Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

Hey, Story Seekers!

We've got a witch.

We've got a broom.

We've got a cat.

So far, transportation seems manageable.

Then somebody wants a ride.

Then somebody else wants a ride.

Then somebody ELSE wants a ride.

Nobody has checked the broom's maximum occupancy.

This feels important.

Room on the Broom, written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, is a bouncing, rhyming ride about a generous witch who keeps making room for new friends until her broomstick finally develops an opinion about the arrangement.

SNAP.

Readit has suggested they should have installed a sidecar.

Frankly, that would have saved everybody some trouble.

Book Breakdown

The witch and her cat are flying happily along when the wind blows away her hat.

Down they go to find it.

A dog brings it back.

Nice dog.

Then the dog asks whether there's room on the broom.

Sure.

Hop aboard.

Off they go.

Then the witch loses her bow. A bird finds it.

Guess what the bird wants.

Yep.

Broom privileges.

Then the wand disappears. A frog retrieves it.

You can see where this is going.

The broom is getting crowded. The cat was there first and does not look thrilled about the expanding passenger list.

Then the overloaded broom breaks.

Everybody tumbles down, and the witch winds up separated from her friends just as a dragon arrives with dinner plans.

The witch is dinner.

That's when all those extra passengers suddenly look like an excellent decision.

The cat, dog, bird and frog work together, cover themselves in mud, and rise up as one enormous, horrible-looking creature. The dragon decides there are easier meals elsewhere.

Good call.

The witch is saved. Then she uses her cauldron to build a new broom with room and a few useful extras for everybody.

Problem solved.

And this time, perhaps we won't put five passengers on a stick designed for two.

Julia Donaldson's rhyme is doing real work here. The pattern repeats enough that kids can feel what's coming, but the story doesn't get stuck inside the pattern.

Hat. Dog. Bow. Bird. Wand. Frog.

We learn the game.

Then the broom breaks and Donaldson changes the game.

Axel Scheffler's pictures make the first half better than the words alone could, because you can watch the passenger situation getting steadily more ridiculous. The witch stays cheerful about her growing crew. The animals all have distinct opinions. The landscapes keep changing underneath them. And when the dragon arrives, he's big enough to create genuine danger without turning the book into nightmare fuel.

That's the partnership. Donaldson keeps your ear moving. Scheffler keeps your eye busy.

For teachers and librarians: Lexile AD600L · ATOS 3.7 · Fountas & Pinnell N · 834 words · grades PreK to 2. First published August 27, 2001, 32 pages, Dial in the US. The AD prefix means adult-directed, which fits: this reads far better aloud than alone.

Jungle Jimmy's Journal

I like the construction of this one.

It's two stories that turn out to be one.

For the first half, the witch keeps helping animals. She doesn't make a speech about kindness.

She just makes room.

Dog helped me? Hop on.

Bird helped me? Hop on.

Frog helped me? Sure. Squeeze in.

Then the broom breaks, and all that generosity comes back around.

That's the satisfying part. The animals aren't passengers Donaldson added because she needed more things to rhyme with.

They're the rescue team.

And I especially like that individually not one of them is any threat to a dragon.

Cat? Snack.

Frog? Smaller snack.

Bird? Appetizer.

Together, covered in mud, pretending to be one horrible creature?

Now we're negotiating.

That's a genuinely useful way to show teamwork, because a kid can see exactly why the group mattered. Nobody had to be brave alone. They had to be disgusting together.

From a read-aloud standpoint, Donaldson hands you a runway. The rhyme moves without fighting you, and the repeated question about whether there's room gives kids something to wait for.

Leave a small gap there once they know it. They'll fill it.

One reader described exactly that happening with a six-year-old who "easily supplied all the end words at the right points" despite not being able to read yet. That's the rhyme doing the teaching before the letters do.

Then you've got voices. Witch. Dog. Bird. Frog. Dragon. Plenty to play with without turning your living room into community theater.

About that dragon.

He gives you one real moment of suspense, and whether that's a feature or a problem depends entirely on your kid. A reader named Lisa Vegan put the balance better than I could: "There is just the right amount of funny vs. scary."

That's my read too. He's dangerous enough that the rescue means something. Not so dangerous that anybody's checking under the bed afterward.

Probably.

Readit's Review

I knew the broom was going to break.

COME ON.

There is a witch.

A cat.

A dog.

A bird.

A frog.

And all their stuff.

On ONE BROOM.

You can't just keep saying yes.

I like the frog because he jumps on and then everything breaks.

I'm not saying it's his fault.

But he is the last one.

Just saying.

The dragon is cool because he thinks he's about to eat the witch and then this giant muddy monster comes out.

I would run too.

I don't care if I'm a dragon.

Mud monster wins.

Also, the new broom is WAY better.

Why didn't she make that broom first?

It has places for everybody.

If you have magic and you're flying around on a skinny old stick, that is kind of your decision.

What Others Think

Readers have been happily squeezing onto this broom for a while. Goodreads shows 4.47 out of 5 from 26,683 ratings, with about 1,635 written reviews. That 4.47 is the highest average of any traditionally published book we've reviewed.

The reactions are consistent, and they're mostly about reading it out loud.

Cheryl: "Julia Donaldson's wonderful children's book, told in rhyme, is a story of friendship, sharing, and kindness that would be great to read aloud with young children! In addition, several parts had me laughing out loud."

Ken calls it "a perfect tale of helping strangers" and "a super cute story for little ones to enjoy at Halloween."

Cyndi, whose grandson turns up in a lot of the best reviews I read this week: "Mr. H, my grandson, and I love this book!! Great story!!"

And Lisa Vegan gets at why it works for a wider age range than you'd expect: "Great read aloud! Great rhyme! There is just the right amount of funny vs. scary. There's a really fun and surprising and creative ending."

Here's something several reviewers mentioned that I hadn't known, and it's worth passing along.

There's an animated version, and it's very good. Magic Light Pictures made a 27-minute film in 2012 that first aired on the BBC on Christmas Day, and it picked up an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short. Simon Pegg narrates. Timothy Spall plays the dragon. Rob Brydon is the cat.

More than one reader came to the book through the film rather than the other way round. Calista said flat out that seeing the show is what got her to order the book.

So if the book lands in your house, there's a second evening waiting for you.

Belly Laugh Scale

3 out of 5: Solid Chuckles

There's plenty that's funny here.

The broom gets more absurdly crowded. The cat has to live with an ever-growing passenger list. The frog arrives at precisely the wrong moment for broomstick engineering. And the dragon goes from fearsome predator to "nope" in about two seconds.

But laughter isn't driving every page. Adventure, rhyme, friendship and suspense are all sharing the broom.

Three out of five.

Please distribute your weight evenly.

Final Explorer Verdict

I'd recommend Room on the Broom for ages 3 to 7, especially kids who love rhyme, witches without much real spookiness, animal characters, repeated phrases, and stories where a bunch of small characters have to solve one big problem.

And if you're reading this in September, buy it now. It isn't a Halloween book exactly, but it's the right book for October and every library copy will be gone by the 15th.

For read-alouds it's an easy yes. Donaldson's rhyme gives you momentum without making you wrestle the sentences. Scheffler gives kids plenty to watch while the broom fills up. And the story rewards the witch's kindness without stopping to announce that kindness is today's lesson.

She made room for them.

When she needed help, they showed up.

Simple. Good.

And I like that the solution isn't one brave hero charging a dragon.

It's a cat, a dog, a bird and a frog standing in some mud and collectively deciding:

We are going to look disgusting.

Brilliant.

Keep exploring, Story Seekers!

Jungle Jimmy & Readit