Winnie the witch and Wilbur the cat return in this fifth adventure, confronting the wonders (and terrors!) of technology. When Winnie gets a new computer, she is immediately engrossed by this new toy, and not as attentive as she should be to Wilbur, whose natural curiosity about this "mouse" she's using leads to the usual feline/computer mishaps. Winnie compounds her mistake by putting Wilbur out in the rain, and then turning him blue! Thinking that her computer will make spell-casting so much easier, she even throws out her spell-book. But when a disgruntled Wilbur sneaks in to the computer room late that night and manages to vanish himself, and the computer, Winnie realizes that there is still a need for traditional magic. Can she bring Wilbur back...?

As with my previous forays into the world of Winnie and Wilbur, I was completely charmed by Winnie's New Computer, enjoying both the entertaining tale and the engaging artwork. I happened to read a 'Folio Edition,' which is significantly larger than a regular picture-book - such editions are printed for story-hour, and allow the storyteller to share the artwork more readily with a large audience - and this greatly increased the pleasure I took in perusing the illustrations. There is always so much detail to Korky Paul's witchy scenes, from the many little creatures who live (unremarked upon) in Winnie's house, to the droll expressions on the faces of both witch and cat, and this larger-format edition really allows the reader to appreciate that. Like all the Winnie books, the endpapers were created by a child fan - in this case, a 10.5-year-old girl named Rebecca - and that too adds to the charm. I continue to be impressed by the Winnie books, and think they may end up being one of my favourite contemporary witchy picture-books series. ( )

Winnie es una brujita simpática que junto a su gato Wilbur hará de tu lectura un momento más que mágico.