Tag: short-stories

Title of the Book: The Crazy World of Ms Wiz

Author: Terence Blacker

Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books

Publication Year: Omnibus Edition 2004

Pages: 187 pgs.

ISBN: 9780330431361/0-330-43136-6

Age Group: PYP & MYP (Grades 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th & 6^th)

Genre: Children’s Fantasy

IBDP & IGCSE Subjects Covered: English Language & English Literature

Review Written By: Fiza Pathan

Introduction

‘Where there is a woman there is magic.’

-Ntozake Shange (American playwright, poet & novelist)

‘I’ve always believed in the above quote. So I was keen on reading this omnibus titled ‘The Crazy World of Ms Wiz’, which is a collection of three of the Ms Wiz novels penned by Terence Blacker with some awesome illustrations done by Tony Ross of the Roald Dahl and David Walliams, fame. Any book where a woman prefers to be referred to by the ambiguous Ms rather than the clearer Mrs and Miss is always up my alley, even as an IB and IGCSE teacher in training. When I realized after reading a few pages of this omnibus that Ms Wiz did not like to be referred to by the prefix Mrs or Miss because they seemed too ‘drab’ that caught my attention, and then I started diving deep into the magical world of Ms Wiz the witch or rather, the paranormal operator as she likes to call herself and her wonderful batch of third-grade students who loved her style of teaching and relating to them as friends more than students.

I think the last line explains why I probably relished the Ms Wiz omnibus, especially the first book in the series titled ‘Ms Wiz Spells Trouble’ which is the book in which Ms Wiz is introduced to the class of third-form students at St. Barnabas School situated in England. I relished it because the way Ms Wiz taught or rather educated her students was so in keeping with the IB method of teaching, which is in a way made up of ‘magic’ that, in a sense, this kind of education puts the onus on the student concerning their development and role in the education process or their learning. It teaches them individual self-efficacy, which is a kind of ‘magic’ in itself because then the teacher is more of a facilitator to aid the child to excel at their own pace in the subjects of their choices for an all-round development, which is what a proper IB or International Board Education is all about.

Ms Wiz is the epitome of the ideal IB teacher who teaches magic more than subjects and creates ethically minded and yet successful students for life who will make a positive difference to the world rather than just parrots who can repeat subject content verbatim without analyzing the connecting dots or lines in between their subjects of study. Whether it was the smart Alec Jack, the meek Podge, the lazy Caroline, or the girl with gumption, Katrina, Ms Wiz managed to teach all the IDEA students effectively, catering to their individual needs and making them fit enough to tackle their own educational needs for the rest of their lives for the betterment of themselves and others. I saw the IDEA students imprinted in every student in this series who were taught and nurtured by the amazing Ms Wiz. Indeed, it is, therefore, quite true that where there is a woman sans her patriarchal conditioning, there will always be magic.

I saw a lot of things that Ms Wiz cast aside that she felt were not in keeping with the overall positive development of her wards at St. Barnabas School, including patriarchy and what patriarchy determined that a female teacher should look like, teach like, speak like and even have a prefix to her name. This was revolutionary on the part of Terence Blacker to inculcate in the minds of younger readers as far back as 1988 when the first book in this series was published in Great Britain.

Book Synopsis

As mentioned in the introduction, this omnibus by Terence Blacker, illustrated by the well-renowned and loved Tony Ross, contains three books from the Ms Wiz series. They are:

1. Ms Wiz Spells Trouble (1988)

2. In Stitches With Ms Wiz (1989)

3. You’re Nicked Ms Wiz (1989)

The first book was published in 1988 after which the following year in 1989, the other two books in the Ms Wiz series were published back-to-back. The following are the condensed storylines of each Ms Wiz novel:

