Tilly Ipswitch, Queen of Halloween, returns from a visit to the planetarium with a copy of the book, What Every Space Traveler Ought to Know, and decides that she and her cat will journey into outer space, in order to find new worlds, full of people they can frighten. With a hand-made spacecraft powered by jet-black magic, Tilly and a very unwilling Kit head for the stars, but when they run out of fuel, they crash land in a most unexpected place...

Somehow, I got turned around, when it comes to Don Freeman's two picture-books about this witch, assuming that this was a sequel to his Tilly Witch, which I read first. As it turns out, Space Witch was first published in 1959, a good ten years before Tilly Witch, so I read them in the wrong order. In any case, although I enjoyed this a tad more than the other, I can't say that Tilly Ipswitch comes even close to being one of my favorite witchy characters, or (despite the sincere recommendations and warnings of friends) that I feel very strongly about her at all. Recommended primarily to those who like the character, or who are interested in Don Freeman's work. ( )

Pretty cute story of a semi-incompetent witch and her cat and their trip out into the Milky Way. ( )