Kids into books: Broomsticks in Space

Author: Kate Saunders

Illustrator: Tony Ross

Age: 7-10 years

Publisher: Macmillan, $10.95


After Old Noshie and Skirty Marm stole the Hat, Mrs Abercrombie had laid all kinds of evil plans to snatch it back and had sworn never to rest until the Power Hat was hers once more.

In the end, the Power Hat had been Mrs Abercrombie's undoing. After one desperate battle it had burst into flames and vanished in a cloud of ash. Still Mrs Abercrombie refused to give in. She knew that before it had become a hat, this strange magic article had been a small piece of stone, with an eerie, silvery glow. Who should know better than Mrs Abercrombie, the very witch who had made the Hat? yet again, she had refuse dto admit defeat. She had gone back in a Time Machine to capture the Glowing Stone and start all over again.

Then Skirty Marm had rescued the Glowing Stone and sent it hurtling away into outer space. Mrs Abercrombie had been so furious, she had exploded. her rage and disappointment blew her into a million pieces, and (like a wicked old witch at the end of a fairy story) she was never seen again.