Thursday, September 10, 2009

Room on the Broom


A perfect witch book, just in time for Halloween.

Written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler (of the Gruffalo Fame), this book features a friendly witch who makes room for all kinds of animals on her broom. With the arrival of each animal, a new challenge arises.

With rollicking rhymes this is a great read-aloud. The opening lines are:

The witch had a cat
and a hat that was black,
And long ginger hair
in a braid down her back.
How the cat purred
and how the witch grinned,
As they sat on their broomstick
and flew through the wind.

This book is about friendship and helping others and has a wonderful happy ending.

I should note that there are two versions of this book - an English and an American version. We came to the English version first, and prefer it, but both are lovely!

Great for pre-school to second grade.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Andrea,

    I'm very curious how the American version differs from the UK one - can you give some examples? Yes, we love this book too, and it's great on CD aswell.

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  2. There are two passages in the dragon encounter with multiple versions of text. After "I am a dragon, as mean as can be," the line can be any of the following:

    "I am a dragon, as mean as can be, And witch with french fries tastes delicious to me!"

    "I am a dragon, as mean as can be. And I'm planning to have WITCH AND CHIPS for my tea!"

    or "And you witch look like a good supper to me!"


    Similarly, the version we have says, "The dragon drew nearer and started to drool. He said 'I won't let you go - do you think I'm a fool?' There is an alternative to this passage as well.

    We'll have to track down the CD!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for letting me know the differences! These seemingly small cultural differences are always fun to hear about. What do they say? "England and America are two countries separated by a common language" :-)
    .........
    Kids book giveaway currently at Playing by the book:
    http://www.kuvik.net/ztoft/playingbythebook/

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  4. Just found this blog and am so impressed. What a great stopping place for those who love kids' books. Very well done!

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