Official Author Site
The Japanese translations of Ruth Chew’s books continued with another three color-coordinated books published in 2016.
See my post at spjg.com for photos of the interiors.
Behold volumes 22, 23, and 24 of the Japanese series.
Another Ruth Chew story was released this month. This time, it’s Witch in the House.
Buy Witch in the House at Amazon.
I’m fond of this one because (as far as I know) it’s the only one that’s been translated into Chinese!
A few years back, I found a used copy listed on a Chinese website. A colleague of mine made the purchase and had it sent from Taiwan to Singapore, where I live.
One interesting characteristic of the book is that the spine is on the right; the front cover is the back cover and vice versa!
The Chinese title, 糊涂巫婆 (Hútú wūpó), apparently means “confused witch”.
Fair enough!
More about the various editions of Witch in the House.
Ruth Chew’s best-loved book, The Wednesday Witch, was released in paperback and digital formats in late August, along with Witch’s Broom.
If you pre-ordered the hardcover, your order was cancelled. The hardcover edition is not currently offered for sale. There is no known release date.
Nevertheless, we are happy that this classic story can be part of our Halloween celebrations this year.
Later this month (October 20th), look out for the e-book version of Three Adventure Tales, which includes:
I’ve updated the foreign editions page to reflect the fact that the series of Japanese translations of Ruth Chew’s books has hit 21 volumes as of April 2015.
I only have the first nine, but apparently it’s possible to shop on Amazon Japan in English, buy with any credit card, and get international shipping, so that situation is temporary. Luckily, even the ones from back in 2010 still seem to be available.
Twelve more books I am completely not able to read, soon to be mine!
To be fair, I did understand the three words of the title of one of them (Witch’s Cat). I know slightly more than absolutely zero Japanese.
It’s interesting that the hyphen in ‘second-hand’ has been dispensed with off and on in the various editions of this book. As it happens, I approve of leaving the hyphen out.
Speaking of Google search results… Adrian Harris, I’m truly sorry. Apparently, a domain called secondhandmagic.com is not as interesting to Google users as a page about Ruth Chew’s book by the same name.
The Penguin / Random House website is now linking here! Sort of. That text isn’t clickable. Ah well. I’m happy as long as ruthchew.com beats Wikipedia (and Amazon and Goodreads) in Google search results.
Actually, you know what? I don’t even care about that.
I care that the books are reaching a new generation, thanks to Random House.
Happy 2015!
Amazon is now displaying jacket art for three more Ruth Chew reissues! The Wednesday Witch
The release of The Wednesday Witch is particularly exciting: it was Ruth Chew’s first story!
The e-book Three Adventure Tales
Preorder at Amazon:
My friend downloaded a sample of The Trouble with Magic on her Kindle Voyage. Here’s what it looks like! You can see the cover, a chapter beginning with small text, a chapter beginning with bigger text, and one of the interior illustrations.
All the newly printed Ruth Chew books are available as ebooks, and there are, so far, two three-book omnibus collections available, too. See a complete listing of the new books and e-books.
But what are the ebooks really like?
Many of us nostalgic book-readers are suspicious of these new-fangled e-readers
But did you know that you can read Amazon’s Kindle books on a free ap without buying a Kindle? They’ll even let you download samples of Ruth Chew’s books while considering an e-book purchase. I know, because that’s what I finally did!
Below are screenshots from the Kindle ap running on my desktop computer of the cover and some of the interior pages of the Kindle ebook of The Witch’s Buttons, showing how well the illustrations reproduce and how you can change the font size. Enjoy!
