A literary Fairy Tale by Dutch author and TV personality Godfried Boemans.
The story takes place in Finland, where every year for six years now, the two naughtiest children disappear without leaving any trace of their whereabouts. The seventh year two siblings, called Maraboe and Morsegat respectively, are initially tricked by their parents to not go to the enchanted forest nearby their house, with their parents pretending they want them to go, but when they discover their true intentions spying on them they decided to go to the forest just to spite them. In the forest they discover everything is made of candy, included the snow and the trees, and they meet a witch. Sounds familar?
The witch tells the children to not follow her, and because they're that disobedient they follow her to her house anyway. In the house the witch locks them and makes them do the house chores. She leaves the house keys in a place where the kids can see them, but because if they touch them they'll turn into black cats, they don't dare to do it. They later discover that's how the twelve children that went missing before them became the twelve black cats that live in the witch's house, and start to spy the witch when she reads her book of spells every night to learn spells hoping they'll find a way to escape and also break the other children's curse.
Maraboe and Morsegat has examples of:
- All Witches Have Cats: Twelve black ones in the case of the witch in this fairy tale. It turns out the cats are actually the children that went missing the six previous years.
- An Aesop: It's quite clear that Boemans has a message for children about doing what grown-ups, more specifically parents, tell them. Also about paying attention in class is important, with Morsegat regretting in one scene how she wished she'd have paid more attention to her reading classes.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Maraboe and Morsegat are not real Finnish names. They're not Swedish names, either.note
- Break the Haughty: At the start of the tale Maraboe and Morsegat are the two naughtiest kids in all Finland. After they're kidnapped by the witch they're forced to do the housechores and Took a Level in Kindness.
- Brother–Sister Team: Our protagonists.
- Dark Is Evil: There's a motif of people and objects turned into black animals. One of the keys turns into a black snake when Maraboe tries to steal it away from the witch, the twelve cats in the witch house are actually the twelve missing children and the witch is defeated when the siblings turn her into a black crow.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: The witch is described as old and physically unattractive.
- Forced Transformation: The first twelve children that went missing before the protagonists were turned into black cats by the witch. That's how also they defeat the witch, turning her in a black crow.
- Gingerbread House: And entire forest in this case, with snow made of sugar, trees made of chocolate, toadstool made of toffee and the earth made of fudge.
- No Name Given: Averted in the case of Maraboe and Morsegat, but still aplicable to the rest of the cast, included the witch.
- Wicked Witch: Serves as the antagonist of the story.
