Geraldine Ross

"In the crags of Crazy Mountain / Near the boiling Fire Fountain / Lived a witch / Named Mrs. Stitch! / She owned a pot / In which to stew / Quite a lot / Of Witch's Brew, / A pointed hat, / A battered broom, / And pets enough to fill a room!" So begins this rhyming tale of Scat, a most reluctant witch's cat, who dreams of warm, cozy places and gentle people to pet his fur. Riding with Mrs. Stitch one Halloween night, he falls from the broom, and winds up right where he has always wanted to be: in a human home, surrounded by love...

Stories of witch's cats who long for a "normal" life are not at all unusual in the world of children's books. Ursula Moray Williams' classic animal fantasy, Gobbolino the Witch's Cat, is probably the most celebrated, but Natalie Savage Carlson's five-volume picture-books series about Spooky the witch's cat is another notable example. Scat, the Witch's Cat is a fine example of this story type, pairing a rhythmically rhyming text from author Geraldine Ross with appealing artwork from illustrator Kurt Werth. The story is a pleasure to read aloud, while the illustrations, done in black and white with orange and green accents, are quite expressive. This is my first book from Ross, who was apparently a children's librarian at the Minneapolis Public Library, but I have enjoyed Werth's work before, in Edna Mitchell Preston's One Dark Night, also set at Halloween. Recommended to picture-book readers looking for fun stories about witches, cats and Halloween, as well as to those who appreciate vintage illustrations.… (meer)