Lost Sock? There's a Witch in My Dryer by Linda Lee Cross

There was a little girl who would sit quietly on the floor and watch her mother tend the laundry.

"The dryer never loses anything!" she said.

But where do those missing socks go? And the little girl also wonders what makes those strange metallic clangs and clickety sounds coming from the dryer. Her mother says they were just lost pennies and nickles stuck in the dryer, but the girl isn't too sure about that. She asked why she never sees any nickels and pennies when she opens the dryer door. Could there be something like a witch hiding there?

"I remember when I was a little girl I would ask your grandmother the same questions," her mom replies.

And when Grandmother comes for a visit, the little girl tells her about the mysterious sounds, and her grandmother smiles and pulls an old flashlight out of her bag.

"This magic flashlight will only work for those who truly do believe."

That night the little girl can hardly wait. When all is quiet, she turns on the flashlight and tiptoes downstairs to the dryer.

There IS a witch in there, a nice witch all dressed for Halloween, and the little girl notices that she is wearing one of those missing red-and-white striped socks, in Linda Lee Cross's There's a Witch in My Dryer (iUniverse, 2018). Borrowing from the old house elf stories of folklore, author Cross has a modern story with her little trickster hiding, not in a cabinet or pot, but in the dryer. Youngsters MAY be inspired to investigate those strange sounds in their own dryers!