Good Reading for Kids caught up with LAUREN CROZIER to discuss her book The Best Witch in Paris, a story filled with fabulous magic and a puzzling mystery.
What can you tell us about the witches in The Best Witch in Paris?
The witches in The Best Witch in Paris are fabulous, eccentric and full of magic. They live in a hidden, buzzing neighbourhood in Paris called the Witches Quarter, where they get up to all sorts of fun and occasionally wicked things. They like casting spells (some of which prove difficult to undo), and preparing peculiar potions like STUBBORN TOE OINTMENT, and they’re not at all fazed by talking chairs or flying hats. They ride brooms too, which can be full of treasured magic, but are just as likely to be full of water from a pond landing. And of course Luna’s aunt has a pea-coloured flying car for special occasions.
Witches can’t do without their familiars. A familiar is an animal that a witch keeps as a magical friend and helper, and they are very important – every witch must have one. Witches don’t get to choose their familiar, but they always get the familiar that’s exactly right for them, and the bond they share is very special – though that doesn’t stop familiars from being troublesome, as Luna soon discovers.
Who is Luna and what are her best qualities?
Luna Wood lives in a half of a house at 9 Rue Impossible with her three aunts, Aunt Agnes, Aunt Henrietta and Aunt Jessie (who’s currently in Melbourne studying monsters). Luna’s aunts found her as a baby and raised her as a witch. When we meet Luna, she’s studying magic at Grim’s School for the Education of Young Witches, and she’s finally got a familiar – a small and fussy boobook owl. Even though her spells sometimes fizzle and she makes mistakes in Potions, Luna is determined to be a witch. Her teacher, Professor Claire, says that what’s important is inner magic, and Luna has lots of that. She’s warm, funny, bright, curious, persevering and resourceful. And she can also make hot chocolate sing, which seems a useful sort of skill to have.
What are some of the biggest challenges Luna will face in this story
Luna puts up with rather a lot in the story, including a curse of doubt that she gets for a school assignment, a gang of forest goblins, a monstrous spider that has all its eyes on her, and the fearsome and cunning Madame Valadon, who keeps a dangerous python tucked inside her coat. But the biggest challenge Luna will face is unravelling the mystery at the heart of the story to find out who she really is.
What inspired the magical elements in this story?
One of the nicest things about writing a book is that you begin paying a different sort of attention to the world around you. Everything becomes a source of inspiration, and I certainly found inspiration for the magical elements in lots of unexpected places. But I was also inspired by the history of magic and witches, including French magic, as well as Paris and Melbourne, two cities I find utterly magical, and forests and the creatures that inhabit them, especially owls. Boobooks, which are named after their beautiful ‘boo-book’ call, are the smallest owl in Australia, and they live in cities too. They make for a perfect pocket-sized familiar for a young witch. And of course Luna inspired me too, because I had to imagine a kind of magic that was right for her and her story.
Did you draw from people in your own life to shape any of the characters?
I don’t usually draw from people in my own life when I’m creating characters, but in this case Luna’s aunts were inspired by seven meddlesome great-aunts in my family who I never had the chance to meet. I expect they weren’t quite as rascally as Luna’s aunts, and they couldn’t possibly have been as much fun. But I do know they kept a lot of secrets between them, and it always felt to me that they might be hiding some family magic. I can certainly imagine them interfering with each other’s spells and turning one another into slugs over the slightest disagreement.
What was your favourite part of writing this book?
Luna came into existence by some kind of special magic, appearing before me one night in a black dressing gown, black fluffy slippers and black headband. Getting to know her and telling her story was absolutely my favourite part of writing The Best Witch in Paris.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lauren Crozier won the 2023 Text Prize for her debut novel The Best Witch in Paris. She lives in Sydney with her partner and their two children.
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