Witch, Goblin and Ghosts's Book of Things To Do

The eponymous three friends—Witch, Goblin and Ghost—are back in this fourth collection of stories for beginning readers from author Sue Alexander and illustrator Jeanette Winter, this time engaging in all sorts of fun activities. In Ghost's Rebus, Ghost creates and shares a rebus-style story—a story written partially with symbols and pictures—that he wrote about Goblin, while in Goblin's Mystery Bag, Goblin and Witch play a game in which they must guess the contents of a paper bag while blindfolded. In A Play, the three friends produce and put on a play based on the fairy-tale of Rumpelstiltskin, while in Goblin's Magic Trick, Goblin puts on a show of sorcery for Ghost and Witch. Finally, in Witch's Secret Code, Goblin finds a show more mysterious message, and requires Witch's help to decode it...

Like its predecessors—Witch, Goblin, and Sometimes Ghost, More Witch, Goblin, and Ghost Stories and Witch, Goblin, and Ghost in the Haunted Woods—Witch, Goblin, and Ghost's Book of Things To Do pairs Alexander's engaging stories of these three friends and their fun together with understated but expressive black and white artwork from Winter. This fourth volume in the series doesn't just present a collection of appealing stories, however, but gives instructions for the young reader/listener, on how to do each of the five activities highlighted in the stories. So it is that instructions (with illustrations) on how to conduct the magic trick displayed by Goblin in Goblin's Magic Trick, or a decoder key for the code used in Witch's Secret Code, are included in the stories themselves. I liked this approach, as it makes the book both a beginning reader, which can be appreciated for the stories alone, as well as an activity book, completes with ideas and instructions. Recommended to readers who have enjoyed previous books about these three winsome characters, as well as to those looking for some fun games ideas for younger children. show less