HERE THERE BE WITCHES

The third entry in the series that spawned Here There Be Unicorns (1994) and Here There Be Dragons (1993) has 17 stories, clever poems, rousing parodies, and short pieces in diverse genres about different varieties of witches and wizards, including the hags from Macbeth, Baba Yaga, Pythagoras, an Arapaho Indian shaman, Merlin, and an assortment of others. The pieces are prefaced with chatty introductions in which Yolen tells readers her inspiration for the stories, sources of various lines or ideas, what she did in elementary school, for whom she was waiting when she started writing a particular tale, her daughter's problems, etc. With works ranging in length from brief poems to a 30-page story about King Arthur, the book's strengths are its variety and sense of humor; the latter informs all aspects of the volume in which Yolen gracefully combines things magical with things psychological. Following series format, Wilgus's detailed and extremely polished pencil drawings are included, but this time appear somewhat staid in the midst of Yolen's happy-go-lucky structure. (Anthology. 12+)