Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth and Me

 

This is a book that I think I probably acquired thorough the Scholastic Book Sale while we were living in PNG; my edition is from 1974, so I would have been eight or nine. The book sale was just for books (revolutionary, I know) and it was essentially the only way I could access books apart from the library -- there were no bookshops in Mt Hagen. And of course all the books were American... though this is the UK edition, the original US version had the title, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth. I have to agree with the UK publishers re the (slightly) snappier title.

I've hung onto this book all these years, but I don't think I've actually read it since we left PNG. As a child, I loved Jennifer, Hecate, but there was plenty in it to mystify me -- Pilgrim costumes for Halloween, apartments with elevators, quarts of water, New Math, snow and school at Christmas time and the fact that watermelon at New Year was strange. I was intrigued by witches, too, and I also experimented with magic potions, so I found that very relatable. I can't remember what I thought about the fact that Jennifer was Black and Elizabeth was white, though I was also living in a highly segregated community at the time.

Reading some more recent reviews, I found that some reviewers looked askance at this book because they took the view that Jennifer was 'bullying' Elizabeth by putting her through her 'witch apprenticeship.' Give me a break! Elizabeth has to eat strange foods (a raw egg every day, raw onions). But Elizabeth is well able to stand up for herself, and she undertakes her witch 'trials' willingly -- she adds the egg to milkshakes, and she loves onion sandwiches anyway. Elizabeth is just as sarcastic and feisty as Jennifer is cool and sardonic -- they are a great pair, a fact I only appreciated properly this time around.