Witch & Wizard (series)

Witch and Wizard

Author	James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
Cover artist	Larry Rostant
Language	English
Genre	Fiction, Children's literature, Fantasy
Publisher	Little Brown and Company
Publication date	December 14, 2009
Publication place	USA
Media type	Hardback
Pages	307
ISBN	978-0-09-954367-1

Witch and Wizard is a novel by James Patterson with Gabrielle Charbonnet, released on December 14, 2009. It chronicles a dystopian future in which Whit and Wisty Allgood are arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced to execution during the uprising of a new totalitarian government named the New Order, for unknowingly possessing outlawed magical abilities.

Premise

The book is set in a world where America – and possibly other countries as well – has been taken over by the New Order, a totalitarian government which outlaws literature, music, magic and all other forms of creativity. (In the book, a large number of different novels, musicians, museums, and artists are all identified as being banned, using slightly altered parody names like "Gary Blotter" for Harry Potter, "B4" for U2, the "Fate Gallery" for the Tate Modern, and "Freida Halo" for Frida Kahlo.) Under this government, hundreds of children are arrested and imprisoned without fair trial, and capital punishment is reinstated for the crime of being a witch or a wizard. The government is made up of 'Ones' – for example, The One Who Judges and The One Who Writes Decrees - and is headed by The One Who Is The One.

Plot

The book opens with Wisty narrating. She and her brother Whit and their parents are about to be executed in front of a crowd of spectators. Wisty then takes the story back to when it all started.

Whit and Wisty are awakened in the middle of the night by armed soldiers working for the newly instituted New Order government. They are arrested with their parents on the charge of witchcraft. The two kids are shocked and appalled when Byron Swain, a horribly stuck up and high strung kid from their school, appears and conducts their arrest. They protest that magic does not exist but their cries fall on deaf ears. During the arrest, their parents are permitted to give Whit and Wisty one item each. They are given a seemingly worthless book and a drum stick respectively before being led away, and Wisty accidentally sets fire to herself, apparently using magic. In an attempt to stop her Whit accidentally creates a tornado out of anger. A mysterious figure known as The One Who Is The One shows up and it is revealed that he somehow knows their parents and he is the leader of the new political party. He is able to halt their powers in an unknown way. The pair are then taken to a prison which appears to be occupied solely by children, and are interrogated by Byron, during which Wisty once again unconsciously uses magic. They are then put on trial briefly and sentenced to execution, to be carried out when they turn eighteen. Returning from their trial, they see a wanted poster for their parents, who have apparently escaped custody.

Whit and Wisty are transferred to a converted insane asylum which is used as Death Row, within which they are subjected to filthy conditions and sadistic punishments by Matron and the Visitor, the two adults in charge. Although the building is supposedly shielded against magic, both Whit and Wisty continue to manifest magical abilities unexpectedly. Whit repeatedly dreams of his girlfriend, Celia appearing in the cell and talking to him. One day, they are summoned before the One who Judges again because their tests have come back normal - it is presumed by the judge that they have bribed someone. Wisty accidentally summons a plague of flies, but then The One Who Is The One appears, mocking them and ordering harsher punishment until they give in. The next day, Byron visits their cell and informs the pair that they have been classed as Extremely Dangerous, and can therefore be executed immediately without waiting until they turn eighteen. Wisty accidentally turns him into a lion and then tries to turn him back into a human, but he transforms into a weasel and disappears.

Celia then emerges, informing the pair that she is a Half-light - a dead spirit which exists in an alternate plane called the Shadowland - and she has found them on Byron's information. She tells them how to escape into the Shadowland, which they manage, and in the attempt they are joined by a dog which Wisty names Feffer. In the Shadowland, Celia introduces them to Susan, another Half-light victim of the New Order, Byron, who is now stuck in his weasel form but still able to speak, and Sasha, a boy who takes them out of the Shadowland to Freeland - a department store which has become a haven for persecuted children, currently run by a girl named Janine, although leadership changes hands weekly.

The siblings' magical powers are welcomed in Freeland, but Celia soon has to return to Shadowland, as she cannot stay in the real world for too long at one time. The other children share horrific stories of the New Order's regime - particularly of The One Who Is The One, who seems to possess magical abilities of his own, as he is able to appear out of nowhere and vaporise people. They visit the City of Progress, an 'ideal' city built by the New Order, where they quickly discover that magic is harshly persecuted. However, Whit and Wisty wish to search for their parents, and refuse to stay in Freeland, even when, upon revealing the extent of their magical abilities, they are told that they are the Liberators spoken of in a prophecy about the end of the New Order.

