A Little Mermaid and a Baby Mermaid live in a grotto inside the glass hill and become their friends but they don't tell Old Witch about the mermaids because they know she would immediately start thinking about fishing poles. They each have a black cat in the corresponding size. Eventually, a Weeny Witch baby named BeeBee joins them on the glass hill. Old Witch is Hannah's gammer or grandmother. She is a good little witch and becomes friends with Amy and Clarissa. They draw a picture of Hannah, Little Witch Girl and she soon shows up atop the glass hill much to the delight of Old Witch.

They are not unkind though and they quickly realize that it must be very lonely for Old Witch up on that slippery glass hill so they allow her to abracadabra herself a companion. They can even send letters back and forth between the two worlds and they know a red cardinal bird who is happy to carry the messages in his beak. Everything that Amy and Clarissa put into their drawings becomes 'real' in the witch world. What fun would Halloween be without Old Witch up to her usual tricks? The Witch Family is a delightful mixture of the real world where Amy and Clarissa live and the fantasy world of the witches. Amy knows that she can't expect total goodness.

It's that simple and because Amy is seven and because she says so, that is exactly what happens to Old Witch. If she does not mend her ways and follow the rules and stay on the glass hill then she will not be allowed to celebrate Halloween. If she can learn to be good she can come down from the hill of glass on Halloween night and behave like a proper Old Witch and do lots of delightfully wicked things. Of course she has her broom and pointy black hat and her black cat, Old Tom. At first Amy allows Old Witch nothing but the few things she can create by magic in such a barren and bleak place like a rickety old house with a front porch, a rocking chair and a few herbs for dinner. There's really no telling what evil thing she will do next so Amy banishes Old Witch to a remote and barren glass hill and forbids her to leave it. Old Witch eats rabbits whole and dances hurly-burlies and casts wicked abracadabras and reads from a thick old book filled with magical runes. They first hear of Old Witch, who is the head of all the witches in the world, in stories that Amy's mother loves to tell them. They love to draw and they spend a lot of their time making drawing after drawing of witches. Amy and Clarissa are two little girls who are best friends and they are fascinated with all things magical, especially witches. Enough is enough! Old Witch is banished or 'banquished' as seven year old Amy pronounces it.

The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes