cover image Seeking a Witch

Seeking a Witch

Angela DiTerlizzi, illus. by Allie Smith. Little Simon, $7.99 (30p) ISBN 978-1-4814-6959-3

“I’m seeking a witch/ and everyone knows/ Your skin must be green/ With a wart on your nose.” So begins this poetic Halloween contemplation from DiTerlizzi. It isn’t entirely clear who’s speaking, and most of the creatures pictured aren’t witches at all (the aforementioned green skin belongs to a Frankenstein’s-monster type, the warty nose to a purple imp). And yet it works: as readers flip the pages, they meet a friendly cast of mummies, vampires, wizards, and ghouls, all captured in Smith’s eye-catching, fluorescent-hued cartoons. The underlying implication is that any one of them—or us—has the potential to be a witch. Ages 1–4.