Checked out of the library in the early 80s.
Hardback, tan cover with a cauldron on the front, green smoke coming out of the caldron and wrapping around the back.
An apprentice witch’s mistress is accused of some crime by other witches and taken away. The apprentice tries to find the real culprit. She is able to summon a frog-like helper who knows what is going on. Froggie at first cannot answer her questions, but hints broadly. She finds the next part of the spell and he is able to answer “yes” or “no”. Then she finds the last part and he can give full answers. (There is a wand or a book involved, I think)? If I’m not getting this confused with a different book, at some point she allies herself with two children from the circus who are trapeze artists.
The Rebel Witch by Jack Lovejoy Suzie is an apprentice witch in Chicago. Her teacher disappears one night and Suzie is left with the Wand of Necromancers. In her quest to find her teacher, she goes to the train station where she hides aboard a circus train with boy/girl twin acrobats. They help her find a spell book with allows her to summon the Servant of the Wand, a frog-like man who helps her to find her teacher.
Thank you! The plot summary sounds exactly right.
It’s indeed “The Rebel Witch”. On re-read, it was fascinating to see what I had remembered, what I hadn’t, and what I wrongly thought I’d remembered. Thank you so much, Irene! Please mark this one as “solved”.