48 pages • 1 hour read
Claribel A. OrtegaWitchlings
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Anything but a Spare”
Seven Salazar is a witch who lives in the town of Ravenskill with her parents and her baby brother, Beefy. Every year, the Black Moon Ceremony sorts the 12-year-old witches of the Twelve Towns into covens. Seven has studied hard for the event because she doesn’t want to be one of the three Spares who won’t be placed in a coven. She dreams of being sorted into the powerful House Hyacinth and becoming a famous journalist like her idol, Tiordan Whisperbrew. Her parents, Fox and Talisman, try to ease her nerves, but Seven worries that she might get placed with Valley Pepperhorn, a loner from a wealthy, intimidating family who’s bullied Seven for years. Seven is on edge while she and her family walk to the Ravenskill town square because there have been rumors of a monster called the Nightbeast, “a giant wolf that ate Witchlings” (6). Her best friend, Poppy, promises that they’ll stay friends no matter what coven they’re sorted into.
Each Town is ruled by a Gran, and her second-in-command is the Uncle, who has the power to speak to animals. Ravenskill’s Gran is named Knox Kosmos, and the Uncle is named Rulean Pennyfeather. Beefy grabs the Uncle’s hat, and Seven returns it to him. When a new girl named Thorn tries to strike up a conversation with Seven before the ceremony begins, Seven harshly tells her to be quiet. The Gran instructs the 28 witchlings to hold their crystal amulets and sing the Black Moon Song, and the amulets change color to reveal their coven placements. Five witchlings are sorted into each of the five covens—House of Stars, Moth House, Frog House, House Hyacinth, and Goose House. Poppy’s amulet turns purple. She’s saddened that Seven isn’t in House Hyacinth with her, but she quickly smiles and joins her new friends because the witchlings have been taught that any “misgiving about what coven you were placed in could spell disaster” (15). Seven is shocked because best friends are always sorted into the same coven. Her amulet turns red. Filled with shame, she realizes that she, Thorn, and Valley are the Spares.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Forever Witchlings”
Seven looks at the excited Thorn and the smug Valley in disbelief and reminds them that they’re doomed to be “the town outcasts [their] whole lives” (18). However, Thorn reminds Seven that they shouldn’t be ungrateful, or their circle won’t seal, and they’ll become Forever Witchlings and lose their magic. The Gran seals the newly sorted witches into their covens to prevent any one coven from gaining too much power. The Spares are meant to be sealed, too, but they aren’t able to form a circle. To save them from being Forever Witchlings, Seven invokes the Clause of the Impossible Task. Only one coven has ever achieved this, but it’s their last chance to become full-fledged witches. After Thorn and Valley voice their agreement with Seven’s plan, the Gran grants them her blessing.
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Impossible Task”
Seven feels betrayed that Poppy won’t even look at her. As the townspeople laugh and gossip around them, Valley tells the teary Thorn, “They want to see you upset. Don’t let these butt-toads win” (28). To Seven’s horror, the Gran declares that the three Spares will be turned into toads if they fail to complete their impossible task, which is “to fell a Nightbeast” (29).
