Graham King:
Terry Pratchett's DiscWorld novels are always enjoyable, easy to read, and fun, but this one went a step further. Get this book for the teenager in your life. Or the teenager in you!
The two features that set this book apart from Terry Pratchett's other books, for me, were the descriptions of what a witch is and does, and the evil that protagonist teen witch Tiffany Aching must fight.
Witches are the people who take on the problems that are no-one else's problems, that see what no-one wants to see. She tends to the sick and forgotten, buries the unwanted, and is generally the mortar that keeps their society together.
Sure, she has some magic. And a broomstick. And a pointy black hat. Mostly though, she's got common sense and a caring attitude, and it suits the villagers to think it's magic.
The evil chasing her is a witch-hunter, twisted by religious beliefs, who died long ago, and is now an idea. The idea infects people when they start to hate, to fear, to be jealous. At the end of the book Tiffany gets a school built, so that the villagers have ideas in their head, and don't have space for the evil one.
This would be a great book for a young teenager (the protagonist is 16, so probably ages a bit under that). It's funny, entertaining, and brings up important issues in a light-hearted fashion.
