The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett - A Book Review

Meet Tiffany Aching, a young girl used to life on the family farm. She's good at making butter and cheese. She has a curious nature, and sometimes she's allowed to go get an egg's worth of education which is handy, even if she doesn't always agree with the travelling teachers.Tiffany's world is about to change and when she finds out, she intends to put a stop to it. It all starts when she's down by the river and something green with a lot of teeth tries to grab her little brother. Annoying as Wentworth might be, she isn't going to let that happen.The river incident leads Tiffany to Miss Tick, witch, her toad and the Nac Mac Feegle, otherwise known as the Wee Free Men. When Wentworth gets stolen away, all that stands between the Queen and the world is a little girl, armed with a frying pan and her grandmother's book, and a load of tiny little pictsies.The Wee Free Men is a wonderful novel for readers of all ages. It's funny, full of adventure and sometimes deeply touching, especially Tiffany's memories of her grandmother who was a very special lady.The character of Tiffany is extremely likeable. It's easy to sympathize with her, as she is brave but far from perfect, and she learns a lot of lessons along the way. Those lessons are presented to the reader in a natural manner, without being in-your-face or patronizing, and they don't take away from the progression of the story. Terry Pratchett has always had great insight into human nature, which is part of what makes his novels so entertaining.The Nac Mac Feegle are a wonderful addition to the Discworld. They're funny, brave, silly and bighearted, and I love the way Pratchett's given them their own accents which adds to their personalities. Despite their love for trouble, I'm sure that by the end of the book most of us would love to have some pictsies in our lives!The secondary characters of Miss Tick, the toad and Roland (the Baron's son, also lost) add flavour to the tale, and at the end of the book a couple of familiar Discworld faces meet our Tiffany, giving us the hint that we'll see more of the dairymaid in novels to come ("A Hat Full of Sky" and "Wintersmith").As I mentioned before, this novel is suitable for readers of all ages. Whilst it was written for younger readers, the story has enough depth and indeed quite a few layers to it to keep adult readers engaged. There are a couple of bits in there that might be a tiny bit scary for a very young audience, and there are some tense scenes, but there's nothing that would be too upsetting, in my opinion.If you're looking for a novel to read by the fireplace during the cold winter nights, I would definitely recommend this one. Just make sure you have a bit of time to spare, because it's a page-turner.The Wee Free Men was first published in Great Britain by Doubleday, an imprint of Random House Children's Books. The ISBN is 978-0-552-54905-9. seuss book collection sets cat hat