Read for Life's Library. A whimsical story of wizardry and curses, with an erratic but delightful plot, and an enchanting cast of characters to fall completely in love with. I haven't seen the Miyazaki movie adaptation and going into the story completely blind was a bonus; reading this book for the first time, with no idea of what would happen next, was a little like reading Alice in Wonderland for the first time as a child.