1. Ms Wiz Spells Trouble

This is the novel where Ms Wiz is first introduced to the third-form students of St. Barnabas School as their new homeroom teacher. The third-form students were always considered a difficult batch of students that no homeroom teacher at St. Barnabas could handle. However, Ms Wiz, with her unconventional ways, dressing sense, name, and, of course, her magic, managed to set the third-form students in order on the first day itself, and from then on, the students took to her like several moths to a flame. They enjoyed coming to school and learning new subjects and topics, especially researching them, similar to the IB and IGCSE styles of education. Ms Wiz would also bring live pets, specimens, and animals to the class to demonstrate the topic of study or under study more elaborately and to the utter delight of the students. They especially loved it whenever Ms Wiz brought along to school her pet rat named Herbert. However, the students were warned by Ms Wiz never to divulge to the outside world about their magical world and that she was a witch or, rather, a paranormal operator. The students kept their promise. But the school authorities started smelling a rat, which would be more than just the occasional appearance of Herbert the rat, and so they started spying on Ms Wiz’s class. In turn, these teachers or other authority figures got turned into ducks, geese, pigs, et al., whenever they would try to meddle in the affairs of Ms Wiz and her third-form students. Nothing would stop the students of the third form from excelling in all their studies and extra-curricular activities. On the final prize distribution day ceremony, they were all in for a surprise when they realized that their favorite teacher of all time, Ms Wiz, would leave their school forever. They try to stop her but end up knowing that even without Ms Wiz’s magic, they can still be excellent math wizards, sportsmen or women, all-rounders, etc. Therefore, Ms Wiz, as a teacher or paranormal operator, only appeared when children needed extra magic in their lives to make their world a better place. Ms Wiz, after bidding adieu to them, took off into the sky on her vacuum cleaner, reminding them that they would once in a while see her again whenever they or their friends needed some magic in their lives.

2. In Stitches With Ms Wiz

In this novel in the Ms Wiz series, the third-form student Jack is suddenly caught with terrible pain in his lower abdomen. Since his parents were absentee nonchalant parents, they did not pay attention to Jack’s trouble, nor did his quite heartless new third-form homeroom teacher, a self-centered male named Mr. Bailey. Mr. Bailey even thought poor Jack was faking the pain in his abdomen due to an upcoming Math test. Finally, however, Jack was taken in an ambulance to the hospital when, on arrival, it was determined that he had a swollen appendix. It was so swollen that if he had come any time later, he would have been in serious trouble. Jack, however, made it and had his appendix removed in the absence of his parents and little sister. However, to his luck with his obnoxious surgeon consultant was another doctor who looked vaguely familiar to him. To his surprise and joy, he later realized that that doctor was his favorite third-form teacher, Ms Wiz. He was glad upon seeing her and wondered what a third-form teacher was doing in a general hospital helping out a surgeon! To that, Ms Wiz revealed that she was aware that this appendix surgery would be tough on Jack, and so she decided to turn into a fake surgeon to assist at his bedside during the operation. As she had mentioned in the earlier book, whenever her students needed a bit of magic to lighten up their lives, Ms Wiz would be there. She inadvertently converted the annoying Franklyn, Jack’s roommate, who managed to witness all the amazing magic that took place during Jack’s stay at the hospital to her form of teaching and magic. Meanwhile, Mr. Bailey, the self-centered new third-form teacher, realized that he had done a great injustice to Jack by mistreating him at school when poor Jack was truly having terrible abdominal pain, which later on turned out to be appendicitis. Mr. Bailey tries to set things right by visiting Jack in the hospital when his parents and little sister are around. Unfortunately, he ends up making an even greater fool of himself by eating up Jack’s appendix, thinking it to be the hospital’s rubbery food! This was done through the magic of Ms Wiz to teach the heartless third-form teacher a lesson. Along with cheering up Jack and Franklyn, attending to the needs of other lonely patients in the hospital, and flooding the hospital with a lot of white rodents due to not being able to locate the whereabouts of Herbert, the white pet rat of Ms Wiz, Ms Wiz managed to cause quite a ruckus in the hospital after which she made off on her vacuum cleaner. Jack made it out of the hospital, good to go, but Podge, his classmate who truly wanted to miss a Math test at school, taking a cue from Jack, also pretended to be having abdominal pain and tried to get into the hospital to be with Ms Wiz. When he, at the last moment, realized that Ms. Wiz was just about to leave the hospital and he would be alone to tackle the mean consultant surgeon in the hospital, he managed to save himself from being operated upon by getting off the bed and running for his dear life!

