Margaret Embry (1919–1975)

Blanche was the youngest and slowest member of Scurry No. 13, the most accomplished coven of flying witches around, led by the formidable Grand Madame. A little, blue-nosed witch who was always late to meetups, she was the despair of her peers. Then one Halloween, Josephine, one of the older witches, undertook to help Blanche get to their midnight meetup on time, setting the little blue-nosed witch's clock ahead by two hours. Unbeknownst to her, Blanche had had the same idea, and by half past eight on that Halloween evening, she was flying over town with her cat, Brockett. Encountering a group of human children out 'Halloweening,' she joined in the fun, making new friends and getting her first taste of trick-or-treating...

At a brief forty-eight pages, The Blue-Nosed Witch is a little bit short to be considered a novel, and although I have added my 'chapter-book' tag, which I use to designate shorter works of children's fiction, generally one hundred pages or less, it does not technically have chapters. Although not long enough to be a novel, it is definitely too long and text-heavy to be considered an early reader, and while it may not have chapters, it is suitable reading for the beginning chapter-book audience, ages seven to nine. Leaving aside the issue of categorization, the book offers a cute, vintage Halloween story, one with plenty of sweet (rather than spooky) witchy appeal. I enjoyed Embry's narrative, and appreciated Carl Rose's accompanying black and white illustrations, although a part of me wished for color artwork, given the eponymous blue nose. Recommended to beginning chapter-books readers looking for witchy fantasy and/or charmingly old-fashioned Halloween stories.… (més)