SEA WITCHES

In her first book, a Canadian shapes a Scottish superstition into a ballad-style cycle of haiku, the repetitive form echoing like an eerie incantation. Grandmother explains that eggshells must never be left whole after an egg is eaten: ``Ghastly ghost witches gather/In the darkling gloom,'' stealing the shells and making them into evil ships that stir up storms to sink honest sailors. Gal pictures the homely framing story and the calamities at sea in formal, carefully wrought full-color art; his witches are wonderfully gaunt and grim, but the decorative confections that flank each page, like bookends, seem unduly contrived and repetitious. Still, offbeat and pleasantly spooky. (Folklore/Picture book. 5-10)