I was so torn on whether to give this four or five stars! But I ended the book too worried about the abandoned cats and other animals for full marks, I think. It's a wonderful read, though. Wise Child is a somewhat bratty character, or at least starts out that way. But when her grandmother dies and she is taken in by the village witch, there's no more spoiling - or there is, but not quite in the same way. Picture a slightly nicer Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden put into the care of a much nicer, sugar sweet version of Granny Weatherwax, and the kid starts to improve a great deal, even becoming interested in witchcraft herself. But then there's a bad winter, and an outbreak of smallpox, and the pig-ignorant priest starts pointing fingers and the inquisition gets called in. Even so, the whole thing is so quietly and gently written, with such a focus on the natural world, that it's a pleasure to read.