The Baddies
by Julia Donaldson; illus. by Axel Scheffler
Primary    Scholastic    32 pp.
8/23    9781339009063    $17.99

The seasoned author-artist pair (recently The Smeds and the Smoos, rev. 3/21) bring their usual humor and spice to this rollicking story of three “baddies”: a troll, a ghost, and a witch. When a girl with a “blue spotted hanky” moves into a nearby cottage, the three brag so much about their plans to eat her, haunt her, and turn her to stone, respectively, that a fed-up little white mouse offers a challenge: which one can scare her so much that they can steal the handkerchief? More boasting ensues, but each baddie fails to faze the girl, the very definition of sang-froid. And who ends up with the hanky? The little white mouse, who asks for help keeping her babies warm. Donaldson’s propulsive verse will encourage reader participation, with lots of noisy words like splash and roar and ah-choo! to join in on (not to mention the witch’s spell: “Hankety pankety / plinkety plonk, / rickety rackety rocket!”). Scheffler’s richly colored signature illustrations abound with action and kid-pleasing details, and he manages to imbue even minor characters such as the witch’s cat familiar with personality. Sure to wow ’em at story hour.

From the July/August 2023 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.