Review by Kirkus Book Review
A witch confronts her greatest fear: helpful human children in perky uniforms.Green-skinned and with a big pointy hat cocked stylishly over her one huge eye, the Cyclops Witch fearlessly takes on winged monkeys and other creaturesbut when a diverse quartet of smiling young scouts appears on her porch one night, she "blitzed out her back window, running like mad. / Gah! Children!' she shrieked. This is so very bad!' " Undeterred by her efforts to leave them in the clutches of a mothman, a vampire, or even a sea monster ("What a world!" she moans), her pursuers at last catch up and introduce themselves as Heebie-Jeebies Maria, Germaine, Hector, and Latasha: "We travel the world, over mountain, sea and prairie, / to help others overcome the things they find scary." Instantly cured, the witch helps the winged monkeys get over their fear of water and other good deeds, thus earning a sash and tiara of her very own. The meter and rhyme may be, to say the least, undisciplined ("Maria helped the hobgoblin be cool around fire, / and with Germaine's help, exercising's fun for Vampire"), but, cribbing freely from a certain classic movie, the Sullivan twins dish up a yarn replete with cute monsters, cuter children, an unusually memorable protagonist, and buckets of fluffy uplift. Readers will melt. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
