Witch and Wizard is about a teenage witch and wizard who try to stop an evil wizard from brainwashing the world with his “New Order.” If you read user reviews about the Witch and the Wizard series you would see reviews like “Harry Potter knockoff”, “Fake Harry Potter”, and so on in that fashion but those reviewers never actually read the books just the synopsis. The only comparison that I saw from this series to the Harry Potter series is that there is a witch and there is a wizard and there are ghosts. That’s it. Oh and the the bad guy can also use magic. No magic school, non magic users are not referred to as such, no one even taught said witch and wizard how to use magic they figured out how to use “M” on there own. They do get advice but it’s cryptic advice, Yoda style.

The Witch and Wizard series was written by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet (Book 1), Ned Rust (Book 2), and Jill Dembowski (Book 3). The audiobooks are read by  Spencer Locke and Elijah Wood. That’s right Frodo is reading the book to you. Each of the books are written from two points of view. Whit Allgood who’s the wizard and who’s parts are read by Frodo–I mean Elijah Wood. The second point of view is Wisty Allgood’s, Whit’s sister. And her parts are read by Spencer Locke of coarse. Oh and if you didn’t guess, she’s the witch.

The “New Order” or “N.O.” have banned any and all forms of expression including music, art, movies, books, etc. Even names are no longer in the “N.O.” People are referred to as The One who (job title). For example a judge would be The One Who Judges. So naturally a resistance group forms and Whit and Wisty quickly become the two of the leading members of the Resistance.

The series starts out with Whit and Wisty Allgood and their parents getting pulled out of bed in the middle of the night. They are accused of being of the magical sort. Of coarse the Allgood parents never told their children that they were magical. But out of sheer instinct Wisty manages to use of of her magical gifts lighting herself on fire, Human Torch style. But that doesn’t really help. The Allgood parents do give Whit and Wisty two gifts. Whit receives a leather book that magically contains every book every written, magical or otherwise. Wisty receives a drum stick that is actually a magic wand. The Allgood children are taken to a children’s prison. They do manage to escape and end up meeting the Resistance. Now it’s time to fight the “N.O.” cue the curse of flies, face melting bad guys, hell dogs, rock stars, youth and public executions.

I really enjoyed these books. The biggest problem I had with the series was believing the fact that most people in the US seemed to except the “New Order’s” laws of oppression and are willing to kill anyone on the streets to don’t seem to follow they way they think, that includes killing children. While writing this review I have discovered that there is a manga series that, from what I could tell from descriptions and reviews, retells the story from the books I do recommend this series , but keep in mind that it was written for teenagers and young adults. I give it 3.75 stars out of 5.

Written by: Stuart Pitchford Writer