However, their viewpoint quickly changes when Sasha tells them that their parents are being held in the same New order prison which the Freeland children are planning to liberate. Wisty transforms Whit into a guard and herself into a mouse to get them inside. While Whit escapes with a van full of children, Wisty travels deeper into the building, but soon encounters problems due to her reduced size and is forced to return to human form, at which point she is spotted by the guards and assumed to be an escaping prisoner. Whit, meanwhile, successfully returns the van full of children to Freeland before returning to pick up Wisty.

Wisty is briefly imprisoned, during which time she discovers that her parents are not being kept in the prison, before magically setting herself on fire, triggering the fire alarm to unlock all the doors. As she and the prisoners make their escape to Whit and the waiting van, both Whit and Wisty are captured by The One Who Judges, having been betrayed by a Freelander called Jonathan. Wisty transforms him into a cockroach, but The One Who Is The One appears. He informs the pair that they are the subject of six prophecies, and that although he will not harm them yet because the prophecies have not been completed, one of the prophecies is that they shall be executed. The pair then return to Freeland, where Byron apologises to them and promises to help them in the future.

While starting on their next mission they feel an area they are passing looks familiar and set off to explore it, the pair come across the site of their old house, which has now been demolished. It is now only open countryside. Their parents use magic to communicate with them, and help them to transform the drumstick and book into a magic wand and spellbook. Mr. and Mrs. Allgood then turn Byron back into a human when Wisty and Whit aren't looking.

We are then taken back to where the novel started, with Wisty and her brother awaiting their imminent execution. The One Who Is The One is about to make a speech. Wisty states that looking at him now it is becoming obvious that despite his government's plans to eradicate magic he himself has strong magic of his own, accounting for his abilities throughout the novel. Despite their tragic circumstances Wisty states she has a feeling that they are about to be saved. The novel ends with her urging the reader to go out and live and promising they'll hear from her again. "I promise. And I'm a scary witch who keeps her promises"

Characters

• Wisteria 'Wisty' Allgood - A rebellious fifteen-year-old who is shocked to discover her magical ability. Her main power is the ability to burst into flames at random moments, but she is also known to float in her sleep, shape-shift, and even glow radioactive green.
• Whitford 'Whit' Allgood - A seventeen-year-old 'All-American' athlete. He secretly struggles with depression after the unexplained disappearance of his girlfriend Celia. Whit is a wizard, but his powers are not as obvious as Wisty's.
• Celia - Whit's girlfriend, who disappeared mysteriously months before the beginning of the book. She was killed by the New Order government but still exists as a Half-light, or ghost in the Shadowland.
• Byron Swain - A classmate of the Allgoods, who betrays them to the New Order government. Wisty turns him into a weasel (prompting her to call him the "Tattling Weasel" for the rest of the book), and he later decides to help the pair.
• Janine - The current leader of the abandoned warehouse at which the siblings temporarily stay.
• Sasha - A Freelander the siblings meet first in the Shadowland. He later lies to them in order to enlist their help in a jailbreak. Sasha is lanky, with overgrown black hair, very similar to Fang from Patterson's bestselling Maximum Ride series.
• Jonathan - A Freelander who eventually betrays the children to the New Order government.
• The One Who Judges - Proper name: Judge Ezekiel Unger. He finds the Allgood children guilty of being Witch and Wizard and condemns them to death. Wisty later turns him into a cockroach.
• The Matron - The administrator in charge a jail for dangerous criminals. Sister to The One Who Judges.
• The Visitor - A lower administrator working in New Order jails. Each charged with monitoring a prison cell. The Allgood's Visitor is discovered dead after Whit and Wisty escape.
• The One Who Is The One - Head of the New Order government. Despite being a figure of great power and authority, he conducts himself politely and with quiet dignity. It is strongly implied that he is an evil wizard, possibly on a mission to eradicate all his enemies (meaning the Allgoods).

Book Two

At the end of the book, the words "To Be Continued" appear, suggesting that a second book is being written. The second installment of the series is stated to be out by December 13, 2010, entitled "The Gift". This book will deal with Whit and Wisty's struggles as new leaders of the Resistance, and will include the execution scene featured in the first book's prologue. The first 21 Chapters of the novel are available on the Witch and Wizard website. The Gift was released on December 13, 2010.