The Wee Free Men

This was my first Terry Pratchett book ever, thus my introduction to Discworld. Ive wanted to read the series, but with 41 books I wasnt sure I even wanted to attempt it. Wee Free Men is aimed at young adults with the female protagonist just a child (around 9 years old), and is the first book in the Tiffany Aching series, so it was a great place to start.

Ive got to say, this was one of the best books I have read in a long time. The story is completely charming in itself, a young girl meets some little men with red hair, blue tattoos, wearing kilts, about 6 inches tall called Nac Mac Feegle or the Wee Free Men, and together they have to rescue her young brother. The characters are well developed and almost always entertaining and hilarious for example her younger brother constantly asks for sweeties, the Wee Free Men speak in Scottish accents and say things like Ah, crivens and are generally good natured despite being thieves. The best part for me, however, were all the surprising references to other books and pop culture which I did not expect but always put a smile on my face. For example, Pratchett parodies Lord of the Rings with See their swords? They glow blue in the presence of lawyers and Braveheart with They can tak oour lives but they canna tak our troousers! Theres possibly even a Bushism from the early 2000s (this book was published in 2003, so would make sense).

The book was a very easy, very entertaining read. Im looking forward to reading the rest of the Tiffany Aching miniseries as well as perhaps starting in on the rest of the larger Discworld universe.

This was my first introduction to any of the characters from Discworld. But I am definitely planning to find any others in the series where Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegles are featured.
Thes friendly little rascals are only 6 inches tall, with red hair and bright blue tattoos. Their dialogue is hilarious, once you learn to translate their accent which sits somewhere between a Scottish and Irish brogue. They call themselves pictsies, not to be confused with pixies as they have no wings. They are sword weilding clansmen quite skilled at stealing, drinking a and fighting. The only thing they like better is drinking AND fighting.( as in, at the same time ).
Our female MC is quite a firecracker in her own right. Only 9 years old and the youngest daughter of many, she has learned to take care of herself. She has also learned a lot from her Granny Acking, who Tiffany believes to have been a witch. And Tiffany truly wants to follow in her footsteps. Unfortunately, Granny has passed away and cannot teach her the ways. She also is not around to help when Tiffany’s little brother get stolen by the Queen of the Fairies, so Tiffany decides to rescue him herself. With the help of a talking toad who used to be a lawyer, Tiffany enlists the help of the Nac Mac Feegle to “steal back ” her little brother.
Since there are not enough words to properly describe the interactions between Tiffany and her army of little blue men, I will simply give you with two of my favorite sections from the book.

When the men apologize for being late , and not becaus3 they got lost or drunk … This time. Well, at least there shouldnt have been anything to drink in a lighthouse, said Tiffany. She laughed. Unless you drank the lamp oil, and no one would dare do that! The pictsies suddenly fell silent. … and its horrible stuff, said Tiffany. Itd make you terribly ill if you drank it. … Its flammable, too. Its a good thing you didnt drink it, isnt it?
Behind her, there was some muffled whispering as the pictsies went into a huddle. Whats flammable mean? It means it catches fire! Okay, okay, dinna panic. No belchin, and none of youse is to tak a leak anywhere near any naked flames, okay? And act natral.”

And the one that had me laughing so hard my husband had to come and check if I was ok. When Tiffany finds herself being watched by a little man carying a set of miniature bagpipes. Youve been watching me all the time? Aye, mistress. Tis oour task to watch oer our kelda. Im up here most o the time anyway, because Im studying to become a gonnagle. The young Feegle flourished a set of mousepipes. An they willna let me play doon there on account o them sayin my playin sounds like a spider tryin to fart through its ears, mistress.

Highly recommended for adults and older teens, mostly because of the reading difficulty with the language of the Nac Mac Feegles. Although there is a mention of sheep mating practices on the farm. And the talking toad who curses…in frogish.

The Chalk is a place of sheep and shepherds but never a witch was known to be there, however that might have been incorrect. Terry Pratchetts 30th Discworld novel, “The Wee Free Men”, is the second time hes written for young adults but his writing and humor are top notch as well follow a nine-year witch Tiffany Aching going up against the Queen of Elves with only a horde of six-inch blue little men.

Tiffany Aching finds her family farm being invaded by monsters from dreams as well as a horde of little blue men, the titular Wee Free Men. Tiffany is very smart for her age and sees things as they are just like her grandmother, so when strange things pop up she uses an iron pan to beat them back. Although she later figures out that her grandmother was a witch, Tiffany has her first encounter with one in the form of Ms. Lick who tells her to be careful but not to tackle the problem on her own but when her brother is kidnapped by the Fairie Queen, Tiffany knows shes going to need help while not sounding desperate. Tiffanys help comes to her when the local clan of the Wee Free Men shows up looking for the new hag ol the hills because of the invasion of the Queen. Tiffany and the Wee Free Men invade Fairyland and manage to return with her brother, a feat that Granny Weatherwax finds impressive for someone so young and untrained.

“The Wee Free Men” features Tiffany as the only point-of-view character, save from a narrator, which keeps the book fairly orderly when reading as well as being in line for a book for younger readers. The story itself is somewhat familiar for long time Discworld fans with the antagonist being the Queen of the Elves invading, but Pratchett changes things up with the use of dreams and the conflict as seen from a nine-year old. The cameo appearance of Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg at the end, sets up further adventures of Tiffany and connects her subseries with the Witches subseries with the hopes of seeing favorite characters in future books.

The second young adult and first Tiffany subseries book of the Discworld canon is a fantastic book; “The Wee Free Men” gives someone new for long time fans while introducing older characters for younger new readers. While its intended for a younger audience, older fans will appreciate Pratchetts humorous fantasy writing with his twists and turns.

The Terry Pratchett’s “Wee Free Men” is the 30th Discworld Novel and the first book in the Tiffany Aching Series.
In this paperback edition, the illustrations are by Laura Ellen Anderson, while the 2003 version is by Paul Kidby.

After watching “Terry Pratchett: Back in Black” (2017) film about the author, I decided I wanted to read his work.
I had never read this particular kind of literature and shame on me!

Terry Pratchett vocabulary is amazing, he plays with words, makes them musical.
Reading out loud this book was so easy and fun. Sometimes I had to stop ’cause I kept laughing.
The dialect of the Nac Mac Feegle is hilarious and you’ll find yourself mimicking their way of cursing and threatening.
I did.
“Crivens! I kicked meself in ma ain heid!”.
“We’ve got a cheap lawyer an’ we’re not afraid to use him!”

If you have children, read this story with them. Play with them, and fight the Queen with them.

I was searching a book with a strong girl with no frills that could be an example for our lil’woman and I’m so happy I discovered Tiffany Aching.
Tiffany has wit, resilience, humor, and likes books. She loves her grandma and that’s an important bond that will help her during the entire book.

The Wee Free Men is followed by a second book “A hat full of Sky”(2004), a third “Wintersmith” (2006), a fourth “I Shall Wear Midnight” (2010) and a 5th and final book “The Shepherd’s Crown”.
Plenty to read and enjoy.

On a side note: The Jim Henson Company (the muppets, sesame streets, furchester hotel) has confirmed that there’s a film in development. Be prepared!

I’m a new Terry Pratchett fan. There is 5 books in total for this Discworld series. There are so many many books which is comforting because I like his books. Family members are big fans of his and I am late catching on but glad discovered him for myself. My sister says this series was good to begin with. I am 36, the reading age for these are 9-11. Nearly finished first book, (don’t always have good concentration) easy to read and I imagine it all and despite my concentration being poor sometimes I just want to keep reading. That says alot in my book.

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