The Baddies

The eponymous antagonists of this rhyming fable are a pale-skinned witch, a Jacob Marley–esque ghost, and a turquoise troll with a nasty-looking club. Each boasts that they’re “the worst,” but after a doubting mouse gives the trio a small, specific challenge—steal the blue-and-white dotted handkerchief of their new neighbor, a pigtailed girl with brown skin—the Baddies prove utterly hapless. When the troll confronts the child on a bridge, “The girl didn’t tremble or yell,/ She just did a neat little sidestep,/ And the troll lost his balance and fell.” In subsequent scenes, the hanky contains everything needed to thwart a witch’s curse, and the girl’s offering of a nice hot bath to the ghost utterly knocks him off his game. Longtime collaborators Donaldson and Scheffler (The Gruffalo), who render text and image in their signature style, end on a mild-mannered note: the girl kindly lends her sought-after hanky to a mouse family in need of a warm layer, and the “soundly defeated” Baddies leave town. But the trio’s ill-mannered attempts offer up solid slapstick humor throughout, and the protagonist throws enough knowing glances readers’ way for them to appreciate how clever she is. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)