Jones, Diana Wynne. Howl’s Moving Castle. Greenwillow Books, 1986.
Reason read: August is the birth month of Jones. Read in her honor. Howl’s Moving Castle is the first in a series.
Howl’s moving castle truly is a castle that moves its location across the countryside. When the Hatter family lost their patriarch, mother Fanny knew their hat shop would not pay the bills. She decided to farm out her three daughters for apprenticeships in the community to earn extra money and learn trades useful for the future. Fanny assigned Lettie an apprenticeship with a pastry cook. Martha’s appointment was with a witch to learn witchcraft. Sophie, as the eldest daughter, would someday inherit the family hat shop so Fanny gave her the assignment of working with her. Despite Sophie’s boredom in the shop she showed a talent for bringing life to objects. This threatens the Witch of the Waste and she turns Sophie into an elderly crone. Looking to break the spell, Sophie moves in with Wizard Howl and makes a deal with his fire demon, Calcifer. If Sophie can break the contract Howl made with Calcifer, Calcifer in turn would undo Sophie’s spell. It’s a fast moving fantasy with lots of twists and turns!
As an aside, I found myself siding with the fireplace demon, Calcifer. I liked his spark (pun totally intended). The scarecrow was creepy.
Author fact: Jones died in 2011 at the age of 76. My copy of Howl’s Moving Castle had an interview with the author.
Book trivia: Jones says that a little boy asked her to write a story about a castle that moved about the land. How cool is that?
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fantasy for Young and Old” (p 83).
~*LunaSea*~ 