The Curse of the Fart Witch

Jacob's brother Cooper has always been a walking fart machine. But when Cooper lets rip the loudest, smelliest fart of his life, he doesn't just ruin Jacob's morning. He wakes something up.

The whole school is called into a special assembly after a meteorite crashes in the Western Woods overnight. Headteacher Brown has added a truly spectacular fart of his own into the microphone, and a mysterious guest is waiting behind the curtain in a pair of olive-green wellies. Her name is Professor Wanda, and she says she's here to talk about the meteorite. She is not here to talk about the meteorite. It's from near Uranus.

Jacob and his friends, Cheng, Henry, and twins Lily and Rosie, have already formed a pact: find the space rock before anyone else does. But Professor Wanda has other plans. She's not really a scientist. She's the Fart Witch, and the meteorite story is just a cover, keeping everyone out of the Western Woods while she runs her fart-gas harvesting operation deep in the trees.

Barking spiders start turning up everywhere, a chaotic swarm, part minion army, part mischief-making gremlin horde, and they're all working for her. When Jacob's parents call Abuela to reassure him she's fine, something answers that sounds almost right, using his old nickname, insisting everything is fine, and casually mentioning that his late Papalito is outside raking leaves. Jacob knows immediately that whatever is on the other end of that phone, it isn't her. But nobody believes him, not until he finds Abuela deep in the woods himself, standing frozen in the middle of the Fart Witch's camp, trapped in a trance with nobody but Jacob left to snap her out of it.

The grown-ups are no help at all, at least not until the kids get them moving. Armed with a secret potion from the Fart Witch's own twin sister and every super soaker and water balloon Woodville can find, Jacob and his friends set out to save Abuela and banish the Fart Witch for good. But it all comes down to one final, unavoidable fart, let rip by Jacob himself in the middle of a packed church, that brings the whole showdown crashing together.

The Curse of the Fart Witch is a laugh-out-loud, edge-of-your-seat funny fantasy adventure for readers aged 8 to 12, built around one unforgettable fart, a whole cast of barking spiders, and a race against a witch who always seems to be one step ahead. It's packed with fart jokes for kids, sibling rivalry, school humour, and just enough barking spider menace to make you spray under your bed. Perfect for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid meets Goosebumps.

This is also an illustrated chapter book designed to work for every kind of reader. The Curse of the Fart Witch uses dyslexia-considerate formatting throughout: generous spacing, a clean sans-serif font, and short, punchy paragraphs, alongside playful chapter titles and black-and-white line illustrations on almost every page. Written at a reading level of 8 to 9 but built for readers aged 8 to 12, it's genuinely accessible middle-grade fiction, dyslexia-friendly fiction that works for reluctant readers and confident readers alike, without ever talking down to either.

Dapple Grey Press is committed to making brilliant stories accessible to every young reader, whatever their reading level.