3. You’re Nicked Ms Wiz

In this novel, a little girl known well to Ms Wiz lost her pet cat over the school week. Her name was Lizzie, and she was in the third form at St. Barnabus School with the other third form students taught earlier by Ms Wiz. Mr. Bailey, the new third-form teacher, could not understand the seriousness of Lizzie’s pain being separated from her cat, Waif or Waify. He pooh-poohed her sorrow, which annoyed most of the students of the third form who were formerly students of Ms Wiz. However, Lizzie was not about to give up on her search for Waify, so she started putting up missing posters of him all over town and even personally tried looking for him herself. In the bargain, she met up with a female tramp who happened to be her former teacher, Ms Wiz, in disguise. Again, Ms Wiz had returned to help Lizzie find her pet cat with a little bit of her magic. The story goes on to indicate how Ms Wiz tried to save Waify from a set of mismatched cat kidnappers while the local police were under the mistaken impression that Lizzie had been kidnapped by a female tramp named Ms Wiz who was known to Jack and Caroline, her former students. Ms Wiz, to save Waify, turned Lizzie into a cat to creep into the lair of the kidnappers, upon which she realized that the cats’ fur was going to be used to make gloves for a soulless elite individual called Mrs. D’Arcy and then later would be killed. She tried notifying Ms Wiz about the same but was stuck in the lair because the foolish local police had nabbed Ms Wiz. Ms Wiz, after turning the local police force into white rabbits, then managed, with the help of Jack and Caroline, to head straight to the kidnappers’ lair to stop the malicious Mrs. D’Arcy from having her way with the innocent cats. With the aid of her magic, Ms Wiz manages to save Waify and the other cats, turn Lizzie back into a human being, make a human being out of a cat kidnapper, and renders Mrs. D’Arcy naked, which almost stunned the local police inspector into a state of hysterical laughter and shock at the same time. Thereby, Ms Wiz, as a tramp, proved helpful to her little friends when they needed her and her magic the most.

Book Analysis

“What is a teacher? I’ll tell you: it isn’t someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows.”

― Paulo Coelho (from his book ‘The Witch of Portobello’)

As mentioned in the introduction, Ms Wiz’s style of educating or imparting education to her students in the third form reminded me a lot about how a Cambridge or International Board Teacher or IB Teacher conducts herself. This is enshrined in the quote by internationally well-renowned author Paulo Coelho words in the quote I’ve mentioned above because a teacher like Ms Wiz teaches the student not only individual self-efficacy but also manages to create an ethically minded global citizen who can help in the sustainable development of the world and the cosmos through innovation, positivity and active participation in all forms of constructive technological advancement world over. These students then don’t remain merely students but turn into teachers in their own right who teach their skills to others, spreading wide the circle to create inclusion for all and sundry.

The students of Form Three in St. Barnabus School were very ethically sound and could excel at whatever they needed to in life; they just needed that confidence and validation from an innovative teacher to gear them toward achieving their goals and fulfilling their ultimate potential already inherent in them. I think Ms Wiz, especially in the first book in this omnibus, namely, ‘Ms Wiz Spells Trouble’ manages to inculcate:

1. The 12 IB or International Board Attitudes she wished her students to imbibe, namely:

• Appreciation
• Commitment
• Confidence
• Cooperation
• Creativity
• Curiosity
• Empathy
• Enthusiasm
• Independence
• Integrity
• Respect
• Tolerance

2. The Five IB Skills a Student Needs to Change the World for the better, namely:

• Thinking Skills
• Social Skills
• Communication Skills
• Self-Management Skills
• Research Skills

3. She even incorporated the Cambridge Learners Attributes in her students, namely making her students:

(i) Confident

(ii) Responsible

(iii) Reflective

(iv) Innovative

(v) Engaged

4. She even strove to create various IB Learner Profiles within her third-form students to make them into internationally minded citizens who recognized their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, which would help create a better and peaceful world. These IB Learner Profiles are:

1. Inquirers

2. Knowledgeable

3. Thinkers

4. Communicators

5. Principled

6. Open-minded

7. Caring

8. Risk-Takers

9. Balanced

10. Reflective

One can see and witness all this when one reads the three books in this omnibus. One could then easily think that the author and creator of the Ms Wiz series, Terence Blacker, probably knew something about the Cambridge and IB forms of education. Here are some examples from the various three books in this omnibus titled ‘The Crazy World of Ms. Wiz’ to illustrate the points put forward:

Example 1:

In the book ‘Ms Wiz Spells Trouble, ’ Podge was never known to be able to excel at any sporting event due to him being plus size. But Ms Wiz encouraged him to be a risk taker, which is part of the IB Learner Profile and created a lot of confidence, enthusiasm, and independence in him, which are essential IB Attitudes to undertake the many sporting events conducted by St. Barnabus School where he emerged as the undisputed winner of all the games, first with a little help via Ms Wiz’s magic and then all on his own. By the time Ms Wiz left at the end of the book on her vacuum cleaner, Podge had even stunned his indifferent and bossy parents by his capabilities as a sportsman.

Example 2:

In the novel ‘You’re Nicked Ms. Wiz’, because of the proper training done by Ms Wiz in the third form with her students, Lizzie was able to be empathetic, committed, and independent enough to turn into a risk taker to seek out her lost cat Waify despite the nonchalance of Mr. Bailey. Her love and commitment to the safety of her cat made her take on the responsibility of seeking Waify out herself. She was pushed to put up numerous posters of the cat all over town on her own, thereby incorporating not only a lot of IB Learner Attributes but also some of the major Cambridge Leaner Attributes, like being confident, responsible, and engaged.

