Room on the Broom Review 

Room on the Broom Review

In this amusing and enjoyable story a witch and her cat zoom through the air on the witch's magic broomstick. The tale begins with the wind blowing off the witch's towering black hat, which is quickly found by a dog who is as keen as can be to find room on the broom for himself.

The sequence of events continue in this manner with the wind whipping off a bow from the witch's braid, which is found by a bird. Later, the wand falls to the ground to be found by a frog, from a pond.

The list of broom riders grows until the inevitable happens: the broom snaps in two and every passenger is sent tumbling to the ground. A dragon appears and plans to eat the witch, with fries no less. But the cat, dog, bird, and frog disguise themselves as a scary river monster thing and frighten the dragon, who apologises for his mistake and flies away.

The witch, using the black cauldron, concocts a truly magnificant broom complete with plush seating, a pool for the frog and nest for the bird.

The illustrations featured throughout the story have charm and the characters generally look happy, apart from the dragon who is shamed by his initial desire to eat the witch.

Room on the Broom Review cont...

Room on the Broom is a good text to read with younger school-age students. The author uses some nice rhyme with simple words which is perfect for young readers or older readers who struggle to read. For instance, 'Down went the cat and the dog and the frog. Down they went tumbling into a bog.' The clinician could very quickly and easily target the three rhyming words and add other similar rime/onset words such as log, fog, flog, slog, etc to expand on the author's original text.

Julia Donaldson's Room on the Broom is a terrific picture book with an engaging story and features very nice and simple rhyme that is recommended for school-age children (and younger) from prep to grade 2.

 Updated 3/13

Return from Room on the Broom Review to 1st Grade Books