A witch’s trick backfires in this folkloric original episode. Wringing their hands because Baby won’t eat, a supposedly clueless couple promises a sly witch her heart’s desire if she’ll help. Only “yak juice” will do, she announces and so Papa sets out to find a yak to squeeze. Obviously, he needs plenty of help; led on by the increasingly impatient witch, in various guises, he brings back a yak at last, who not only provides plenty of juice (milk, of course), but when the witch tries to claim Baby as her prize, boots her over the next mountain. The partly rhymed text, printed in diverse sizes and faces, is scattered about the page; Raglin dresses his pop-eyed figures for the steppe and gives them comically exaggerated expressions. Fans of Johnston’s Witch’s Hat (illus. by Margot Tomes, 1984), Eric Kimmel’s Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock (illus. by Janet Stevenson, 1988), and other tales of tricksters tricked will relish this new comeuppance. (Picture book. 7-9)
