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Idle, Molly

Witch Hazel

40 pp. | Little | October, 2022 | Trade ISBN 978-0-316-54113-8 $18.99
(2) K-3 As the seasons pass, young Hilda visits elderly witch Hazel. In the spring, she helps Hazel sweep her front porch; in summer, they air the music room; in fall, they clean cobwebs in Hazel's parlor; and in winter, Hilda tidies Hazel's room as Hazel is bedridden. Hazel reanimates past memories with her broomstick, and Hilda watches in wonder. She sees a young Hazel playing imaginatively with her cat; a teenage Hazel performing music and setting a caged bird free; and the "belle of the ball" version of Hazel, who wears a snake like a scarf and what look like Cinderella's glass slippers ("It's a looooong story," she tells Hilda). During wintertime, Hilda sees all iterations of Hazel as the witch slips away from her life. The book's palette is dominated by an earthy brown, a pleasing balance to the ethereal subject matter. Idle's wispy, fine-lined depictions of memories are conveyed in a white that nearly glows off the terrestrial browns, as do the sparks of magic that fly through the air in graceful, flowing lines. When spring comes around again, the still-mourning Hilda returns to sweep Hazel's porch, only to be met with a special memory of her own, and new life bursts forth in a nest in Hazel's tree. A bewitching examination of the abiding power of memories and story.
Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022

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