We're Off to Find the Witch's House

Four trick-or-treaters march along a hushed sidewalk, to rhythmic stanzas that can be whispered or spoken boldly: "We're creeping down the witch's street./ Which street? The witch's street./ .../ but we're not afraid./ No, we're not afraid." Newcomer Krieb uses ample repetition in a call-and-response reminiscent of "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead!" Paddington illustrator Alley pictures the children and an antic owl tumbling past "big Frankenstein,/ the herky-jerky, lurching kind" and "a mostly misty, ghostly ghost" to arrive at a holiday revel where the menaces are revealed to be comfortingly kid-size. Ages 3-up. (Aug.)