By Julia Donaldson
The witch who keeps dropping things off her broom and picks up a whole crew of animal friends who save her from a dragon.
A cheerful witch and her cat are flying along when the wind snatches her hat, then her bow, then her wand, one after another. Each time she lands to look, a friendly animal finds the lost thing and asks for a ride, until the broom is so crowded it snaps in two. Then a dragon turns up, licking its lips, and it's the very animals she squeezed on board who band together and scare it off. She rewards them with a brand-new, extra-roomy broom.
This is the safest possible spooky book to give, because the witch is warm and the whole story is really about kindness paying you back. The rhythm is so steady that a child who can't read yet will chime in on every rhyme, and the dragon scare is over in a page. Hand it to a four- or five-year-old at Halloween and you've given them a witch they'll actually want to cuddle up with.