Gobbolino the Witch's Cat

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Meg and Mog is a series of children’s books written by Helen Nicolland illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski. Ursula Moray Williams (1911-2006) began writing and illustrating books at the age of nine or ten, together with her twin sister. Over the course of a long career, she wrote more than sixty books for children, illustrating many of them herself. She was also a juvenile magistrate.

Gobbolino, The Witch's Cat is a children's novel by Ursula Moray Williams, published by George G. Harrap in 1942 with illustrations by the writer. It has been published with new illustrations more than once and a 70th anniversary edition of the self-illustrated version was published in the Puffin Modern Classics series. [1] It has also been issued in abridged versions, sometimes retitled "Gobbolino the kitchen cat". [2] They are also super delightful for parents to read to their children at bedtime or other read out loud moments. I didn’t discover The Witches as a child, so it was an extra delight to enjoy this story unfolding as I read it to my daughter. It may be a bit scary at times, but like all Roald Dahl books, it is a great read for four to five year olds, who are just starting to appreciate having chapter books read to them. In 1984 Puffin published The Further Adventures of Gobbolino and the Little Wooden Horse, a joint sequel to Gobbolino and to Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse (1938).

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Here’s a roundup of some of the story books with witches that we’ve read and loved over the last few years.

The book is so brilliantly andtautly written that you can read it to any child who has started listening to chapter books.The books make for great stories to read out loud, but they are also great self-read books for ages seven and up. Originally published in 1942, and newly reprinted by Kingfisher, this minor children's classic relates the story of Gobbolino, who, much like the hero of Williams's earlier title Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse, is a magical creature cast out into the world and searching for a home. A relative newcomer to the witch stories for kids genre, Witchworld is an absolute delight to read. Gobbolino is supposed to grow up to be a witch’s cat, just like his mother and like his sister, Sootica, wants to be. But Gobbolino is different from the rest of his family. He has blue eyes and one white paw and what he really wants is to be a kitchen cat and have people who love him. The story follows Gobbolino in his quest to find a home.

Into Opera is transforming this well-known children’s book, Gobbolino the Witch’s Cat by Ursula Moray Williams, into an opera for family audiences. The opera will include an 8-person professional cast and 10-piece chamber orchestra. We are offering hundreds of primary school children the opportunity to participate in developing this brand new opera and to gain a unique insight into the often ‘closed’ process of how an opera is actually created. We aim to offer children a truly immersive introduction to opera, which enables them to explore, challenge, and creatively participate in all elements of what this art form can offer. Children have already started working with: It's an episodic shaggy-dog story, and every chapter follows the exact same plot. Gobbolino was born a witch's kitten, but he is nice and doesn't want to harm anyone, so he wants to be a kitchen cat. He will find some people to live with, and all goes well, until they discover he is a witch's cat and will chase him out and on to the next chapter where the exact same thing will happen with some new people. It is so monotonous, I could barely bring myself to read on, but I wanted to finish it since I knew I enjoyed it as a child.

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Meg is a witch whose spells always seem to go wrong, but they lead to zany fun and adventures. Her stories always involve her long-suffering cat, Mog, and their friend Owl. Although his mother Grimalkin and sister Sootica are both witch's cats, Gobbolino longs to be a kitchen cat instead, to be loved rather than feared. Abandoned by his mother and her witch because his "abnormal" white paw and blue eyes makes him unsuitable as a witch's cat, Gobbolino sets off to find a loving home. In a series of adventures, our hero continually finds what appear to be ideal homes, only to be turned out again when his parentage is revealed, or the circumstances of his human companions change.

The witches are often feisty, go-getters who make strangely brilliant role models for girls, as well as loveable characters.

For early readers you can also buy editions with multiple stories, in fact there’s a set of ten books you can buy. Born to a witch's cat, Gobbolino wants nothing more than to find a home amongst the warmth and bustle of a kitchen. His heritage gives almost everyone around him reason to move him on, and his life becomes one adventure after another as yet another home becomes unwelcoming and rebuffs the kitten. The clear print and simple but super fun stories make them fabulous early reading books for children who may find conventional reading schemes dull. It's set in a sort of fairy tale land, and Gobbolino can talk to people and do the dishes and so forth, so it's kind of irrelevant that he's even a cat. But at the end, when he loses his magic, he can no longer talk to people. Turns out this was because he was a witch's cat.... so how come all the people who met him didn't realise straight away what he was since normal cats can't talk to humans? Makes no sense.