Example 3:

In the novel ‘In Stitches With Ms. Wiz,’ the third-form student Caroline, studying with Jack, because of her empathetic nature, immediately recognizes that Jack is not fibbing when he states to Mr. Bailey that he is indeed getting a lot of discomfort and pain in his abdomen. She even coaxed Mr. Bailey to call the hospital, which showed her independent spirit, her risk-taking capabilities, and her confidence in dealing with a rather difficult homeroom teacher, not to mention that she was committed and responsible for the welfare of her friend Jack. If one had studied the previous novel in this omnibus, ‘Ms Wiz Spells Trouble’ then one would have realized that before Ms Wiz came into Caroline’s life, Caroline was a rather laid back and lazy student tending to always daydream in class and not having any reason to excel in her studies or other extra-curricular activities. After Ms Wiz inculcated in her a sense of direction and motivation, the class dreamer turned over the term into the class spokesperson and a very committed and talented student, especially falling in the category of an Independent Learner according to the IB and Cambridge theory of the four different IDEA Learners in a classroom. One would notice the witty Caroline later on giving Mr. Bailey a hard time for having driven poor Jack almost to the brink and creating, in turn, a comically guilty conscience in Mr. Bailey.

Example 4:

In the novel ‘Ms Wiz Spells Trouble’, we notice that at the beginning of the third form, Jack is an Emerging Learner in Mathematics. All his previous teachers treated him like a dunce, so he never developed his abilities in Mathematics any further. But when Ms Wiz came into his life and taught him Math through a lot of magic and some innovative teaching techniques, which involved a lot of kinesthetic and visual learning among the various types of learning techniques according to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory, then Jack turned into a Developing Learner in Mathematics and then finally into such an amazing Independent Learner that at the Prize distribution ceremony it was he who won the award for outstanding performance in Mathematics in the whole school. Thus, Ms. Wiz developed in Jack a sense of confidence in himself and his mathematical capabilities, making him a risk-taker ready to reflect on his various approaches toward a sum. Then, he became highly knowledgeable and enthusiastic in this subject, which earlier used to be his bete noir.

Further Points for Analysis

Here are a few extra points one can analyze from a literary point of view from the omnibus titled ‘The Crazy World Of Ms Wiz’ by author Terence Blacker and illustrator Tony Ross.

• Feminism

One notices that Ms Wiz is a hard-core feminist who does not abide by the laws set down by patriarchal society, including in the way she wishes people and students to address her. She did not wish to be defined as a person by her relationship with a man, that is, through the prefixes Mrs. or Miss. She wished to be an independent woman, feeling that whether she was married or not was none of anyone’s business and did not define her as a teacher or a paranormal operator. She even refuses to use the word ‘witch’ to define her profession, which is indeed a negative patriarchally created sexist connotation to define a woman who knew magic. In the same context, a male who knew magic would only be termed a wizard or a warlock, both of which do not hold the negative connotations easily evident in the former term ‘witch’. She instead wishes to call herself something neutral, like a paranormal operator, where her gender would not define her capabilities as an adept in the art of white magic. Ms Wiz, a third form teacher, dresses oddly; she paints her nails with black nail polish, making herself look like a punk, wears, at times, black lipstick, is loud as a person, wears black heavy metal clothing to school and treats her students like one of her own little friends rather than her juniors and so her students were in awe of her and yet were very friendly and fond of her. One especially saw this in the book ‘Ms Wiz Spells Trouble’ on the sports field whenever Ms Wiz, like the students, would also jump up and down on her seat to cheer her students participating in the various races and games that day. Ms Wiz was never known to be living with anyone else and was always on her own with her China-figure cat Hecate and her white rat Herbert to keep her company. She knew how to make any space homely and comfy, as is shown in ‘You’re Nicked Ms Wiz’, where she even manages to make a tramp’s broken-down car into a haven of delights for herself, her pets, and her guest Lizzie. Ms Wiz was not bashful and bold in dealing with dangers and with tyrannical men who tried to put her down or with anyone who tried to harm her students. Her independent spirit, self-assurance, self-actualization qualities, and calm disposition make her an ideal feminist candidate worthy of emulation.

