Title:	Publishers Profit from Witchcraft Fad
Byline:	MARTHA KLEDER
Edition:	CULTURE AND FAMILY
Section:	ARTS

Publishers are cashing in on the witchcraft fad spawned by the J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books.

Four new book series are on the shelves for children as young as 12 — including the Sweep series by Cate Tiernan, published by Puffin, a paperback division of Penguin Putnam.

First in the series is Book of Shadows, a Cinderella-story of a shy, Catholic, high school girl who transforms into a confident young woman and catches the man of her dreams through Wicca.

Readers might benefit from an analysis of Book of Shadows by Cathy Karlin Zahner, children’s book reviewer for the Kansas City Star (August 12).

Zahner writes: "If Wicca is so pure, then why, as the [Sweeps series’] books progress, do the witches increasingly call on ‘the dark side’ for evil spells and powers? Why is one of the seven so-called Wicca ‘clans’ known as evil?"

Other books promoting witchcraft to pre-teens include Circle of Three by Isobel Bird, published by Avon; Daughters of the Moon by Lynne Ewing, published by Volo, an imprint of Hyperion Publishers; and Twitches, written by H.B. Gilmour and Randi Reisfeld, published by Scholastic.

With Twitches, a series featuring twin witches — a sort of "crafty" take on Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen — Scholastic adds another series to its list of otherworld- and occult-themed youth literature that includes Goosebumps, Animorphs and Harry Potter.

Practicing witches are closely following the phenomenon, with many pagan Web sites regularly noting and reprinting news articles covering this trend, and reviews of these books.

Each of these series takes the standard themes of teen literature, like peer pressure and first love, and cloaks them with a witchcraft setting to give them an exotic edge.

"It’s almost gotten — dare I say it — acceptable," Scholastic publisher and editor-in-chief Jean Feiwel told a reporter for the Scripps Howard News Service. "There’s no doubt that fantasy and wizards have become more popular because of Harry Potter. There’s also been a trickle-down effect from the adult interest in New Age practices."

Unlike the uproar from parents when the Potter series was first introduced, Feiwel said there hasn’t been a noticeable backlash to these new offerings.

"There definitely is part of the country that won’t like anything to do with witches," he said. "I don’t think there is anything that is objectionable in Twitches. But that’s why the book packaging is so important. … Right on the cover of the books it says, ‘Twins. Witches. Exactly.’ If parents don’t want their children to read about witches, they just won’t buy these."