Thomas

Valerie Thomas is an African American scientist and inventor. She invented the illusion transmitter.-Early life and education:Thomas was fascinated by technology as a child, she read books like The Boys First Book on Electronics and would tinker with electronics around the house...

 and illustrated by Korky Paul

Korky Paul

Korky Paul is an award-winning illustrator of books for children. He was born and grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1951. He now lives and works in Oxford, England...

. According to Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...

 more than two million books have been sold of this series.

Following on from the success of the picture books, a series of 'young fiction' Winnie The Witch books were written by Laura Owen, also illustrated by Korky Paul

Korky Paul

Korky Paul is an award-winning illustrator of books for children. He was born and grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1951. He now lives and works in Oxford, England...

.

The series

The original book Winnie The Witch was first published in 1987. It was reprinted nine times up until 1997 and re-issued with a new cover in 2006. The book is available as a paperback edition with an audio CD, containing the story with music and sound effects.

Valerie Thomas has worked for many years in education, teaching in schools in Australia and the UK. Korky Paul

Korky Paul

Korky Paul is an award-winning illustrator of books for children. He was born and grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1951. He now lives and works in Oxford, England...

is an award-winning illustrator of children’s books. In 1986, he illustrated his first book for Oxford University Press, Winnie the Witch, which won the Children’s Book Award in 1988.

Winnie The Witch (1987)

Winnie the witch has a black house. The interior of the house is also black, just like her cat Wilbur. When Wilbur closes his eyes to doze off, he disappears into the background of Winnie's home, and she accidentally tramples him. Winnie changes Wilbur's color to bright green, but when he's outside she can't see him against the green grass and again trips over him. She then waves her wand over him five times and turns him into five colors. Wilbur looks ridiculous and does not like his new look. Winnie does not want her cat to be sad and changes him back to black, instead she turns her house into many colors so Wilbur will be visible.

Winnie's New Computer (2003)

Winnie has ordered her first computer (which is illustrated like an iMac G4, but instead of an Apple logo it has a pumpkin on its backside) and logs on to the internet. Wilbur however is jealous because Winnie spends so much time with her new computer and doesn't even let him touch "the mouse". Winnie decides to throw away her book of spells and her wand - from now on all her magic will be at the click of a mouse! But when Winnie finally goes to bed, Wilbur finally wants to see what this "new mouse" is all about. The next morning Winnie wakes up to discover she has no cat and no computer. It turns out that she still needs her book of spells from time to time. In the end, she manages to get her computer and Wilbur back and decides to keep her magic wand and her book of spells!

Winnie's Midnight Dragon (2006)

Winnie and her cat Wilbur are woken up in the night by a baby dragon. The dragon sets Winnie's broomstick on fire. Winnie casts a spell to stop the baby dragon breathing fire; unfortunately now he breathes butterflies instead. Wilbur and the baby dragon chase the butterflies, causing much damage to Winnie's house. Winnie chases them to the roof and casts a spell to make a full moon. This allows the baby dragon's mother to see him and she comes to collect him. The dragons fly off and Wilbur and Winnie go to bed.