The Wee Free Men
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| Author | Terry Pratchett |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series |
Discworld 30th novel – 1st Tiffany Aching story |
| Subject |
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| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
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Publication date
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2003 |
| Awards | WH Smith Teen Choice Award 2003 American Library Association's Best Book For Young Adults 2004 Parenting Book of the Year Award 2003 Center for Children's Books' Blue Ribbon Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book 2004 |
| ISBN | |
| Followed by | A Hat Full of Sky |
The Wee Free Men is a 2003 comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, which takes place in his Discworld setting. It is labelled a "Story of Discworld" to indicate its status as children's or young adult fiction, unlike most of the books in the Discworld series. A sequel, A Hat Full of Sky, appeared in 2004 (both books were republished in a combined edition, The Wee Free Men: The Beginning, in August 2010); a third book called Wintersmith appeared in 2006; and the fourth, I Shall Wear Midnight, was released in September 2010. The final book in the series, The Shepherd's Crown, was released in 2015.
While Terry Pratchett's first Discworld book for children, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents had swearing translated to rat language, in this book it is in the dialect of the Nac Mac Feegle which is taken from Scots and Scottish Gaelic.
An illustrated edition of the novel, with pictures by Stephen Player, appeared in print on October 2, 2008.
Tiffany Aching is a 9-year-old girl who literally sees things differently than others. While playing near the river near her home, she sees two tiny blue, kilted men who warn her of a "green heid" in the water. Suddenly a vile green monster, Jenny Greenteeth, appears in the water. Using her brother Wentworth as bait for it, Tiffany ambushes the beast and cracks it with a frying pan, while Wentworth is completely unfazed, as he is unable to see either the little men or the monster. She goes into town to visit a traveling teacher and comes upon Miss Tick, a witch who has been watching her. Tiffany is told that these little men are the Nac Mac Feegles, who are rough and rowdy fae folk who speak with Glaswegian accents. Miss Tick informs her that she is likely the witch of the wold she resides in, and gives her the toad familiar she carries as a guide before tricking Tiffany out of the tent and disappearing.
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