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A Hat Full of Sky

"It came crackling over the hills, like an invisible fog..." (from the first line)

Tiffany Aching -- the boldest heroine ever to swing a frying pan against the forces of evil -- is beginning her apprenticeship in magic. She expects to work hard, learn spells, and become a witch. She doesn''t expect to find herself doing chores, caring for the careless, and trying to outthink an ill-tempered nanny goat. There must be more to witchcraft than this!

But as Tiffany pursues her calling, an insidious, disembodied creature pursues Tiffany. When it strikes, neither Mistress Weatherwax (the greatest witch in the world) nor the six-inch-high Wee Free Men (the greatest thieves in the world) can save her ...

Outrageous comedy blends with pulse-racing suspense in this compelling sequel to "The Wee Free Men."

Performed by Stephen Briggs

Annotation:
This sequel to WEE FREE MEN finds 11-year-old witch-in-training Tiffany Aching once again battling the forces of evil. This time out however, she has become the unwilling host to a Hiver, a seemingly unstoppable, deeply evil parasite out to take control of her magical powers. Knowing that Tiffany is in danger, the Wee Free Men (including Rob Anybody, Daft Wullie, and Awfully Wee Billy Bigchin), rush to her aid--but do they have what it takes to rescue Tiffany from herself?

Praise

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"The fantasy world combines edgy adventure with comfortable yet imaginative domestic detail, and readers will curl up to read with a sigh of contentment." - Janice M. Del Negro May 2004

Locus
"...A HAT FULL OF SKY is peopled with vivid characters, and this ensemble puts Briggs's vocal talents to the test. It's no surprise that he succeeds marvelously....[H]e has the rhythm and cadences of Pratchett's prose down to a science, and his comic timing is always spot-on." - John Joseph Adams December 2004

Author Bio

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett's published his first story when he was only 13 years old. "The Hades Business" originally appeared in a school magazine and, two years later, it was re-published in Science Fantasy magazine, making him a professional writer at the age of 15. His first novel, THE CARPET PEOPLE, was published in 1971 and followed the adventures of a society of microscopic people living in, well, a carpet. Essentially, a children's novel in the vein of John Peterson's THE LITTLES (who, incidentally, would be giants compared to Pratchett's people) and the like, the novel paved the way for Pratchett's style of "grounded" fantasy. Many of his novels are feature fairly traditional fantasy elements in fairly traditional fantasy settings, but almost all of these settings are microcosms of the "real" world--in the case of the Discworld series, for example, all the action takes place on a flat planet that sits atop the backs of four immense elephants who, in turn, ride on the shell of an enormous turtle travelling through space. The Discworld books, which form the bulk of Pratchett's literary work and are his most well-known titles, initially began as extremely clever, and very funny, parodies of fantasy fiction and have slowly morphed into being much more. His 1989 novel, PYRAMIDS, was awarded the British Science Fiction Award and a collaboration with Neil Gaiman, GOOD OMENS, was nominated for the 1991 World Fantasy Award. A prolific author, Pratchett is a consistent best seller in England, where, according to some estimates, his fiction accounts for a little over 1% of ALL books sold in any given year.

Read A Chapter

Chapter One

Leaving

It came crackling over the hills, like an invisible fog. Movement without a body tired it, and it drifted very slowly. It wasn't thinking now. It had been months since it had last thought, because the brain that was doing the thinking for it had died. They always died. So now it was naked again, and frightened.

It could hide in one of the blobby white creatures that baa'd nervously as it crawled over the turf. But they had useless brains, capable of thinking only about grass and making other things that went baa. No. They would not do. It needed, needed something better, a strong mind, a mind with power, a mind that could keep it safe.

It searched. . . .

The new boots were all wrong. They were stiff and shiny. Shiny boots! That was disgraceful. Clean boots, that was different. There was nothing wrong with putting a bit of a polish on boots to keep the wet out. But boots had to work for a living

Click to read more...

Chapter One

Leaving

It searched. . . .

Tiffany Aching, standing on the rug in her bedroom, shook her head. She'd have to scuff the things as soon as possible.

Then there was the new straw hat, with a ribbon on it. She had some doubts about that, too.

She tried to look at herself in the mirror, which wasn't easy because the mirror was not much bigger than her hand, and cracked and blotchy. She had to move it around to try and see as much of herself as possible and remember how the bits fitted together.

But today . . . well, she didn't usually do this sort of thing in the house, but it was important to look smart today, and since no one was around . . .

She put the mirror down on the rickety table by the bed, stood in the middle of the threadbare rug, shut her eyes, and said:"See me."

And away on the hills something, a thing with no body and no mind but a terrible hunger and a bottomless fear, felt the power.

It would have sniffed the air if it had a nose.

It searched.

It found.

Such a strange mind, like a lot of minds inside one another, getting smaller and smaller! So strong! So close!

It changed direction slightly and went a little faster. As it moved, it made a noise like a swarm of flies.

The sheep, nervous for a moment about something they couldn't see or smell, baa'd . . .

. . . and went back to chewing grass.

Tiffany opened her eyes. There she was, a few feet away from herself. She could see the back of her own head.

Carefully, she moved around the room, not looking down at the "her" that was moving, because she found that if she did that, then the trick was over. It was quite difficult, moving like that, but at last she was in front of herself and looking herself up and down.

Brown hair to match brown eyes . . . well, there was nothing she could do about that. At least her hair was clean and she'd washed her face.

She had a new dress on, which improved things a bit. It was so unusual to buy new clothes in the Aching family that, of course, it was bought big so that she'd "grow into it." But at least it was pale green, and it didn't actually touch the floor. With the shiny new boots and the straw hat she looked . . . like a farmer's daughter, quite respectable, going off to her first job. It'd have to do.

From here she could see the pointy hat on her head, but she had to look hard for it. It was like a glint in the air, gone as soon as you saw it. That's why she'd been worried about the new straw hat, but it had simply gone through the pointy hat as if it wasn't there.

This was because, in a way, it wasn't. It was invisible, except in the rain. Sun and wind went straight through, but rain and snow somehow saw it, and treated it as if it was real.

She'd been given it by the greatest witch in the world, a real witch with a black dress and a black hat and eyes that could go through you like turpentine goes through a sick sheep. It had been a kind of reward. Tiffany had done magic, serious magic. Before she had done it she hadn't known that she could, when she had been doing it she hadn't known that she was, and after she had done it she hadn't known how she had. Now she had to learn how.

"See me not," she said. The vision of her -- or whatever it was, because she was not exactly sure about this trick -- vanished.

It had been a shock, the first time she'd done this. But she'd always found it easy to see herself, at least in her head. All her memories were like little pictures of herself doing things or watching things, rather than the view from the two holes in the front of her head. There was a part of her that was always watching her.

Miss Tick -- another witch, but one who was easier to talk to than the witch who'd given Tiffany the hat -- had said that a witch had to know how to "stand apart," and that she'd find out more when her talent grew, so Tiffany supposed the "see me" was part of this.

Sometimes Tiffany thought she ought to talk to Miss Tick about "see me." It felt as if she was stepping out of her body but still had a sort of ghost body that could walk around. It all worked as long as her ghost eyes didn't look down and see that she was just a ghost body. If that happened, some part of her panicked and she found herself back in her solid body immediately. Tiffany had, in the end, decided to keep this to herself. You didn't have to tell a teacher everything. Anyway, it was a good trick for when you didn't have a mirror.

Continues...

Excerpted from A Hat Full of Skyby Terry Pratchett Copyright © 2004 by Terry Pratchett. Excerpted by permission.
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