The Little Witch
#1044.22 adjusted 4.20 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 1957 Reading commitment Low Otfried Preussler Last reviewed 2026-10-02
Overview
Otfried Preussler's 1957 classic (Die kleine Hexe), translated into dozens of languages and a fixture of German childhood, follows a witch of only 127 years who lives in the forest with her talking raven Abraxas. Caught sneaking into the great witches' dance on Walpurgis Night, she is told she may join next year only if she has become a good witch by then, and spends the year helping, rescuing and outwitting while the weather-witch Rumpumpel spies on her, only to find that the witches' council has its own idea of what 'good' means. A separate story from Preussler's Krabat.
Comic fantasy · For Middle grade
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
The Little Witch (1957) core · 4.22 (12,265 ratings); Thienemann, 1957; English translation by Anthea Bell (Abelard-Schuman, 1961), retranslated for the New York Review Children's Collection (2015). A separate story from Krabat; the author's two other 'little' books (Der kleine Wassermann, Das kleine Gespenst) are separate stories too.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Little Witch? The Little Witch's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is The Little Witch finished? Complete (1957).
- How much reading does The Little Witch take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~127 pages).
- How is The Little Witch ranked? #104 in this site's official ranking, based on 12,265 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #104?
Ranked #104 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.22 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (12,265 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #103, Little Thieves (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 1 book · Complete · 12k ratings · Ranks #104 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment comic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- No award could be confirmed for this book.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.22 across 12,265 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: The Little Witch (Otfried Preussler) accepted 2026-10-02
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-10-02
Rule: Core Canon = The Little Witch (1957) only, standalone.