Valerie Thomas Books

The Witches’ Sports Day is another classic tale from Valerie Thomas about Winnie the Witch and her reliable black cat Wilbur as they prepare to take part in the witches’ sports day. The story is told with the help of humorous and colourful illustrations from Korky Paul, which helps to bring the language on each page to life. Readers of the Winnie the Witch series will be familiar with Paul’s iconic drawings and this book will not disappoint, for readers will enjoy seeing and hearing the preparations both Winnie and Wilbur undertake in training for the races, involving her whizzing and looping on her broomstick throughout the pages. The vocabulary used within the book certainly links to elements of magic, including the well-known phrase ‘abracadabra’. The choice of language and sentence construction also make the story easy to follow, especially for older children in KS1 who might want to read the book independently. Some of the races that the witches take part in are similar to that of a traditional school sports day, such as the egg and spoon race, which will help younger readers to understand how Winnie must have felt at the start of each race. There is also a link to perseverance and kindness to others throughout the story, which could be explored through a PSHE lesson or circle time discussion. Overall, this was a very enjoyable, light-hearted read and it is bound to be another great addition to the Winnie and Wilbur series.