A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld #32, Tiffany Aching #2) by Terry Pratchett

Format: Audio (Audible)
Read: March 2026

All the recommendations for the Tiffany Aching books are 100% correct. I am loving them so far! There will be lots of quotes in this little review because it’s Pratchett, and everything he writes is insanely quotable!

In the first book, Tiffany was 9 and had just discovered that she was a witch. In this second book, she is 11 and leaves her village on the Chalk to go to Lancre and start training with the slightly odd Miss Level, and meet the other young witches-in-training in the community. Unfortunately, she also falls prey to the parasitic hiver, which brings out the very worst in her.

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

One of the numerous things I appreciate about Pratchett’s writing is that he is so good with themes. A Hat Full of Sky is primarily concerned with identity. On the most relatable level, Tiffany is away from home for the first time in her life, she is learning what it means to be a witch, and must navigate the social maze of teenage witches. Then, on a more dramatic level, to free herself from the hiver, she has to come to understand herself and confront the darkest and most dangerous aspects of her own character. And things do get dark! (All I’m going to say is… pink flesh balloon).

It was too easy to slip into careless little cruelties because you had power and other people hadn’t, too easy to think other people didn’t matter much, too easy to think that ideas like right and wrong didn’t apply to you. At the end of that road was you drooling and cackling to yourself all alone in a gingerbread house, growing warts on your nose.

There are a lot of parallels between Tiffany and Granny Weatherwax, and happily, Granny is much more physically present in this story! Tiffany is very clever – and knows it – and is quickly showing herself to be a very powerful witch, and also, like Granny, her greatest flaw is her own pride. Pride and unchecked ambition can be a vulnerability, and in this case, the hiver is specifically drawn to the talented and ambitious.

Witches are always afraid of ‘going to the bad’, which often starts with a cackle. Tiffany learns the true nature of witchcraft through her time with Miss Level, as well as the crueller wisdom of Granny. It isn’t spells and magic, it’s hard work, responsibility, and caring for the community. She was sent to Miss Level because she is the embodiment of this and has dedicated both of her selves to helping, healing and doing all the unglamorous work for the elderly and the vulnerable. It’s difficult to get too full of yourself when you spend each week filing down an old man’s toenails.

“That’s why we do all the tramping around and doctorin’ and stuff,” said Mistress Weatherwax. “Well, and because it makes people a bit better, of course. But doing it moves you into your center, so’s you don’t wobble. It anchors you. Keeps you human, stops you cackling. Just like your granny with her sheep, which are to my mind as stupid and wayward and ungrateful as humans. You think you’ve had a sight of yourself and found out you’re bad? Hah! I’ve seen bad, and you don’t get near it.

The Chalk is also still an important part of Tiffany’s story; she is away for now, but she is kept anchored by her ties to the place, especially her memories of Granny Aching. I found this quite beautiful. She is also followed by Rob Anybody and a small crew of the Nac Mac Feegle, though they play a much smaller role in this story; they are still there to back her up because she is the hag of homeland, and she is important to tell the land what it is.

Another element I appreciated about this book was Pratchett’s dedication to teaching children the definition of the word ‘egress’! This was a very cute running gag through the book.

“I know I wouldn’t pay money to see the egress,” said Tiffany. “It just means ‘the way out.’”

“Clever!” said Miss Level. “Monty put that on a sign to keep people moving though the Believe-It-or-Not tent. ‘This way to the Egress!’ Of course, people thought it was a female eagle or something, so Monty had a big man with a dictionary outside to show them they got exactly what they paid for! Have you ever been to a circus?”

And finally, I love Pratchett’s concepts of first, second and third thoughts. This was introduced in the first book, and I think it’s brilliant. Especially in a book for a younger audience.

First Thoughts are the everyday thoughts. Everyone has those. Second Thoughts are the thoughts you think about the way you think. People who enjoy thinking have those. Third Thoughts are thoughts that watch the world and think all by themselves. They’re rare, and often troublesome. Listening to them is part of witchcraft.

I am trying hard these days to pay attention to my second thoughts, and hoping my third thoughts will get a bit louder.

For the law of fives, this one is the second in a series, a Locus award winner, has goats in it (animals), and I can count either the hiver or Death as a fantastic creature.