The Worst Witch Strikes Again by Jill Murphy

PUFFIN BOOKS
    Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,
New Delhi – 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank,
Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
    Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England
    puffinbooks.com
    First published by Allison & Busby 1980
Published in Puffin Books 1981
Published in this edition 2007
1
    Text and illustrations copyright © Jill Murphy, 1980
Introduction copyright © Julia Eccleshare, 2007
All rights reserved
    The moral right of the author has been asserted
    Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise
circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other
than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition
being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
    British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

INTRODUCTION
B Y J ULIA E CCLESHARE , S ERIES E DITOR
    Imagine being the Worst Witch in your school. Poor Mildred Hubble, it’s not a title she
ever
meant to gain and she hates it. After all, she never means to be bad. In fact, she always tries her hardest to do well and this term she’s promised everyone at home that she really will try not to get into any scrapes. But, somehow, everything seems to go wrong for her. She isn’t helped by her cat and, this time, she isn’t helped by her friends either.
    It’s now the Summer Term at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches – the poor witches do wear the very worst summer uniform – and Mildred is looking forward to some fun with her best friend Maud while also taking care to improve her reputation, especially with Miss Hardbroom. But Mildred’s plans soon go badly wrong. So wrong that even her friendship with Maud is in tatters while her days in the Academy look very much as if they are numbered.
    A school touched by a bit of magic is a very attractive place. A little bit of flying for some light relief and unexpected adventure is good fun; the cats or – in the case of the new girl, Enid Nightshade – monkeythat are the girls’ familiars add a bit of zest to the school corridors and bedrooms.
    Whether you love or loathe school, Jill Murphy’s Mildred, Maud and Enid, and their skirmishes with their teachers, will immediately strike a chord. They are great girls, ready to support each other and to get the best – or worst – out of school and especially out of their teachers. Luckily, most schools don’t have the possibility of magic! The results can be disastrous!



CHAPTER ONE

    UMMER had arrived at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches. Not that it made much difference to the grim-looking school which was perched on a mountain amid swirling mist and pine trees.
    On the first morning of term the members of Form One sat in class looking a dismal sight in their new summer uniform which was even more dreary than the winter one. It consisted of a black-and-grey-checked short-sleeved dress, brightened a little by the sash around the waist, and grey ankle socks with black lace-up shoes. Everyone’s knees were startlingly white after spending the winter