Kevin Somers

An evil witch decides to brew up the meanest thing ever in her cauldron. But a small mix-up in the spell leads to her creating a kind young girl instead. With Halloween right around the corner, whatever is the old hag to do?

I picked up this book at random from the library right before Halloween, looking for a seasonally appropriate book to read with my niece. My mistake was in not reviewing it on my own before sharing it with her. The book trades on awful old stereotypes that ugly is evil and pretty is good, that single women who live with cats are "old hags" whose pets are even meaner than they are. It's not an image I like to see portrayed ad nauseam and I'm not thrilled to have introduced the word "hag" into my 6-year-old niece's vocabulary.

That being said, the book can be funny at times, especially if you throw yourself into doing the various voices like I did. For this reason, my niece seemed to like it and asked to hear it again. The underlying theme of kindness melting meanness is also nice, but I just wish such outdated language and iconography weren't used to make that point. The illustrations, including the specialized typography, add color and fun to each page.… (meer)