There are different sorts of books that make you happy: the swooning book, the hilarious weird book, the slapstick snort-out-loud book. And then there are the ones that have elements of all of these, and get under your skin to make you unquestionably, utterly happy.

A Hat Full of Sky was one of those books for me.

The plot is really immaterial: Tiffany Aching is off to learn how to be a witch, except it’s nothing like she thought it would be. It’s much less waving wands and saying spells, and much more visiting villagers and meeting needs. Which is fine, just not what she was expecting. In addition, she’s being hunted by a… thing… that lives off of ambition. Unfortunately, because it can’t be killed, it’s really up to her to learn how to defeat it. In her own special Tiffany way. With the help of the Nac Mac Feegle, of course.

There’s so much to love about this book: Tiffany’s strong will and the hilarious Nac Mac Feegle, of course, but there’s also Miss Level, and Jeannie the new kelda, and Mistress Weatherwax, and Petulia… and…

I could go on. But it’d be simpler if you just read the book.

I almost forgot one of my favorite quotes from the book, because I totally and completely empathize:

“It turned out that when Miss Level had asked Tiffany if she was scared of heights, it had been the wrong question. Tiffany was not afraid of heights at all. She could walk past tall trees without batting an eyelid. Looking up at huge towering mountains didn’t bother her a bit. What she was afraid of, although she hadn’t realized it until this point, was depths. She was afraid of dropping such a long way out of the sky that she’d have time to run out of breath screaming before hitting the rocks so hard that she’d turn to a sort of jelly and all her bones would break into dust. She was, in fact, afraid of the ground. Miss Level should have thought before asking the question.”

There. Now go read the book.

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