Emma at the Beach

When mean witches Lavinia and Dolores go the beach to escape a terrible heat wave, they go out of their way to teach young sweet witch Emma and her friends. "We're going to swim in the beach all day!...Wouldn't you and your friends like to go?" "Oh, yes, we would!" "Definitely!" "Darn right" "Well, too bad you can't! Goodbye!!" The witches fly to a beach shack that's "damp and moldy...full of sand and spiders and ants"...and "smells of wet old towels," says Lavinia. "It's adorable!" But the witches can't leave bad enough alone. Wanting to make absolutely sure that Emma et al. are "miserable," they fly back and dump bags of wet sand on her and her friends. Emma's feline friend looks directly at the reader and says, "I say we ought to get even, if you catch my drift." With the help of her friends, including some newly recruited geese, and a shopping bag full of items bought by Emma, the victims fly to the beach to "get even." They manage to convince Lavinia and Dolores that there are poisonous jellyfish in the water (a -be-speckled goose with a straw hat confirms this), that they need to cover themselves in "anti-mosquito cream" (sold, of course, by one of the geese), and that a very dangerous sea monster is after them. While this may seem a little mean-spirited, Stevenson's casual illustrations and lettering, and his usual absurd resolution (aided by the somewhat unbelievable gullibility of the witches) give a fun, light tone to the story. The story is best when Emma and her friends band together, and, with the most meager of resources, show what some imagination and teamwork can accomplish (on the next to last page, Stevenson explains just what Emma bought). While I didn't enjoy this as much as books in his "Grandpa and Wainey" series, Stevenson again shows his winning, offbeat sense of humor in this clever and enjoyable story.