Beatrix was born at midnight during a full moon and is a witch; her twin Olive, born two minutes later, is not a witch. Science-loving Ollie and her neighbor friend are tired of Beatrix's tricks and decide to play one on her, but the trick backfires when the bucket of tiny spiders they've loosed in Beatrix's room get into her potions and become gigantic. The three need to work together to round up all the spiders and shrink them back to size, even if it means facing their fears and going into the Dark Wood.

Cute, funny, just the right amount of creepy. ( )

Very cute book. This is the first in a series about a little girl who has a witch for a twin sister, literally! This is an early chapter book, there are pictures on every book and parts of the story are in the pictures. The discussion questions at the back of the book are a great bonus as they kept the kids involved after the story was over AND it helped confirm they really were paying attention and that they understood the story. There were themes of consequences, problem-solving & teamwork.


( )

(review copy)

This little book from Scholastic doesn't have reading level information attached to it yet, but the story and plot indicate to me that it's a practice reader for early elementary aged children -- probably 2nd grade. The font is mid-size and there are conversation balloons. The number of sentences run from 2 to 3 per page --except for pages with balloon conversations. Some sentences are short while others are compound. I'll give you some examples:

Eddie and I have had enough.
If there is one thing my sister is afraid of, it's spiders.
Now that the spiders are all in one place, we just needed to shrink them down to their original size.

The premise for this story is that one of the girls is science oriented (Olive) while another is a witch (Beatrix). They will apparently be joined in their adventures by a boy named Eddie. Eddie adds some fun by being a guy who likes to make up songs for everything. Definitely silly.

Personally, I found Beatrix to be a little obnoxious, but I know that second graders enjoy exploring this type of behavior and it allows adults to discuss pushy behavior.

SUMMARY
The artwork in this book is very appealing and the short format should make it a good addition to book shelves and classroom book baskets. Two fears are mentioned in this book: fear of spiders and fear of darkness. So heads-up adults. Take note that at one point a spider picks Eddie up and lifts him off the ground. Other than that the story comes to a resolution with Beatrix liking the spiders. I should also note that the author, and consequently the kids, are very conscious of not harming the spiders.

Worth a read! ( )