HALLOWEENA

A very giggle-inducing telling of an unusual adoption story. Hepzibah the witch lives in a tower by an old cornfield, eating nothing but burnt cupcakes. She’s not pleased when her sister leaves her a human child, but she adopts her, names her Halloweena, and figures, “if I can change a fool into a flea, I could certainly change a diaper.” She finds, though, that she has to pull up all the poison ivy and plant fruit trees, and give up her nights out with the ghouls. As she grows, Halloweena misses other children; by the time she is six, she manages to attract some human friends by magicking the cornfield into growing candy corn. It all ends with “a Halloweena party.” There’s a fine interplay between the droll text and Roberts’s wonderfully puckish illustrations (New Yorker readers will recognize her signature curlicues). When Halloweena has trouble riding a broom, Hepzibah makes her a training broom with three brushes; Hepzibah muses, “how hard could it be to make a few friends?” and the image shows her with her cauldron surrounded by packets of “best friends mix”; Baby Halloweena’s stylish, round crib has a pink-and-white coverlet and a netting of spider webs. Yoking the sweetly normal (Hepzibah’s ironing board) with the wryly odd (the ironing board has chicken feet) reflects the very human story of fitting in, making friends, and working with what you are given. (Picture book. 4-8)