In four tales that follow the seasons, Little Witch Hazel, who has light brown skin and wears a pointed red cap, serves as her woodland community's conscientious caretaker. Working with woodblock-like illustrations in a palette of greens, blues, and reds, Wahl (The Blue House) conjures a cozy world of forest creatures living in overgrown thickets amid twisting vines. In the spring, Little Witch Hazel finds an orphaned egg and cares for the "poof of a bird" that emerges. On a summer day with many errands to run, she finds that everyone else is relaxing, and she's persuaded to join them: "All she had to do was sit, and listen, and breathe in the fragrant summer air." In autumn, a mysterious cry from a hollow stump frightens everyone, and only Little Witch Hazel is brave enough to investigate. And in winter, Little Witch Hazel is caught in a blizzard after a day of doctoring. A thread of loving and nurturing emerges through this treasury of quiet adventures--no creature in the forest is too small to escape Little Witch Hazel's attention, and readers will find satisfaction in seeing the way her sturdy care succors her community and results in gentle reciprocation. Ages 4--8. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary. (Sept.)

A miniature witch tends to a forest over the course of a year. Little Witch Hazel lives in Mosswood Forest in a home at the base of a tree trunk. Her distinctive personality is fleshed out vividly throughout this thoroughly satisfying set of four stories, one for each season. Stoic, diligent, and giving, Hazel nurtures an orphaned owl egg in spring; is convinced by friends to take a day off in summer; helps a lonely troll in autumn; and is saved from a storm in winter by Otis, the owl she once mothered. The detailed, evocative worldbuilding will have readers lingering. They'll meet a friendly and funny (especially the chipmunk with the toothache) community of anthropomorphic creatures, such as Wendell the sailing frog and Mousepappa (who wears the apron and takes care of the babies). Many creatures are fantastical (dryads, goblins). Refreshingly, nothing is sanitized: Little Witch Hazel is not gaunt and whimsical; she's curvaceous, sturdy, and strong. She even has hairy legs; she has more important things to do than shave, such as serve as midwife to Mrs. Rabbit. The writing is lush and lyrical ("milky clouds…hung low"), and the textured, earth-toned illustrations expertly capture Hazel's world, both cozy (her tiny home) and gloriously wild (the forest she tends to). Hazel is White; the "beasts of all shapes and sizes" readers meet include fantastical creatures of color and one who uses a wheelchair. (This book was reviewed digitally.) More Mosswood, please. (Picture book. 4-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Four gentle, warm-hearted stories follow tiny Witch Hazel through the seasons in her village of Mosswood as she befriends a baby owl, learns to set chores aside on a gorgeous summer day, investigates an eerie wail, and gets caught in a snowstorm. Wahl (The Blue House, 2020) brings a distinctly vintage feel to these tales, using enchanting, spare language to evoke rich sensations ("It was the kind of noise that sent prickles through your whiskers and chilled you right down to your boots"). Her earthy, dense artwork beautifully depicts the forest setting--plants and tree stumps towering over the miniscule fairies and gnomes--with deep greens and browns scattered with bright mushrooms, wild flowers, and fallen leaves. For all the old-fashioned sensibilities, however, Wahl's story is refreshingly modern: her inclusive illustrations feature forest denizens of all shapes, sizes, abilities, and skin tones. "Frazzled Mousepapa" cradles a mouseling while wearing a floral apron; one fairy nurses her infant at an evening concert; and Little Witch Hazel herself is matter-of-factly fat, with her soft belly visible in her colorful clothes. The quiet but insistent rejection of conventional norms is both cheerworthy and effortlessly integrated, and the result is a story that can sit happily next to any classic fairy story as well as contemporary picture books directly addressing physical differences.

In four stories, one for each season, we follow the adventures of Little Witch Hazel, a sturdy, rosy-cheeked forest dweller with a bevy of woodland friends -- gnomes, fairies, trolls, owls, mice, frogs, and newts. The tales recall classic nursery stories (a rescued animal who later repays the kindness; a parade of creatures that gets longer and longer as everyone joins in a quest) and as such have just the right amount of tension for the audience. (What could be making the eerie noises coming from the hollow tree? Will Hazel become lost in a blizzard?) Apart from a pointed hat, there is nothing particularly witchy about Hazel. Rather, she seems to be a kind of community-health carer, seeing to an abandoned owl's egg, a chipmunk with a toothache, a postpartum rabbit mother. Wahl's (The Blue House, rev. 7/20) digital art, in deep earth tones, has the retro look of wood-block prints and contains plenty of details to pore over. An endpaper map of the whole of Mosswood Forest serves to remind readers of the journey just taken and the pleasures of this tight-knit neighborhood in miniature. Sarah Ellis January/February 2022 p.102(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.