Sweets for the Sweet! The Sweetest Witch Around by Alison McGhee

"I'M THE BRAVEST WITCH AROUND.

WHY? BECAUSE I'M THE ONLY WITCH WHO IS NOT AFRAID OF HUMANS!"

This bravest of witches once found herself grounded on Halloween and befriended by a group of trick-or-treaters who admired her "costume" and invited her to go along. The little witch makes a human friend and in gratitude, takes her on a sight-seeing flight on her broom around a haunted mansion.

Now it is time for the Very Brave Witch to instruct her little sister, Witchling, in human Halloween customs. She invites her along on the broom for an overview of the holiday scene.

"STUDY THE HUMANS AND LEARN THEIR MYSTERIOUS WAYS, WITCHLING.

THEY LOVE DRESSING UP ON HALLOWEEN, ESPECIALLY LIKE US.

AND THEY LOVE SOMETHING DISGUSTING THEY CALL CANDY!"

Witchling is an eager student--too eager, it seems!--and when she gets her hands on some of those treats, she turns out to have quite the sweet tooth! Yum!!!

"WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! MY LITTLE SISTER ACTUALLY ATE A PIECE OF HALLOWEEN CANDY! THAT'S ONE BRAVE WITCHLING!"

But before big sister can continue her lecture on other curious customs of humans, Witchling (who has no flying license) hops on the broom with Cat (Holy Catnip!!) and soars off for her own trick-or-treating expedition, returning with a huge treat bag full of candy. Big Sister pulls rank, jumps on the broom in the pilot's seat, and does a steep takeoff to get her little sister away from temptation as fast as possible. Sadly for Witchling, the treat bag spills its contents behind them, pleasing the little trick-or-treaters below, who have an easy haul to top off their treats. Although it's not exactly what she had in mind, big sister has to admit that Witching is the bravest and "sweetest" witch in the coven.

Alison McGhee's The Sweetest Witch Around (Simon & Schuster, 2015), in a new just-in-time-for-Halloween paperback edition, is a good example of a popular sub-genre, the interface between humans and the fantasy creatures of Halloween, carried out in this inviting story of little Witching, who, like her big sister in an earlier story, has an impromptu close encounter of the trick-or-treater kind, illustrated cleverly with Harry Bliss's witty artwork which add to the fun of the story with comic details not in the text. (Witchling's toys include an Easy-Bake Cauldron and her Graveyard Barbie Set--"Gravestones Included" for Ken and GIJoe.) With a funny double entendre in the title and happy Halloween ending, when Witchling's loss become the trick-or-treaters' gain, this story is sure to be popular treat for young readers in the scary season. Read my review of McGhee's and Bliss's companion book, A Very Brave Witch, here.

Pair this one with its companion book and with Kristyn Crow's Zombelina and Anne Marie Pace's Vampirina Ballerina. for more fun encounters of the spooky kind.

Lean Pickins': Skeleton for Dinner by Margery Cuyler

ONE DAY BIG WITCH AND LITTLE WITCH DECIDED TO BREW A STEW.

BIG WITCH TOOK A TASTE. "THIS IS SOOOOOO YUMMY!" SHE SAID. "LET'S INVITE OUR FRIENDS FOR DINNER!"

Suddenly the two have a mania for a midnight stew brew bash. Their cauldron is already cooking, so all they need is a guest list. Quickly Little Witch jots down the list and pegs it to a nearby tree.

DINNER LIST

GHOST

GHOUL

SKELETON

Big Witch and Little Witch head off into the night to contact their friends, leaving their cauldron simmering amongst the gravestones. And who should come along but Skeleton.

Skeleton notices the bubbling cauldron and then spots the list on the tree.

"ME? DINNER?

I DON'T WANT TO BE EATEN!"

Skeleton rushes off to warn his friends Ghoul and Ghost about the danger of becoming dinner entrees, and their reaction is predictable.

"OOHHH, NOOOOOO!" THEY HOWL.

Needless to say, Big and Little Witch find their proposed dinner guests pretty scarce for a while, but in Margery Cuyler's Skeleton for Dinner (Albert Whitman, 2013), all's well that ends well when this little idiomatic misunderstanding is finally cleared up and Ghost, Ghoul, and Skeleton arrive for dinner bearing a beautiful bouquet of poison ivy for their lovely hostesses. Soup's on!

Margery Cuyler is a veteran writer with many classic holiday picture books on her publications list, and in this delightful little wordplay tale, she is assisted ably by Will Terry, whose sight gags and appealing deep blue-hued illustrations add the appropriate spoofy-spooky ambience and whose witches, ghost, ghoul, and skeleton are safely on the non-scary side for primary readers.

For a pair of holiday storytime treats, pair this new one with Cuyler's top-selling killer-diller rib-tickling skeleton tale, Skeleton Hiccups (see my review here) for a drop-dead good time.