Granny Weatherwax Is Cooler Than You - Equal Rites
Equal Rites is the very first witch book and features only Granny Weatherwax. It is sort of a beta book, in that it introduces a few concepts that have become Witch staples (Borrowing, Granny being a terrible flier, and her first trip to Ankh-Morpork among other things), but also introduces a few things that are either never mentioned again (Eskarina) or are later retconned (the big Wizard vs. Witch battle at the end, with Granny and the Arch-chancellor rapidly changing shapes).
Granny bit her lip. She was never quite certain about children, thinking of them--when she thought of them at all--as coming somewhere between animals and people. She understood babies. You put milk in one end and kept the other end as clean as possible. Adults were even easier, because they did the feeding and cleaning themselves. But in between was a world of experience she had never really inquired about. As far as she was aware, you just tried to stop them catching anything fatal and hoped it all would turn out all right.
Granny, in fact, was at a loss, but she knew she had to do something.
"Didda nasty wolfie fwiten us, den?" she hazarded.
For quite the wrong reasons, this seemed to work. From the depths of the ball, a muffled voice said, "I am eight, you know."
"People who are eight don't curl up in the middle of the snow," said Granny, feeling her way through the intricacies of adult-child conversation.
The ball didn't answer.
"I've probably got some milk and biscuits at home," Granny ventured.
There was no perceptible effect.
"Eskarina Smith if you don't behave this minute I will give you such a smack!"
Esk poked her head out cautiously.
"There's no need to be like that."
Granny bit her lip. She was never quite certain about children, thinking of them--when she thought of them at all--as coming somewhere between animals and people. She understood babies. You put milk in one end and kept the other end as clean as possible. Adults were even easier, because they did the feeding and cleaning themselves. But in between was a world of experience she had never really inquired about. As far as she was aware, you just tried to stop them catching anything fatal and hoped it all would turn out all right.
Granny, in fact, was at a loss, but she knew she had to do something.
"Didda nasty wolfie fwiten us, den?" she hazarded.
For quite the wrong reasons, this seemed to work. From the depths of the ball, a muffled voice said, "I am eight, you know."
"People who are eight don't curl up in the middle of the snow," said Granny, feeling her way through the intricacies of adult-child conversation.
The ball didn't answer.
"I've probably got some milk and biscuits at home," Granny ventured.
There was no perceptible effect.
"Eskarina Smith if you don't behave this minute I will give you such a smack!"
Esk poked her head out cautiously.
"There's no need to be like that."