WEE WINNIE WITCH’S SKINNY

Readers who don’t rest easy after being spooked should be warned away from this posthumous chiller. Billed as an “Original African American Scare Tale,” it folds tried-and-true folkloric elements into a fast-paced story featuring a man afflicted by a witch who can detach her head and skin, and a too-curious lad she snatches out the window one night for a wild ride through the air. James Lee finds out what causes his Uncle Big Anthony to become so sick and frightened when he witnesses Wee Winnie Witch strip off her skin and ride Big Anthony like a horse; unfortunately, when she sees James Lee watching, over she gallops to grab him, too. But while they soar over the town (and James Lee finds himself as exhilarated as he is scared), Uncle Big Anthony’s canny mother-in-law Mama Granny is coating the inside of Wee Winnie’s skin with hot pepper oil. In full-page wood engravings, Moser captures the tale’s moonlit horror with gloriously icky views of the witch, both skinless, and as a cat with long-nailed human hands—but he also provides welcome comic relief at the end, with a scene of James Lee, many years later, relating the tale with obvious relish to a wide-eyed young listener. Your listeners will be wide-eyed, too. (Picture book. 7-9)