An interesting read, and at the same time a very enjoyable one, because Diana Wynne Jones wrote so well. Some claim this to be Jones' first novel. I have no idea, but it was written in 1973, so there's a lot of strange antiquated cultural references that one must wade through in the first couple of chapters in order to get into the thick of the story, because Jones wrote a story here that was contemporary to the time and place of 1973 England.This means that there were weird British terms like "West Indian" that I had to mull over (and in the end, research) in order to know what she'd meant (it means from the "West Indies," a term for the Caribbean that I would have thought died out in the 17th century. Nowadays we would say "Jamaican" or "Haitian" or just "Caribbean" if we didn't know from which island his parents emigrated). Aside from the occasional jarring bit like that, the book is wonderful. It has to do with two siblings who owe money and who've had their allowance cut off. So they hatch a scheme called "Own Back" (itself a reference to an antiquated English expression), which has nothing to do with anatomy and everything to do with retrieval and/or revenge. In a nice twist, every plan they have to give someone his comeuppance goes awry, resulting in more trouble and more debt in a terrible spiral of bad decisions. I'd say the book might be too intense for younger readers, as soon they stumble across plots of murder, mental domination, and Evil that are pretty frightening but which, presented from the kids' point of view, are taken in stride as the generally unfair lot that kids have in life.There's bullies and violence and indifferent adults. And magic. Of course there's magic, because it's a Diana Wynne Jones book, with yet another completely different take on magic and how magic works. She's really amazing, to have written so many books and each of them with a completely separate internal logic for how magic works.Here's what happens:(view spoiler)[Jess and Frank mope in the garden shed, which they treat as a retreat/hideout, dejected because they have no pocket money and their allowance has been suspended as a punishment for breaking furniture in the house. Frank is particularly despondent, because he bet the town bully for 10p and he lost the bet. So it's only a matter of time before the bully comes and terrorizes him. So Jess thinks: why not form a little business venture to earn some cash? They could find treasure, enact revenge, and do other odd and/or difficult jobs for people, on commission! So they whip out a sign and open up shop right there in the shed. First the bully arrives and scares them into taking his commission (not for cash but for erasing Frank's debt): getting revenge. Vernon Wilkins fought the bully and knocked a tooth out, so now the bully wants a Wilkins tooth in exchange. Sensing doom, Jess and Frank visit the Wilkins house with no ideas. Vernon helpfully yanks out one of his kid brother's baby teeth (which was about to come out anyway) and gives it to Jess and Frank despite their objections, on the promise that they will pay him 5p when they can. They hand it over to the bully as a "Wilkins tooth." Meanwhile, two weird orphan girls, Frankie and Jenny, request that they enact revenge on the homeless village crackpot, Biddy Iremonger, whom they claim is a witch. They offer antiquated currency that is no longer legal tender in exchange. Then they are hired by Martin to get revenge on Frankie and Jenny...and so on, and so on. In the end, Biddy is actually an evil witch, and she ensorcells nearly everyone before the kids can trick her into defeating herself, much like in old fairy tales. (hide spoiler)]
Wilkin's Tooth (1973) was Diana Wynne Jones's first children's novel, in what become a rather prolific career. Reassuringly, even great writers don't jump out of the ground fully formed, and Tooth is a charming but unremarkable affair best left for completists.There's a vague throwback quality to Tooth that makes it feel dated in a way Jones's later work doesn't. The revenge business siblings Jess and Frank set up their garage and the vaguely mid-century setting recall Encyclopedia Brown, while the plot ("the wacky incursion of magic into the everyday teaches children to be careful what they wish for" storyline) feels indebted to E. Nesbit.A more distinctive feature is that the adults are not completely excluded from the action: at least one parent in the story is finally able to acknowledge the magic and eventually takes a semi-active part in the plot. That the neighborhood witch is both elementally monstrous and mundanely evil feels a little Dahl-ian, but adds more menace to what otherwise would be a bit of lark.The uncharacteristic roughness of Wilkin's Tooth actually provides an opportunity to understand more clearly how DWJ constructed her stories. The motely gang of children who work at cross-purposes but eventually (reluctantly) team up to save the day would become a staple of Jones's fiction, but here the characters are not quite developed enough for a true clash of personalities to work. Possibly there are just too many kids for the short length of the story; some hardly get names let alone personalities.There's some implication that there's some class consciousness involved in the delay of the team-up. Our enterprising duo are solidly middle-class, while the town bully and the popular boy are from the rougher side of town. The "snobby" sisters are some sort of post-Edwardian impoverished gentry, complete with lost family mansion (now occupied by another kid, whose family runs it as a nursing home). This implication never quite becomes subtext, and as such, the eventual team-up and defeat of the witch never address the symbolic exorcism of class division between the children. In contrast, Jones's next work, The Ogre Downstairs is centered clearly around the discord in a modern "blended" family where the kids find their new living situation less than Brady-Bunch-esque, even before a magic chemistry set gets thrown into the mix. It's this close unity between theme and plot that provides the framework for Ogre, without which the whimsy and humor wouldn't work. I've been hoarding unread DWJ novels for a while, but I still can't believe I've only got two left! Rating: 2 stars
What do You think about Witch's Business (2004)?
Diana Wynne Jones's first juvenile fantasy novel is in many ways her first novel, if you look at Changeover as a sort of extended writer's exercise. Changeover is good enough, but with Witch's Business we get to see DWJ apply everything she learned about characterization and style to a completely different audience and genre. What starts as a cynical money-making venture by Frank and Jess (get paid to get revenge for other people) ends up being much more serious when they encounter Biddy Iremonger, a real witch who's angry at them for poaching on her turf. It's a light story, never very substantial, but there are plenty of authors who don't do this well on their third or fourth books.
—Melissa McShane
A brilliant kids book (and I mean little kids, not young adults... I wouldn't necessarily recommend this for anyone above 12 years old), Diana Wynne Jones draws upon classic fairy tales such as Puss In Boots to put together a charming story told by a master storyteller. DWJ's books stand out not just for their great plot, but also for their language. Just because the story line is watered down for younger readers (or listeners, in my son's case), her writing is at the top of its game.American readers might be a bit thrown by some of the British-slang... possibly of DWJ's own invention. Not being British, I'm not sure. For example, "Get Your Own Back" is an important phrase in the book which appears to mean "get even" or "get revenge." Likewise one of the major characters in the book is a big cusser, but his foul language tends to be along the lines of "zombie burger" or "slime puke." He also doesn't really repeat himself, so it's unlikely your child is going to walk around using any of these phrases to color his language... and even if he did, I don't think anyone would mind!
—Michael
When I was on my spree of reading Jones' books in the year or so after she died, I remember seeing Witch's Business on the shelf at the library and avoiding it. It has such an ugly cover and the title was stupid. Now, having picked it up at a book sale for 25¢, I find that this was her first children's book. Her first! And retitled for this post-Howl's-movie reprint for the American market. For the record, Mrs. Publisher, Wilkin's Tooth is a much more intriguing title.Anyway. Even for a prototype, this is a decent Jones book. A brother and sister desperate to make pocket money start a revenge business (eat it Encyclopedia Brown) in their backyard and start a whole mess of trouble with the procurement of a tooth for a tooth. There's a shade too many children, six or seven never get so much as named, and the mess is too-hastily solved at the end, but most of us know that Jones made the most of her ample room for improvement in the over thirty year career that followed this book.
—Myles
