Title: Leila the Perfect Witch (The World of Gustavo #2)
Author: Flavia Z. Drago
Illustrator: Flavia Z. Drago
Publisher: Walker Books
Genre: Children’s picture book
Book format: Hardback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: Leila is a witch. A very determined one. More than anything, she wants to learn to bake!
*Free copy provided by publisher for review…
Review: This is such a fun story and with a great message too! Leila is a witch and lives with her three sisters and mother in their gingerbread house. Leila is always good at everything she tries doing and has a proud display of awards she’s won for everything from pumpkin carving to conjuring. But there’s one award Leila doesn’t have and that is a trophy for winning the Witchy Cake-Off. Leila knows it’s only a matter of time before she wins it, but when she tries to practice her baking at home, she realises it’s not as easy as it seems. This hardback book is quite big, taller and wider than A4 in size and is filled with thick matt pages of colourful illustrations and text.
I love this story and how fun and different Leila’s family look. Leila wants to win the Witchy Cake-off and tries practicing her baking at home but when she tries to make a particular cake things go wrong and Leila thinks she’ll never win the Cake-Off. I love how this story is so fun and interesting but has a deeper message in it too. Although Leila struggles to bake anything good, her family, her sisters in particular, help her to feel better and she’s encouraged to try again. I love what ends up happening after this and the lesson Leila learns about how good it feels to take part rather than just win.
The illustrations are so interesting and lovely and knowing how much I loved reading ‘Gustavo the Shy Ghost’, I knew I would enjoy this one. The illustrations throughout are so lovely and detailed. There are extra illustrations and fun images to see on the inside of the front and back covers as well as lots of things to spot in each picture in the story itself. I love how Leila and her family look, how different all the sisters are and how fun the whole witchy world looks too. There’s even a fun nod to Gustavo on the last double page which I loved spotting! 😀 The illustrations really make this book so fun to read and look at and it wouldn’t be such a fun story without such great pictures to look at.
Overall this is a great book and one with a brilliant message for children too. I love the funny nod to Bake-Off as well as how fun and silly some of the things happening in the pictures are. Leila’s family and the creations they make are so fun to see and this is definitely a great book to share with children. I still find ‘Gustavo the Shy Ghost’ to be my favourite book by the author, but I love how this one has that Day of the Dead feel too when it comes to the illustration, a more fun and colourful look than what you typically expect when it comes to the way everything looks and the front cover is even embossed in places making this feel like a very special read indeed.
-Read review of Gustavo the Shy Ghost by Flavia Z. Drago.
What do you think of this book? Have you read this or any other books by the author? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 