Chapter 4 Summary: “Roller-Coaster Ride to Despair Town”
Poppy completely ignores Seven after the ceremony. The Salazars return home and eat the pineapple jam cake Fox baked for the occasion. Seven is in disbelief that she’s a Spare despite all her efforts, and her parents remind her of a saying in Ravenskill: “Hard work doesn’t guarantee success, only no regrets” (31). They promise to help keep her hopes up during her coming challenges, and they encourage her to trust Thorn and Valley. Seven goes to her bedroom and cries as she thinks of how she’s become a “stain on her family legacy” (34). Steeling her courage, Seven resolves to never give up.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Way Too Early for Monstruo Hunting”
At Seven’s insistence, the Witchlings meet up at dawn the next morning outside of the Blue Mountain Forest. She tries to reassure the tearful and petrified Thorn that she knows some advanced spells that will protect them from the Nightbeast. Valley reveals that she knows a lot about monster hunting, and Seven is surprised because Valley never puts any effort into her schoolwork. Valley proposes that they enter the Cursed Forest and try to lure the Nightbeast with strong-smelling jelly bean fish. Seven is annoyed by how cool Valley looks when she plants the bait up in a tree, and she snaps, “The Gran didn’t put you in charge” (43). In an attempt to prove that she should be the Spares’ leader, Seven tries to climb a tree and plant more bait. The tree shakes her off, throwing her into the road. A group of House Hyacinth witches laugh at her, and Seven is furious when Poppy doesn’t stand up for her. Thorn and Valley help Seven up, and Valley tells Seven to follow her lead tomorrow.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Valley Pepperhorn Is a Bully”
The following morning, Seven goes to the library in search of a book about the Nightbeast, but it’s been checked out by someone named B. Birch. The librarian gives her some texts on protection and combat spells. Next, she goes to the Hill, where the Pepperhorns and the rest of Ravenskill’s most affluent families live. On her way to the Pepperhorns’ mansion, she meets a Spare named Pixel Gibbons, who describes her ostracization in town and the cruelty she faces from her employers, the Dimblewits. On her phone, Seven dismisses Thorn and Valley’s messages and sends a message to Poppy asking if they can talk, but it’s ignored. She makes an effort to subdue her anger and embarrassment and enters Valley’s home, Blood Rose Manor.
Seven is shocked by how charming Valley’s room is and the revelation that they both love the Witches of Heartbreak Cove novels. When she testily questions Valley’s knowledge of monsters, Valley lists a number of facts, including that “Nightbeasts like snacking on baby witches” (58). Valley swipes a volume from her father’s private library. The book describes the last Impossible Task, undertaken by three 12-year-old boys in October 1965. The boys are called the Cursed Toads because they were turned into toads and displayed in a museum as punishment for failing to complete the task. Mr. Pepperhorn enters Valley’s room, finds his book, and orders Seven and Thorn to go home. Seven begins to feel sorry for Valley because of her frightening father.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Beefy Gets Lost”
Three days later, Seven still hasn’t heard from Valley, and she begins to grow worried. While Seven is practicing combat magic with Thorn, Seven’s mother calls her to say that Beefy is missing. She isn’t worried because he often disappears since he can’t control his magic yet. Thorn volunteers to help Seven search. The girls hear the baby wailing inside the Cursed Forest and hurry in after him. Seven sees “a figure shrouded in moving shadows” watching them from the darkness (71). She finds Beefy in a clearing and carries him from the forest with Thorn racing beside her. Thorn’s too scared to walk home, so Seven’s parents pick them up. Fox holds the sobbing Thorn while Talisman makes sure that his children are unharmed. Beefy points at the Cursed Forest and says his first word, “monstruo.”
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Trouble with Thorn”
The Gran and the Uncle place protective wards around the Salazars’ house. The next morning, the three Witchlings go to the library. Seven asks Valley where she’s been the past few days, and she claims she was sick. Seven sees Poppy at the library and greets her, but the girl looks embarrassed and doesn’t reply. Thorn objects, “That wasn’t very nice!” (79), but Seven blames herself.
Seven’s favorite librarian, Moira Dewey, sets up a study room for the Witchlings and stocks it with their favorite snacks and books about the Nightbeast. The girls’ research reveals that a creature called el cuco serves the Nightbeast while it hibernates and gains strength. Nightbeasts prefer to feast on powerful witches, and Beefy is a very strong baby. One of the books contains illustrations of the Nightbeast, a giant wolf with bloodred fur and white eyes, and el cuco, a skinny, hyena-like creature with several rows of teeth. Valley theorizes that Beefy teleported himself to the edge of the wood and a cuco found him. She knows so much about monsters because she wants to become a monster hunter and protect the Twelve Towns.
The girls concoct a plan to find the Nightbeast’s lair by tracking the cucos. Using her knowledge of magical plants, Seven identifies ways that they can detect the monster’s presence and conceal themselves. Thorn suddenly tears up and reveals that a Nightbeast took her twin brother, Petal. Everyone in her old town treated her like she was cursed after the tragedy, and she thinks they might have been correct because the monster seems to have followed her. Seven holds Thorn’s hand, and Valley promises to protect her. Seven wonders if her former bully is now her friend, and she feels grateful to the girl for putting together a plan to take down the Nightbeast. Even though Seven’s still terrified of the monster, she puts on a brave face and tells her fellow Witchlings, “We’re gonna prove every ugly butt-toad in this town wrong” (93).
