Imagination and humor run rampant as Arriman the Awful, the Wizard of the North, tries to find a bride in this hilarious romp from Ibbotson (The Secret of Platform 13, 1998). Arriman is tired of wizardry and yearns for retirement. He's dismayed when a prophesied new wizard doesn't arrive, and decides he'll have to marry a witch and have an heir to continue the line. Enter the eccentric local witches who will compete to produce the most terrifying black magic they can muster. One is a beautiful young witch with a problem: Belladonna simply cannot do black magic. Although she knows that handicap will disqualify her, she enters the competition anyway when she meets Terence, a neglected orphan boy with a pet worm named Rover who seems to be a witch's familiar. Belladonna finally succeeds in conjuring up vipers instead of flowers and bunnies, and eventually learns that Terence has more power than anyone suspected. Ibbotson includes monsters, ghouls, and murderous ghosts; through tongue-in-cheek humor she provides an endlessly amusing book to delight readers. (b&w illustrations) (Fiction. 9-12)
