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Formats
Hardcover Details
  • 09/2021
  • 978-1-735-1811-9-6
  • 40 pages
  • $19.95
Lynda Bouchard
Author
The Witches Three Count on Me!

Picture Book; General Fiction (including literary and historical); (Create)

Nothing cures being sent to your room on Halloween night like an unexplored forest. Count on it!

This is no ordinary night. It's Halloween and a mischievous little boy has run away from home. He takes a path through twisted forest trees and comes upon a frightful scene - three witches up to no good! They see him, too, and that's when the magic begins. How will he outsmart the witches as they try to capture him? Told in rhyme and through the prism of a child's imagination, you'll discover that daring and wit come in handy when three witches are out to get you. Facing your fears has never been so much fun!

How this book came to publication is equally as compelling as the magical adventures between its covers. Lynda completed the original draft written by her late husband Yates Davis (1949-2009) who was an award-winning broadcaster, voice actor, and advertising creative director.  

PRAISE: “Imaginative, fun and oh-so-clever, The Witches Three Count on Me! casts a captivating spell on readers, young and old.” –Mary Jane Clark, New York Times best-selling author of the Piper Donovan Mysteries

 

Reviews
A mischievous kid who loves candies, pranks, and scary situations, headlines Davis and Bouchard’s spooky Halloween adventure. When his mother reprimands him on the night of his favorite holiday, the young prankster escapes into the forest, where he stumbles upon three scary witches—with green flesh and creepy, curly toes—dancing around a fire. The witches seize the boy and fly him on their brooms and into their kitchen, complete with a burbling cauldron labeled “Wee Ones.” To save himself, the hero challenges his captors to solve a counting puzzle that he’s crafted. The witches will lose all their powers if they can’t answer his riddle—but what if they get it right?

The authors answer that question in a story that, despite some strained rhymes, successfully marries the exhilaration of Halloween scares with a clever math trick. At times the authors’ verbosity slows the clever story. The protagonist responds to the terrors around him—“jars of bulging lizard eyes, and cans of buzzard meat”—with anger rather than terror, exercising a hallucinatory agency in his escapist imaginations, a welcome development reminiscent of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. His confident decision to rely on his wits in the face of danger is exciting (“Quick trickery is my thing!”), though the choice to leave him nameless may limit readers’ ability to connect with him emotionally.

Kody Kratzer's atmospheric illustrations heighten the seasonal and supernatural elements, with rich colors, exciting details (the witches’ jack-o’-lantern smiles!), and occasional bumptious action bringing life to the pages. The art boasts a gratifying intensity, though attentive readers may note inconsistencies in the unnamed hero’s physical depiction—he appears childish in initial spreads while resembling a young adult in the final pages. Nevertheless, those eager for spine-tingling anecdotes, fun riddles, and the general merriment of Halloween will find delight in this wittily imaginative adventure.

Takeaway: An eerie and intellectually interactive Halloween adventure that will please curious readers.

Great for fans of: Emma Yarlett’s Beast Feast, Jennifer O’Connell’s Ten Timid Ghosts.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: B+

Formats
Hardcover Details
  • 09/2021
  • 978-1-735-1811-9-6
  • 40 pages
  • $19.95
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