Chapter 9 Summary: “Poisons, Books, and Quarrels”
Thorn’s parents own the Bruised Apple Bookstore, and the Witchlings search in vain for information about the Cursed Toads there. Mrs. Dimblewit enters the shop with Pixel, loudly demeans Spares, and accuses Thorn of killing her brother. Mrs. Laroux comes to her daughter’s defense, reminds Mrs. Dimblewit that she is on the town council, and tells the woman she is no longer welcome in her shop. Mrs. Laroux tells Pixel, “You ever want to leave there, I have a job for you here. I will treat you with dignity” (104). Mrs. Dimblewit uses her magic to drag Pixel from the store. Mrs. Laroux mentions that the Dimblewits have been “discussing terrible things in the latest meetings” of the town council and then tells the girls not to worry about anything besides their task (105).
The Witchlings gather shushrooms that can muffle sounds. The Boggy Crone River where the fungi grow is near train tracks, and the girls pass a train car filled with rotting chunks of meat. When they spy cuco tracks, Thorn and Seven want to go home at once, but Valley urges them to seize this opportunity because one of their three weeks is already up: “Just this one time, listen to me” (109). Valley and Seven are so busy arguing over whose plan is better that they forget to eat the shushrooms, and the cucos hear them. Seven thinks that Valley has abandoned them when three cucos surround her and Thorn, but Valley leaps at the monsters.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Witchlings on Toast”
Valley uses the volcán spell to set one of the cucos on fire, and the three Witchlings make a run for it. Seven is worried about Valley because the girl is bleeding, but Valley says that her injuries are just scratches. Seven casts the viento spell, and the wind spreads the blaze, setting the remaining two cucos and the three girls on fire. The Witchlings douse the flames by jumping into piles of snow. With the three cucos dead or dying, the girls’ plan of following them to the Nightbeast is ruined.
Chapters 1-10 Analysis
Ortega’s middle grade fantasy novel crafts a world full of magic and suspense. Most of the spells in the book are Spanish words, granting the language special significance and power. The author also celebrates her Latina heritage by incorporating el Cuco, a monster that kidnaps disobedient children in the folklore of Portugal, Spain, and Latin America. The Witchlings’ conflict with the cucos adds to the story’s suspense and action. Ortega also builds tension through the design of the Impossible Task: The dangerous challenge of defeating the Nightbeast comes with a limited time frame of three weeks and the high stakes of “toadification.” Even the name “Impossible Task” emphasizes how dire the Witchlings’ situation is.
From the novel’s opening chapters, Seven and Valley’s relationship emerges as one of the most important dynamics of the story. At first, the protagonist sees Valley as a cruel loner who lives to torment her, but Ortega indicates that there’s more to Valley than Seven realizes. For example, when Valley offers Thorn words of encouragement in Chapter 3, “Seven had to work hard to hide her shock. Valley was being nice?” (28). Seven’s incredulous reaction shows her cognitive dissonance and hints that Valley will overturn Seven’s perception of her as a bully. In Chapter 6, Seven’s visit to Blood Rose Manor offers insight into Valley’s difficult home situation: A “tiny, little, extremely small part of Seven” begins to feel sorry for Valley because of Mr. Pepperhorn’s frightening demeanor (65). Seven’s budding sympathy toward Valley foreshadows both their eventual closeness and the revelation of Mr. Pepperhorn’s abusive behavior.
Thorn’s characterization reinforces Ortega’s overall message about not judging or excluding others. Thorn is so lonely that she welcomes being a part of any group, even the demeaned Spares: “I’ve never had two friends at the same time” (18). Her tragic backstory connects to the main plot because she faced social rejection in her old town after the encounter with the Nightbeast that claimed her twin brother’s life: “Everyone back at home stopped talking to me after it happened, like I was cursed or something” (89). This backstory explains why Thorn’s family moves to Ravenskill at the start of the novel, and it makes the timorous girl’s growing courage and confidence more meaningful.
