10 Busy Brooms

PreS-Gr 1—Ten diverse witches take flight on Halloween night as they avoid nonthreatening monsters in this numerical concept book. Awkward rhyming stanzas accompany each page spread, starting with the number one, and climb higher as each adorable little witch escapes whatever trouble is brewing below her. Bright and cheerful artwork wars with vocabulary that conjures a degree of spookiness that never comes to fruition. For example, when a ghost haunts "a witch as she jump[s] in fright," both are smiling at each other as if they're old friends. As each witch hops on her broom to evade trouble, she brings with her an item that travels with her throughout the rest of the story. This may be a black cat, an owl, or even a pie (one witch is a baker). It becomes quite crowded on the page toward the end. As a concept book for small children, this selection will be rather cumbersome without ritualized dialogue support from an adult.