GARLIC AND THE WITCH

In this follow-up to Garlic and the Vampire (2021), vegetable helpers become human.

In Paulsen’s first foray into this world, Garlic and her vegetable friends showed up fully formed. The second installment explains how they were harvested when melancholy, light-skinned Witch Agnes decided to grow herself some helpers, making her world a brighter place. She’s still working on a blood substitute for her vampire friend, Count, and sends Garlic and Count to a far-off market to retrieve some bloodroot. Garlic, meanwhile, is worried about sprouting a fifth finger, not having been told that she and her vegetable friends would eventually become human. There are a few sticky storytelling moments—it’s hard to believe that it would take the witch so long to remember that a plant called bloodroot might be helpful in synthesizing blood, and it’s unclear for quite a while that Garlic’s concerns revolve around her number of fingers. The cheerful art, rendered in an autumnal palette, and relatable characters remain the series’ main draws, though this story veers a bit more toward cloying sentimentality than the first, with many overt conversations about being yourself and embracing change even though it’s scary. Still, though, when the vegetables turn into a multiracial group of humans, readers will close the book feeling good.

Earnest and thoughtful.