Instead of an "Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly," this Halloween story features an old witch who wants a bat. In the course of her search for the nocturnal animal, she captures a cat, creates a creature, unearths a mummy, assembles a skeleton, and conjures a haunt. At the somewhat anticlimactic ending, readers discover why she wants the bat-for "Nothing more/than to adorn/her Halloween hat!" A lively refrain invites participation: "I know why/she wanted the bat./But I won't tell you that." The watercolor and pen-and-ink pictures are more fun than fierce and include a lot of color and humor.

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