Greta’s revenge is the story of two sister witches, Greta the bad witch and Alice the good witch. Greta casts a spell on Alice to make her nasty, and they do horrible things together, but then the spell makes Greta act nicely. In the end, Greta decides to behave nicely most of the time, but she still does some horrible things. I had mixed emotions about this story. One thing that I really liked about this book was the illustrations. Greta is depicted as ugly with warts and is colored in various shades of green and Alice is depicted as pretty and colored in various shades of pink. When each takes on the other’s personality, the illustrations change so they look a little more like each other. For example, when Alice becomes nasty like Greta her hair becomes wiry and tangled just like Greta’s. One thing that I had mixed emotions about in this book was the ending. At the end of the story, Greta decides that she is tired of being nasty, so she is going to be like Alice and be helpful. However, Greta cannot resist being nasty, so she still does nasty things to people, but this time Alice casts a spell that causes whatever Greta does to other people to happen to her. I suppose that the spell is supposed to discourage Greta from being nasty, but I would have preferred if Greta would have learned to be kind and helpful. ( )

Determined to have her revenge, after the events of Alice and Greta leave her in a sticky mess, Greta concocts a diabolical scheme: she will use a spell to transform her rival into a replica of herself! Soon, Alice's pretty pink hat turns an ugly green, and the formerly helpful witch takes to drinking pond scum and terrorizing small children. But Greta had forgotten that one, all-important rule - namely, the Brewmerang Principle - and she herself is soon transformed: now it's nasty Alice and kindly Greta! Will things ever return to their "natural" state...?

Although not quite as strong as the first picture-book featuring Alice and Greta - two witches with very different approaches to magic - Greta's Revenge was still an engaging tale, sure to win over fans of the original. I appreciated that Simmons made Greta a little less one-dimensional in this one: she isn't reformed altogether by her experiences, but does change a little bit. Cyd Moore's colorful illustrations are an excellent accompaniment to the light-hearted fun, and just as charming as in the first. All in all, a worthy sequel! ( )