Isabel’s Noel

Illustrated by Arnold Roth
Funk & Wagnalls 1967
ISBN# LC 67-25856 F&W hardcover

A Christmas story in which the hapless little witch Isabel (named after my beloved mom, Isabelle) ends up helping Santa on Christmas. This sequel to “The Witch Who Wasn’t” followed the editor from Macmillan to Funk & Wagnalls. Roth’s deliciously cranky illustrations perfectly suit the story.

Accolades:

• Certificate of Merit from The Comet Press

What reviewers have said:

• “The illustrations have a grotesque humor; the story has the double appeals of the Christmas theme and the reversal humor children enjoy, such as Mother’s admonition to Isabel, as she gets ready to fly away, to “go inside and dirty up first.”—Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books
• “The hilarious young witch Isabel, heroine of The Witch Who Wasn’t, returns in a Christmas gallivant that will have little children in stitches and older ones bewitched.”—Book News
• “A zany fantasy with a MAD mag cast, equipped to tickle the reader as well as the read- to.”—Kirkus
• “bewitching little Christmas book…”—Rocky Mountain News
• “ hilarious Christmas story with comic pictures to match.”—San Francisco Chronicle