Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Wee Winnie Witch’s Skinny by Virginia Hamilton, ill. Barry Moser

I’m so pleased. For years I’ve waiting for today’s book to hit its 20th anniversary in the hopes that we might discuss it on the podcast. Now, at long last, we finally have the chance to kick off the Halloween season with Wee Winnie Witch’s Skinny: An Original African American Scare Tale. There is just so much to talk about with this book. We’d already done a Barry Moser in The Mushroom Man, but this one is VERY different. There’s trauma and woodcuts, but don’t let that get you down. There are also some legitimately good scares.
Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.
Show Notes:
Here’s the Wicked Witch by Barry Moser, a.k.a. Nancy Reagan, as mentioned on this podcast.

As Kate says, “This cat is, puh-sessed.” Something about the eyes.

We very much appreciate that the spice-hot pepper witch-be-gone potion is being carted about in a milk jug.

Look. She may be a witch who removes her skin on a regular basis, but she’s a witch who wants to retain her sense of style. Cause look at how she keeps those gold hoops earrings. Skin? Gone. Earrings? Here to stay!!
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This is, as I say, so American. “Look, you can show me a naked witch riding a bridled man, absolutely. But you better not show me any butt crack.” No boob either, obviously.

We kind of love the little jack-o-lantern smile that appears in the chimney smoke after the witch’s skin is all burned up.

Please, if you want a middle grade novel that involves a person taking off their skin, try Root Magic by Eden Royce. That book contains the most sympathetic boo hag of all time.

Kate Recommends: Donating to the American Cancer Society
Betsy Recommends: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate

About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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Fantastic episode — I couldn’t remember where I had heard the skin-off story before until you mentioned ROOT MAGIC. I love that book so much. But it also calls to mind similar stories from other cultures: for instance, I remember it being part of the Greek story of MEDEA. Medea, an enchantress and niece of Circe (one of the original witches in Greek mythology), marries Jason (of the Argonauts) who then ditches her for Glauce, a Corinth princess. As revenge, Medea sends a dress and a crown to Jason’s new bride. Medea has laced the dress and crown with poison so that Glauce is consumed by flames when she puts them on.
(There’s also a scene in the Cate Blanchett ELIZABETH movie where one of Elizabeth’s ladies-in-waiting dies after wearing one of Elizabeth’s dresses which had been poisoned in an assassination attempt of the queen. However, while it made for Quite The Scene cinematically, historians said there was no truth in it with regards to Elizabeth I.)
This tale (or trope) is also played out in a SCARY STORY TO TELL IN THE DARK tale called “The White Satin Evening Gown” where a poor high schooler rents a dress for a dance from a pawn shop. It ends up being her downfall. She looks lovely and dances all night, but starts to feel dizzy and faint. The next morning, her mother finds her dead in the dress. Turns out she had been poisoned by embalming fluid which got into her blood stream as she perspired while dancing. The pawn shop dealer got the dress from an undertaker’s assistant who had stolen it off a dead body the year before.