cover image Happy Halloween, Witch’s Cat!

Happy Halloween, Witch’s Cat!

Harriet Muncaster. Harper, $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-222916-8

In this warm mother-daughter-focused Halloween celebration, the catsuit-wearing heroine of I Am a Witch’s Cat gives readers a brief primer on colors as she considers her costume options. Once again, Muncaster’s carefully assembled and impressively detailed miniature scenes are a major source of the story’s charm. It opens in the family kitchen where the “special witch’s cat” makes Halloween cookies with her mother, “a good witch.” Paper cutouts of jars line the shelves (are they pickles or something more sinister?), and there’s even a foil-wrapped exhaust hood over the stove. At the store, the girl tries on everything from a green frog costume (“Too slimy!”) to a yellow mummy outfit (“Too tangly!”) before realizing that Halloween is the perfect time for a witch and her familiar to switch places. Ages 4–8. Agent: Jodie Hodges, United Agents. (July)