The Witch's Daughter

4.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Perdita, an unschooled orphan on a remote Scottish island, lives under the care of old Annie Maclaren and helps her care for their lodger. But when a strange man comes to visit the island at the same time as a family with two small children, Perdita and the kids become involved in something much bigger than they expected.

Review
We had two Nina Bawden books when I was growing up – this one and The Runaway Summer. I loved them both and am not sure why we didn't have more. Runaway Summer was my favorite, though Witch's Daughter seems to be better known. Actually, looking down the Wikipedia list, we also had The White Horse Gang, but I didn't like that one as much.

In any case, I liked Witch's Daughter then, and I think I like it more now. Then, it was a straightforward story of adventure, with the lonely Perdita giving the story a poignancy most children's books didn't have. Now, I can see more clearly what Bawden was doing, and I think it's great. Now a middle-aged man, I was literally crying at the end, and both sniffling and laughing at several points throughout. There's not a lot of surprise in the book for an adult, but there is some subtlety. There's some evident heart-string pulling via Janey, the blind girl, but it's fairly deft, and Janey's blindness is treated with what I thought was reasonable care. Contrary to many children's books of the period, the lone boy of the group is not the de facto leader (though he is older), and the emotional center is the relationship between the girls.

All told, a lovely children's book that still stands up. I recommend it to adults and children alike.