Ida DeLage's cantankerous Old Witch, who lives in a cave on the hill overlooking a small farming village, emerging from time to time to cause trouble (particularly for the farmer whose land lies just beneath her home), attends the local Halloween Ball in this second of her fourteen adventures. Outraged when she is not chosen as the winner in the contest for best costume, the Old Witch wreaks havoc on the party - turning the punch to vinegar, leaving the apples in a worm-ridden state - before departing for her cave in order to plot further revenge. Ma and Pa Farmer, being wise to her ways, set out to defend their home from her inevitable onslaught, with Ma's tasty Halloween cake providing just the right distraction!

After picking up DeLage's The Old Witch and the Ghost Parade a few years ago, and finding it rather lackluster, I had abandoned the idea of reading the other books in the series - begun in 1966, with The Farmer and the Witch, it eventually ran to fourteen titles, concluding in 1983 with The Old Witch and the Crows - when, on impulse, I decided this year to give the character another try. As a devotee of witchy children's stories, it bothered me that there was such a long series I hadn't read, and I was running out of other reading ideas. Sometimes being such a completist has its drawbacks! In any case, I discovered that my library system had a number of the other books (although sadly not the first), and requested them. I'm glad I did, as I ended up enjoying The Old Witch Goes to the Ball far more than The Old Witch and the Ghost Parade. It's a little old-fashioned, but the story is engaging enough - I liked the fact that it is Ma Farmer's gorgeous cake which saves the day! - and the artwork here appealed to me more than in the other title. It looks like quite a few artists worked on this series: the illustrations for this one were done by Gustave E. Nebel, and while I didn't love them, they didn't annoy me in the same way that Jody Taylor's work in The Old Witch and the Ghost Parade did.

All in all, this was a moderately engaging Halloween tale, one that will have particular appeal, I think, for vintage picture-book lovers, as well as beginning readers who enjoy witchy tales. ( )