The first of her great kids’ urban fantasy books, with our protagonists getting involved with magic, racial dynamics and the local witch. ( )

A simple story that still manages to loop back on itself in surprising ways. Two siblings start a revenge business, but they hadn't counted on two things: being contracted by their intended victims and competing with a vicious witch.

The interactions between all the neighborhood children is fun, and local bully Buster uses hysterically harmless language ("vampire-stomach," "tomato-puke") as profanity. Unfortunately, the plot doesn't aspire to any great heights, and deux ex machina power the story.

I think this was Jones' first published novel (as Wilkin's Tooth in 1973, according to my copy). That may explain a lot ( )

Not as memorable as some DWJ stories, but enjoyable, funny, and easy to digest. ( )

When I was on my spree of reading Jones' books in the year or so after she died, I remember seeing 'Witch's Business' on the shelf at the library and avoiding it. It has such an ugly cover, and the title is stupid. Now, having picked it up at a book sale for 25¢, I find that this was her first children's book. Her first! And re-titled for the American market. For the record, Mrs. Publisher, 'Wilkin's Tooth' is a much more intriguing title.

Anyway. Even for a prototype, this is a decent Jones book. A brother and sister desperate to make pocket money start a revenge business (eat it Encyclopedia Brown) in their backyard and start a whole mess of trouble with the procurement of a tooth for a tooth. There's a shade too many children, six or seven never get so much as named, and the mess is hastily solved at the end, but most of us know that Jones made the most of her ample room for improvement in the thirty-plus year career that followed this book. ( )

This is one of Diana Wynne Jones' earlier books. (It was originally published in 1973, under the title 'Wilkins' Tooth')
It's definitely aimed at a younger audience than many of her books - it's a kids' book, probably for people around 10. But I didn't feel that it had the 'condescending' feeling that I complained of in 'Dogsbody' at all. I admit that I enjoyed it!
In it, a group of kids decide to make some pocket money by going into the revenge business. Soon this leads them to tangle with the tough gang from the neighborhood, the two 'weird' sisters that no one likes, and some other kids from the neighborhood. Everyone wants revenge on someone, and the situation is getting complicated - but it goes from complicated to worse when the strange old Biddy who lives in a hut and is suspected of being a witch begins to warn them off... revenge might be "Witch's Business" and kids have no right to cut in.... ( )