• One Inconsistency

In the book ‘You’re Nicked Ms Wiz’ one notices that when Ms Wiz is being dragged away from the kidnapper’s den by the police inspector, she does not use her magic then to turn them into white rabbits but waits for a full night to pass till she can do just this in the presence of Jack and Caroline, who technically were not needed for the magic act to take place. This she does even though Lizzie is in grave trouble as she was stuck in the kidnapper’s den as a cat in danger of being skinned off her fur and then killed with the other cats. I thought it to be a severe inconsistency on the part of Terence Blacker to have created this particular sub-plot twist in the story because it was not exactly needed for Ms Wiz to prove her innocence to the police at the cost of an innocent little child’s life. Ms Wiz could have, then and there, outside the lair, turned the policemen into white rabbits en masse. She could have gone on to save Lizzie rather than allowing herself to be dragged away and locked in prison. There was no question of a long-distance issue in this instance either because at least the police were near her, and she could have easily turned them into rabbits because of the proximity. I noted this inconsistency in the third book in this omnibus.

• Note on Tony Ross’ Illustrations

If one were to notice the Tony Ross illustrations in this omnibus titled ‘The Crazy World of Ms Wiz’, one would notice that Tony Ross followed a style similar to his drawings of the Horrid Henry Series by Francesca Simon. One can see the same dark blush red in the cheeks of Ms Wiz as it is in Horrid Henry, the more vibrant dark colours rather than the usual Quentin Blake style faded watercolor splashes as in the Roald Dahl books; one can also see the strong and well formed drawing lines rather than the sketchy and messy lines of the Roald Dahl books. However, as the series progresses, Tony Ross seems in a hurry or at odds with the author, for I see a certain hastiness in the illustrations to get the work done. There is no soul in most of the drawings therein though some were drawn with a deft hand, especially in the book ‘You’re Nicked Ms Wiz’, but there were many scrawls done in several places that were inconsistent with the overall illustrative style theme of this series as was shown in the first book ‘Ms Wiz Spells Trouble’. One would decipher that there was some acrimony between Tony Ross and Terence Blacker, as Tony Ross’ name is only mentioned as an afterthought at the back of this omnibus where the ISBN and ASIN are placed! That is not something done in a book where the illustrations play more of a plot guide than anything else and are the heart and soul of the various stories. I did not feel that was done in good taste either by Terence Blacker or by the publishers in question because, as an indie-publisher myself, I make sure to publish the name of my illustrator at the front of my children’s books, especially my books in the Rare Classics Series where I adapt and abridge rare classics for younger readers. It is not good publishing ethics to divert attention and credit due to the illustrator to the author of a juvenile fiction illustrated book or a PYP/MYP or Lower Secondary book, which took place here in this omnibus. Otherwise, the illustrations were good enough, just that they were a bit sketchy, inconsistent, and drawn in a hurry. Compared to the illustrations done by the same Tony Ross in the David Walliams books like ‘Demon Dentist’, ‘Awful Aunty’, ‘Ratburger’ or even something that I am reading recently, which is another PYP read titled ‘Dogbird and Other Mixed Up Tales’ by Paul Stewart, Tony Ross’ illustrations there are firm, neat, beautifully done and very poignant to the plot and not messy at all or drawn in a hurry.

Conclusion

As I mentioned, Ms Wiz reminded me a lot about myself as a teacher – not bashful, highly feminist, innovative, captivating for some reason, unconventional, loyal, highly principled, etc. That is why I took easily to her stories and felt that she is the epitome of what an IGCSE or IB teacher should be to create world citizens for the future. I identified very much with Ms Wiz, especially in how I relate to students as my friends more than my juniors or subordinates. I don’t appreciate that ‘talk them down’ attitude at all, and I prefer a comforting and friendly atmosphere in my classroom where there is a lot of communication but at the same time a form of discipline as well for the sake of classroom decorum and for the sake of maintaining peace for others to work in. Mind you, Ms Wiz was also of the same opinion and would not sacrifice decorum in the classroom for the sake of activity. Form Three at St. Barnabus could have fun, but Ms Wiz held them responsible for maintaining some discipline in the classroom. I may not be a paranormal operator, but I have unique ways of keeping peace and having fun, whether it be in a PYP, MYP, IGCSE, or IBDP classroom. Even if I am placed in a higher MYP or IBDP or A Levels classroom, I will make that classroom colourful and lively like a PYP classroom. Truly, I saw a lot of myself in the personality of Ms Wiz, and I hope to emulate her to a greater extent as the PGCITE course continues this year.

Special Note

If you are interested in more book reviews, indie author interviews, book analyses, short story analyses, poems, essays, essay analyses, and other bookish content, check out my blog, insaneowl.com. If you are interested in purchasing my books, you can check the products page of my blog or on Amazon. There is a lot of good stuff to buy! Happy reading to you always!

©2025 Fiza Pathan