Spooky and Snowball, two ex-witch's cats who now live a (mostly) peaceful life with the Bascomb family, return in this fourth adventure, following upon Spooky Night (which introduced Spooky himself), Spooky and the Ghost Cat (which introduced Snowball), and Spooky and the Wizard's Bats. When Snowball goes missing, and Spooky notices a croaking raven hanging about, the intrepid feline suspects that his old nemesis (and former mistress) the witch is somehow involved, and heads for the woods, where he finds himself caught up in a Witches' Sabbat Race...

Although it is the fourth entry in Natalie Savage Carlson's five-book series about two witch's cats who become family pets, but find themselves continually entangled with their old mistress, Spooky and the Bad Luck Raven is actually the fifth and final title from the collection that I have read. I don't usually read out of order, but an initial inability to obtain this one made it seem that I might have to forgo it altogether. I'm glad it did eventually come in through ILL, though, as I ended up enjoying it far more than Spooky and the Witch's Goat (the uninspiring fifth title). Andrew Glass' illustrations were no more appealing to me here, than in the other books, but the story, with its witches' race, provided quite a bit of narrative excitement. All in all, my initial response stands: this is an engaging series, perfect for those young readers looking for moderately spooky cat and witch tales for Halloween. The final installment is undoubtedly weak, but the first four are quite engaging. ( )