Knister Hexe Lilli auf Schloss Dracula (Lilli the Witch at Castle Dracula) Arena Verlag GmbH, July 2002. 160 pp. ISBN 3-401-05312-4 Lilli is really just an ordinary girl, living with her brother and mother and father in an ordinary sort of town. But there is something special about her too, and the reason for that is that she owns a witch's book which she found one morning by her bed. Of course she has already tried some of the spells and had some scary adventures as a result. Perhaps you have read about them in Knister's other books. One day Lilli is coming home from school with a very interesting book that she has borrowed from the public library. It was lying on a shelf in the section for adults but she had no trouble borrowing it. She simply said it was for her mother. It's a book about vampires. Lilli is fascinated by vampires. Now she can find out everything about them. Her little brother Leon doesn't know about the book. And he doesn't know that she is planning a trip to Transylvania. She will only go for the night. So she packs a glove which a silly young vampire had left behind when she had summoned him up earlier, her little toy mouse to get her home again, and earplugs - because vampires do scream so. Her fantastic adventures in Transylvania will keep you glued to this book. After a long and eerie walk in the cellars of castle Dracula she finds the tomb of the wicked Count himself. As she tries to open it the lid slides back and she is paralysed with fear. But after many other hair-raising escapes she outwits her arch-enemy and rescues the villagers he was using as his food supply. And at last, just in time, she is safely home and in bed. Not only is this a spell binding story (in the literal sense, of course) but Lilli offers her readers some magic tricks as well. Suitable for ten-year-olds and right at the top of their class, these books are magic too.