Witch's Boy, The

The story begins when an old woman (who we later learn is a great and benevolent witch) finds an abandoned baby by a tree near her forest home. The baby is horrifically ugly, but the witch reluctantly decides that she will keep him and, with the assistance of her animal friends, raise him. Most of the story follows the maturation of this baby (later named Lump) and the lessons he must learn about himself, his witch-mother – and finally, the value of love and forgiveness.