Ilanit Oliver

Ten brooms set out to find their missing witches in this rhyming Halloween picture-book, searching air and land, and finding their wayward riders in all sorts of locations, from the bat shed to the forest. Once all of the brooms and witches are reunited, it is time for their annual Halloween flying show beneath the moon...

Given my love for both Halloween stories and witchy tales - witchy picture-books are a perennial pet project of mine - I expected to enjoy Ten Flying Brooms more than I did. Unfortunately, although I liked the book idea - a Halloween countdown, as the brooms search for their witches - the text itself was cumbersome, reading awkwardly throughout. Ilanit Oliver's rhythm here is just off, and her rhymes feel forced. I enjoyed the accompanying artwork from illustrator Kyle Poling, which was colorful and cute and full of lots of witchy details, but it wasn't enough to compensate for the sub-par text. Far better Halloween counting books in rhyme have been done, and I would recommend that readers seek elsewhere for this sort of fare, perhaps with such titles as Jennifer O'Connell's Ten Timid Ghosts, Teri Sloat's Zip! Zoom! On a Broom, Carole Gerber's 10 Busy Brooms, or Gris Grimly's recent Ten Spooky Pumpkins.… (meer)