Review: Children’s Book and App – The Witch of the East

The Witch of the East is the first book from Edinburgh-based author, Mark Boyde, to be published and is part of his saga, The Tales of Mordekai Hagg. The book has been released as an app (available at the Apple Store) and as a printed book.  Although The Edinburgh Reporter loves a book, we have to say that this app is outstanding, as you get so many extras, so it seems well worth the small fee. It is also incredibly simple and fun to use.

The story follows The Witch of the East as she tricks the faeries of Sweetascanbee Castle into going to her house in the scary Ringfinger Forest. As the ‘faery hunt’ starts, the witch summons her friends the sea hags, the blood sucking elves and the Grymdelhack Troll from Crimsonwrath Mountain to hunt the faeries whilst they flitter through the forest.

This fantastic tale has a deep-seated moral message, as do all the other books in the collection. The spelling of the words, particularly ‘faery’, is an ingenious touch and gives the story that Middle Ages old worldly feel of an  fairy tale similar to the Brothers Grimm.

The story is dark and a wee bit scary at times, but the wonderful rhymes and inventive character and place names will make this book appeal to children and adults alike. The rhyming is certainly key to the story and enormous praise must go to the author Mark Boyde for managing to perfectly rhyme such tricky imaginative words.  The sound effects for the noises and the voice over are excellently done on the app, and you will notice the famous voices of Jimmy Chisolm from Braveheart along with Siobhan Redmond.

The app gives you interesting insights into the creators including the wonderfully original illustrator, Scott McGregor. The App and book both have a firm Scottish connection, and I think this theme will run through the other books, as well as keeping on board well known Scottish actors for voice overs.

One of the best things about buying this app is that a percentage of the price goes to The Scottish Burned Children’s Club, an excellent charity dedicated to young burns survivors across Scotland. It is a charity close to Mark’s heart, and each book in the saga will be dedicated to a different charity.

Definitely worth a look, this is the perfect old fashioned gothic fairy tale with no video games here – just good old fashioned fun.