Eloise meets Coraline in this spellbinding tale by the beloved author of Magic Elizabeth.

Ivy Lou seems to have it all—except friends. So when a witch appears and knits up some magical playmates, Ivy Lou’s parents hire her. Things quickly turn for the worse for Ivy Lou as her new friends, parents, and fancy house disappear and she suddenly finds herself captive in the witch’s hastily knit Horrid Little Hut.

The witch has her own motives—to groom Ivy Lou to be a witch’s child. Ivy Lou, who turns out to be terrible at making potions, casting spells, and riding on a broomstick, has met her match. Even her threat of Tantrum Number Three, to turn herself inside out, doesn’t faze this witch. Finally, as the witch is out on her nightly broomstick rounds, a terrified Ivy Lou, enchanted knitting needles in hand, has only until midnight to unknit the Horrid Little Hut and restore the life she knew.

Will Ivy Lou manage to get back home, or is she doomed to become a witch’s child forever?