Dorrie - the little witch whose hat is always on crooked, and whose stockings never match - does it again in this tenth installment of Patricia Coombs' twenty-books series chronicling her adventures, once more saving Witchville from certain doom. When Wizard Floog, who holds the mortgage on the Town Tower and Meadow, decides to foreclose, it sends the entire witching community - including Dorrie's mother, the Big Witch - into a frenzy. The arrival on the scene of Madame Zee, a fortune-teller of some renown, seems providential: perhaps she can advise the witches on how to proceed. Only Dorrie suspects that things are not what they seem, but how can she warn the adults when, as per usual, no one will listen to her...?

Dorrie's fans - and goodness knows, I was certainly one myself, as a little girl - will enjoy Dorrie and the Fortune Teller immensely, relishing the story of their favorite witchy heroine's triumph (yet again), despite the general obliviousness of the adults around her (a running theme in Coombs' books). Patricia Coombs' illustrations are as adorable as ever, capturing all of Dorrie's gamine charm. I was struck, in the course of this reading, by the marked similarity between the wizard who appears in the scene in which Madame Zee is giving her fortunes, and the magician of The Magician and McTree. Could the latter actually be related to the Dorrie books? Or is it just a (natural) similarity in style? Whatever the case may be, this is another magical Dorrie tale, one all little would-be witches will treasure! ( )