Twenty-one witchy poems from author Jane Yolen are paired with colorful, humorous artwork from illustrator Elise Primavera in this Halloween picture-book. From The Magic House, which offers an examination of the Hansel and Gretel story, to Do Witches Have?, which asks whether witches have babies, the selections here deal with witches in many circumstances, from traditional to modern...

Having enjoyed many books from both Yolen and Primavera, I was excited to track down Best Witches: Poems for Halloween. On the whole, I enjoyed it, although I thought the illustrations were far stronger than the text. The artwork was immensely appealing, managing to be both magical and humorous, with so many entertaining little details. I liked the idea of many of the poems, but often found them a little awkward in execution. I can only think of one poem I thought was quite good, The Warlock's Cat, which reads:

"A shadow of a shadow
Slipping in and out of night,
With his claws and teeth like starshine
Flickering on the edge of sight.

He is blacker than a night wind,
He is darker than a coal,
For he's the outward casting
Of his fearsome master's soul."

This was probably the best of the lot, with striking imagery, a smooth execution, and a fascinating central idea (the cat as familiar). Tastes vary of course, so I'd still recommend this one to readers looking for collections of Halloween poetry for children. For my part, my stars are mostly for the ideas and images here, rather than the writing. ( )

This is a book of poetry. All the poems center around the topic of witches. I think this would be a fun read during October reading one or two poems a day because by the end of the book I was loosing interest. ( )

Best Witches is a collection of Halloween poems. I think this book is good for children who are learning about poetry and this book could be good for the month of October as well. The illustrations are also hilarious and are great for the text. This is just a fun and silly book about different Halloween characters. ( )

This is a collection of poems about Halloween. They are fun poems to get children excited for Halloween. ( )

Collections
Picture book
Grade:3-6
Poetry
Best Witches is a collective poem book with many different topics dealing with Halloween. There is a poem called "The Magic House", "Witch Pizza", "MAgic Wands", and even "The Warlocks cat". Most of the poems making up are short, less than a page, but the vocabulary and figurative language made it more suited for older students than younger. Younger students may have difficulty understanding a majority of the poems. The book is illustrated beautifully, and each poem has its own unique illustrations to match it. What I really liked about the book is that most of the poems were humorous instead of scary. Overall I enjoyed many of the poems from this book, and think it is a good Halloween read. ( )