TRICK-OR-TREAT, SMELL MY FEET!

Twin witches out to sabotage their neighborhood’s trick-or-treating get what they deserve in this disappointingly unpolished holiday yarn. Having stolen a basketful of dirty socks from local clotheslines, Delia and Ophelia concoct an aromatic brew with them that forces trick-or-treating children to say only the last part of the title rhyme at each stop—until a stray clean bootie falls into the cauldron, altering the spell so that it turns the witches into ill-tempered infants. But the tale continues with several superfluous scenes that read as if they were tacked on to fill out the page count, and the pink-and-turquoise-toned paper-collage illustrations are pretty, rather than reflective of the tricky characters and plotline. Like the writing, which wanders into and out of passive voice—“Doors were slammed on superheroes, pirates, kitty cats, and ghosts.”—this is likely to fall flat despite the premise’s potential. (Picture book. 6-8)