Ursula von Hippel

Weeny - full name: Hallo Ween Witch - longed to fulfill the promise of her name, by joining the other witches on their Halloween flight, but the oldest witch told her she was too young. After all, she was a mere four hundred years old! Determined to enjoy the festivities in spite of her elders, Weeny set out for town, where she played a series of tricks on the schoolteacher, doctor, and somewhat grumpy mayor. Eventually the whole place was in an uproar, and Weeny accidentally revealed herself. Fortunately, the mayor saw the humorous side of things, and let the little witch go, after extracting her promise that she would only play tricks on Halloween night...

Published in 1957, The Craziest Hallowe'en is a delightful little witchy confection, pairing a sweetly entertaining Halloween tale with appealing, vintage-style illustrations. I thought it quite interesting that Weeny was small, not just in the sense of being younger than her fellow witches, but physically, coming only to the knees of the humans she encountered. Given that the older witches were only slightly larger than her, it suggests that the witches in this picture-book world are a smaller species than humans. Leaving that aside, I enjoyed the artwork here, which alternated between simple line drawings in black and those, and those with a single color accent, in orange. The story itself was entertaining, and full of witchy charm. Author/illustrator Ursula von Hippel was a German kindergarten teacher who studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, and who published a small number of picture-books, here in the United States. Her books don't seem to have ever been published in Germany, so it would seem that her career as a picture-book creator was confined to this country. That said, I would be curious to know if she settled permanently here in the states, after her education and the publication of her books, or whether she returned to her homeland. In any case, this is one I would recommend to picture-book readers looking for vintage Halloween tales, or for fun witchy fare.… (mehr)