Parents' Guide to

The Wee Free Men

By Matt Berman, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Delightful but too violent for young kids.

Book Terry Pratchett Fantasy 2003
The Wee Free Men Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Community Reviews

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age 8+

Based on 7 parent reviews

Nopumpkin
Nopumpkin Adult
December 16, 2020
age 3+

Great for kids

The audiobook is fantastic and fine for kids of any age. It would be too much for a very young child to understand, but there's nothing wrong with them listening. There are little blue guys (the wee free men) who do get drunk and beat up the bad creatures, but if you don't have a problem with Looney Toons you shouldn't have a problem with this. The drinking and fighting is comedic and the little girl doesn't approve. The main character is a little girl who has lots of older siblings and just recently a little brother whom she's jealous of. He's just sticky and throwing a tantrum all the time and it's her job to watch him. A middle child or recently big sibling might like this book. The book addresses death and loneliness. It also addresses guilt and taking responsibility. It encourages critical thinking and acting in ways to help others.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
Another Dad
Another Dad Parent of 3 and 8-year-old
January 1, 2018
age 8+

Great story, great values

Tried reading this to my daughter when she was seven, but it didn't catch her interest (the Enchanted Forest Chronicles were more her speed). Tried again at eight and it quickly became a favorite for both of us. An involving story, a compelling protagonist, and great values in everything from a love of learning to honoring a grandmother's memory.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
See all 7 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Tiffany Aching lives on a farm, is good at making cheese, and is a girl of uncommon sense. She also dreams of becoming a witch (\"She preferred the witches to the smug handsome princes and especially to the stupid smirking princesses, who didn't have the sense of a beetle.\").

The Wee Free Men are the Nac Mac Feegle, tiny, redheaded, blue men in kilts, who speak in a thick Scottish brogue Pratchett invented for them, specialize in \"stealin' and drinkin' and fightin'\", and are perfectly described by one Amazon customer as \"foul-mouthed Scottish smurfs.\"

Tiffany sets out to rescue her baby brother, who has been kidnapped by the Queen of Fairyland, armed only with an iron frying pan and a book of sheep diseases, and accompanied by the brawling, boisterous Nac Mac Feegle. But more than her brother is at stake. This Fairyland is not the nice kind, full of buttercups and Tinkerbelles; it is a place of endless winter where nightmares come true, and where a person can be trapped in a dream forever. And it is encroaching on Discworld, threatening to absorb it.

A witch named Miss Tick offers Tiffany some terrific advice: \"If you trust in yourself ... and believe in your dreams ... and follow your star ... you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.\"

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (7 ):
Kids say (7 ):

Pratchett has an uncanny ability to create an unusual and creative adventure. He then combines it with layers of symbolism, myth, and cultural detail, and then wraps the whole package in the kind of sparkling wit that rewards intelligence and careful reading. There's a reason he's such a favorite with gifted children and teens; as with his other novels, readers will come away from this feeling that they've had something to chew on, a full and varied banquet, not the usual thin gruel of ordinary stories.

There are many delightful creations here, primarily, of course, the Nac Mac Feegle themselves. Whenever they're on stage, the story fairly sizzles with wit and invention. Equally wonderful, though in a very different way, are the flashbacks to Tiffany's Granny Aching, an old sheepherder whose hardheaded wisdom is the product of a life lived in the chalk hills, and is reflected in her granddaughter. And Tiffany herself, busily clanging monsters with her frying pan while wondering about magic, is a more than winning heroine.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about some of the more difficult parts of the story, as well as its clever humor. Who's your favorite character? Why?

Book Details

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