Kids into books: Broomsticks in Space

Author: Kate Saunders

Illustrator: Tony Ross

Age: 7-10 years

Publisher: Macmillan, $10.95


Once a week, all through this long, warm summer, the two witches had flown round the village of Tranters End, measuring every single vegetable marrow. There were no less than fifteen of these green monsters, lying in gardens and vegetable patches like vast, overgrown cucumbers. Marrows are not very exciting to eat, but the villagers were not growing them for food. They were all after the Marrow Cup - a silver cup, given every year at the Flower Show to the person who had raised the biggest marrow in Tranters End.

This year, for the first time, Old Noshie and Skirty Marm had entered the competition. They were both very proud of the fine, fat marrow they were growing in the vicarage garden. Old Noshie wanted to win that silver cup more than anything in the world. She lay awake at night, fretting over the sizes of all the other marrows in the village. Skirty Marm pretended not to care so much, but it had been her idea to measure their rivals' marrows.