Ban On `The Witches' Sought


   BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Parents trying to ban a children's book about
witches lack a sense of humor, British author Roald Dahl said.

   Dahl's book ``The Witches'' should be removed from the library at
Broadwater Elementary School in Billings because it refers to witches, parents
Sue and Monte Mutschler said Wednesday.

   ``The fact is that there are such things as witches. They are part of the
satanic church,'' Monte Mutschler said.

   ``This book is a fantasy and an enormous joke,'' Dahl responded in a
telephone interview from his home in England. ``We all know that witches don't
exist, not the way I've written about them. They are parents without any sense
of humor at all.''

   Dahl - the author of several popular children's books, including ``Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory,'' which was made into the movie, ``Willie Wonka and
the Chocolate Factory'' - suggested that the school district let the children
help decide the book's fate in the school library.

   ``The last chap I heard of who banned books was Hitler,'' Dahl said. ``The
banning of any book, you know especially a children's book, is unforgivable.''

   Jim Strecker, the school's principal, said he will head a committee of
educators to consider removing ``The Witches'' from the school library.

   The book has been used in the school for several years without complaints,
Strecker said, adding that Dahl ``is well-known and this particular book is
widely read.''

   ``The Witches,'' published in 1983, is being made into a movie by Muppets
creator Jim Henson, Dahl said.

   The effort to ban the book comes a week after parents in Maryland and Texas
urged school officials to limit observance of Halloween because they said the
holiday is linked to devil worship.

   Several Maryland school officials canceled traditional Halloween costume
parties, opting to hold fall and harvest celebrations instead, while officials
in that state and Texas said they would take a look at the role of Halloween
in the schools.

   AP-NY-10-19-89 0258EDT
   (C) Copyright 1989, Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.