Winnie and Wilbur. Illustration by Korky Paul.
The Winnie and Wilbur series is a series of comical fantasy picture books for young children. The books are published in the United Kingdom by Oxford University Press. They are written by the Australian-born author Valerie Thomas and illustrated by the Zimbabwean-born artist Korky Paul.
The stories are about a witch named Winnie and her big black cat whose name is Wilbur. A Winnie and Wilbur story typically begins with Winnie facing a problem (or a perceived problem) or deciding that she needs to do something in order to make her life easier. Winnie then tries to solve her problem by using magic. She waves her magic wand and says the magic word "Abracadabra." Winnie's magic usually works well but it has unforeseen consequences that cause more problems or make the situation worse. The majority of the stories end happily. Winnie uses magic again and either returns everything to normal or makes the situation better than it was before.
Some of the titles in the series have been adapted for young learners of English as a foreign language.
An animated TV series based on the books has been produced. The first episode originally aired on Discovery Kids in Latin America on December 17, 2015 and on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2015.
Titles in the series
- Winnie the Witch (1987)
- Winnie in Winter (1996)
- Winnie Flies Again! (1999)
- Winnie's Magic Wand (2002)
- Winnie's New Computer (2003)
- Winnie at the Seaside (2005)
- Winnie's Midnight Dragon (2006)
- Happy Birthday, Winnie (2007)
- Winnie's Flying Carpet (2008)
- Winnie's Amazing Pumpkin (2009)
- Winnie in Space (2010)
- Winnie Under the Sea (2011)
- Winnie's Dinosaur Day (2012)
- Winnie's Pirate Adventure (2013)
- Winnie's Big Bad Robot (2014)
- Winnie's Haunted House (2015)
- Winnie and Wilbur Meet Santa (2016)
- Winnie and Wilbur: The Naughty Knight (2017)