Ortega uses the lens of fantasy to examine real-world issues, particularly Systems of Exclusion and Disenfranchisement. The Black Moon Ceremony quickly establishes the institutionalized inequality in the Twelve Towns: “[L]ike every ceremony before, tonight three witches would be left over: Spares” (1). This reveals that the exclusion of a marginalized population is a standard and accepted part of the protagonist’s world. The Twelve Towns present the coven system as a meritocracy to justify Spares’ disenfranchisement. In Chapter 2, Seven’s dialogue illustrates the restrictions that make Spares second-class citizens: “No advanced magic. No flying. We’ll probably be stuck working for [...] one of the terrible families on the Hill” (18). One of the families on the Hill is the Dimblewits, and Ortega uses the deprivations Pixel suffers to show how Ravenskill’s most affluent and powerful citizens exploit Spares as a cheap source of labor. After Seven’s encounter with Pixel in Chapter 6, Seven experiences “guilt that she’d never cared much about [Spares’] lives until she became one of them” (101). The fact that Seven doesn’t notice Spares’ oppression until it impacts her shows how insidious and pervasive Spares’ disenfranchisement is in this society. Seven and her fellow Witchlings must contend not only with the Nightbeast but with monstrous systems of exclusion and disenfranchisement.
The Witchlings’ struggles to function as a group in this section stress their need for The Power of Cooperation and Trust. In Chapter 8, the protagonist comes to appreciate that they each possess different “strengths that might come in handy for this impossible task” (92). As the story continues, Ortega weaves these complementary skills, including Seven’s knowledge of magical plants, Thorn’s tailoring, and Valley’s monster-hunting, into the plot to emphasize the importance of cooperation. The Witchlings experience moments of unity in these chapters, such as when the girls concoct a strategy to find the Nightbeast and when Valley and Seven comfort Thorn in Chapter 8. Thorn’s kindness and her lack of bad history with either of her fellow Witchlings place her in the role of mediator. However, Seven’s unresolved resentment toward Valley remains a major obstacle to the group’s success and repeatedly jeopardizes the Witchlings’ plans and even their lives. If they are to achieve their Impossible Task and save themselves, the Witchlings must build cooperation and trust.
Names serve as motifs of Self-Discovery in the Face of Adversity: “In their world, the Twelve Towns, a child’s name was a prophecy, passed down from a grandmother or the Town Gran, their leader” (3). For example, Seven’s mother is named Fox because of her cleverness, and Seven’s father is named Talisman because he has “always been lucky” (6). At the start of the novel, Seven doesn’t know what her name reveals about her destiny, which parallels her struggle to find her place in the world. To understand the prophecy about her name, Seven must face severe hardships, illustrating the author’s point that self-discovery is attained through adversity.
Color symbolism offers insight into the protagonist’s dreams and evolving perception of Spares. Purple is the color of the illustrious House Hyacinth while Red represents Spares. In this section, Seven’s attitude toward these two colors reflects her thwarted dreams of achieving prestige and fame as a member of House Hyacinth: Purple is described as “beautiful” while red is ugly and “muddy.” As the novel continues, Seven deconstructs what her society has taught her about Spares, and her perspective on these symbolic colors shifts as a result.
Ortega provides foreshadowing about the novel’s antagonists in this section. In Chapter 1, the author reveals that Ravenskill’s Town Uncle can speak to animals, which offers a clue that he is communicating with the Nightbeast. Although it initially seems like a minor detail compared to the results of the Black Moon Ceremony, the moment that “Beefy grabbed the Uncle’s furry green hat” and Seven returns the hat significantly impacts the plot (9). For example, it’s later revealed that the Uncle uses the hat to orchestrate Beefy’s abduction by the cucos in Chapter 7. In Chapter 6, the name B. Birch is mentioned for the first time. During the climax, Seven and her allies discover that Birch is one of the Cursed Toads and that he’s been impersonating the Town Uncle for decades. The “giant hunks of meat” that the Witchlings see in the train car foreshadow that a witch is using the Nightbeast to further their own agenda (107). These early chapters raise the novel’s suspense by providing clues that mysterious antagonists are steering the monsters’ movements.
