Cover Image: Snitchy Witch

Snitchy Witch

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Member Reviews

I love the illustrations in this book and the witch theme! I thought that Frank J. Sileo did a great job of explaining the difference between snitching and telling in a way that kids will understand.
I thought the notes to grown-up witches at the end of the book were insightful.

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I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this one because it had a good message that's hard to tackle with young kids. It just ended up not being quite what I expected. I think kids will like it though.

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Wonderful children's book! M kids and I really enjoyed the illustrations as well. Perfect for elementary aged children.

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An interesting book. While we don't call tattling snitching in school, this read is a good starting point to discuss the difference between tattling and telling. Love the illustrations.

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Really nice illustrations and a story of a witch who learns her lesson when it comes to consistent telling on her friends.. Nice story anytime of the year for your kids.

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This was a perfect book for my six year old grandson. This is an important topic for many young children as they begin school and learn to get along with others. Tattling or snitching is something many children deal with. My grandson, who has autism, has a thing about following the rules. If someone breaks the rule, or doesn’t listen, he takes it upon himself to let them know. If that doesn’t work, he tells someone else, often upsetting the person he “tattles on”. In this story, Wanda, is constantly snitching on her friends causing them to not want to play with her or even have her around. With the help of the Head Witch and a spell cast by her friends, she learns when it is important to tell. When her friend William is in danger, she shares what happened with the Head Teacher and prevents an injury. William is very grateful and Wanda breaks the spell. I discussed this with my grandson and he had a hard time understanding. In his mind, the rules need to be followed. We talked about him following the rules because that is what is right, but that it is not his responsibility to make sure everyone else follows them. He did say that some of his friends got mad and didn’t want to play with him when he told the teacher about them doing something wrong, so he was able to relate. Hopefully, he will learn and eventually be able to change his behaviour. I liked the notes for teachers and caregivers at the back of the book.

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*received for free from netgalley for honest review* I really like what this point is trying to say but not really how it says it. However, the parent part at the end does explain things much better imo. That being said, I think this book could be useful as long as parents read about it first and are able to elaborate a bit on things.

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Such a great book! The illustrations are wonderful and the story is great. The witches are all getting together for an annual party. The story line teaches us the difference between snitching and telling someone important information. It was a cute book that is perfect for an elementary school student.

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What an adorable little tale about a little witch who tattles. This was so entertaining to me and my grandaughter that I had to read it to her twice more. It is a fantastic way to teach little children when to tattle and when not too. I loved it.

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This was a great book for Halloween and throughout the year. It really teaches about snitching, but done in a way that small children will understand. I recommend this book.

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Enjoyable book that sends a good message on tattling for young kids. Not only does it teach an important lesson on tattling but it provides an opportunity to also discuss the synonyms tattling and snitching. The colorful artwork adds an entertaining backdrop to the message.

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An important topic that needs to be discussed with children. The story of a snitchy witch, whose behaviour irritates other witches to the point of putting a spell on her, is memorable and engaging, although you do have to talk to your child to see what message they are taking away from the book. As the notes to the caregiver rightly point out telling on other children is a common behaviour and children need to think about it in order to fine tune their moral compass and their social skills.
The artwork is bright and colourful, and will definitely appeal to children.

Thank you to NetGalley and American Psychological Association/ Magination Press for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

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I love the illustrations in this book, but find the message can be a bit confusing. The idea is to show kids the difference between snitching (tattling) verses telling something of importance. But I don’t think the message is properly conveyed. It seems half formed and needs a little more action at the end to balance out the beginning.

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Cute story for the young reader. Fun to look at the pictures and read aloud. Would definitely put it as a regular before Halloween.

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I am so sad to say that this book was not for me. While I love the concept of a book about little witches having a party and there being a tattling witch, I found it hard to take the concept and apply it to a parent and child reading this book. The message is essentially that snitching gets annoying and you should only do it when something serious is happening. While I understand this, and have babysat enough kids that snitch on their siblings to know this feeling of annoyance, I felt like it was shown in this book more as rewarding bad behavior than showing that snitching can go overboard.

While the illustrations throughout are wonderful and follow the story really well, I didn't really get into it. I love books about Halloween and witches but this one just was not for me.

However, that being said the last pages of the book are for parents to use as they use this book as a teaching tool, so it might be better suited to those that can really use it properly and I may have just missed the mark when reading it.

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Love, love, love this book! In preschool we have quite a few snitches. They have a strong sense of justice and making sure everyone follows the same rules they do without realizing the social-emotional harm they may be causing to themselves and others. This book will be perfect for reminding children when we should make a report and when we should keep it to ourselves. I love the rhymes throughout and fun spirit of the book.

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I can see what they are trying to do here, but I think it was a little vague.
The book tries to teach kids not to tattle for every little incident they witness in a day.
The exceptions being "when someone is hurt, could get hurt or you need help from a grown-up."
I feel like it's important to make kids want to can come to an adult for anything.
The burden should fall on said adult to educate the child on whether the problem could have been solved on their own in the future (and how).
A lot of things they generalize in here would be situation dependent of whether an adult is needed.
Loved the illustration style at least.
Thanks to NetGalley and American Psychological Association for my DRC.

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Sadly I struggled with the concept of this book. I love the illusrtations but that's really all I loved about this book. As an early years practitioner I understand that children tell tales on other children and it can be quite annoying, However in this story the children are doing things that they shouldn't they are breaking the rules, for example stealing, cutting in line.? But that behaviour is seen as ok but the snitching is wrong? So for that reason i'm only giving this book 2 stars.

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2.5 Stars

Honestly, I think I needed to pay better attention when I requested this from NetGalley because I was surprised when I opened this up, but that was my fault.

Overall, the concept of this book was interesting, but I think the execution could have been handled better. I really enjoyed the art. The art fit the story and was fun to look at. Wanda is a witch at camp who likes to tattle on her friends. Her friends teach her a lesson about when it is appropriate to tell an adult about something. But I think there were some mixed messages here. The book seems to imply that it's okay for the other children to break the rules as long as no one gets hurt. There's no punishment for the children who, in order to teach Wanda the difference between telling and snitching, take away her voice.

I understand the need for this book and I appreciated the notes for adults at the end. I do think the concept could have been better explained and examples could have been different.

**eARC provided in exchange for an honest review**

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I do not like this. Not only is it potentially confusing, it's extremely frustrating and could reward bad behaviour in kids who manage to figure out the psychology you're using on them.

The premise here is that Wanda is a snitchy witch. She tattles on her friends until nobody wants to play with her. The others go even further, and cast a spell on Wanda so she won't be able to snitch.

The problem I have with this book is that the author defines as snitching anything that won't cause physical harm. So, stealing? Perfectly acceptable behaviour. Cutting in line? Who cares? Keeping people awake with noise? No big deal; I mean, it's just common courtesy, so it's optional. When there arises a potentially dangerous situation, Wanda is unable to say anything until she finds the exact right combination of words so that it doesn't sound like snitching. The other children who cast the spell on Wanda, rendering her unable to speak, are never punished, even though their behaviour really could have harmed someone.

I was curious as to this weird disconnect (I mean, why bother teaching children the rules if they're just going to be allowed to break them?), but something in the adults' note at the end caught my attention:

"When safety is not an issue, do not punish the other child as it will reward and reinforce the snitching."

And herein lies the biggest problem I have with this book. Snitching is viewed as worse than breaking the rules, stealing, and even rendering someone mute with a spell! The child who is pointing out the bad behaviour of others is viewed as the villain, leaving the children engaging in the bad behaviour to continue with no repercussions.

And that's why I can't recommend this one.

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