No, you don't need to have read [b:Piggie Pie!|138053|Piggie Pie!|Margie Palatini|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172092177s/138053.jpg|3351011] first (though that is a good book). You probably do need to like witches or monsters, or have some serious sister rivalry issues, to fully appreciate this. (Neither apply to me, hence my relatively low star rating.) The littlest will enjoy the slapstick, but much of the word-play is better for the grown-ups.

Gosh Palatini is prolific. I love her books, but I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever get to the end of them.... ( )

Margie Palatini is one of my favorite authors! I love this illustrations in her books, and I love her fictional characters! This book was about Gritch the witch's sister coming to visit for a party! The two witchs become competitive. ( )

This is another top-notch piece of writing, Halloween-based in this case. Two quarreling sisters have a day long battle for supremacy as they prepare for a holiday party. The writing is what makes this so impressive. The illustrations by Howard Fine are incredibly intricate as well. Funny and beautifully wordy. ( )

Gritch the Witch - whose story began in the hilarious Piggie Pie!, and continued in Zoom Broom - returns in this, her third adventure. Exhausted after a long day preparing for her upcoming Howliday party, Gritch is less than thrilled when the doorbell rings just as she's going to sleep. She's even more perturbed when she realizes that it is her bossy older sister, Mag the Hag, on the doorstep, and a series of conflicts - over the bed, about what to cook for the party - develop. Can these two broom-mates learn to co-exist, or will their Mummy have to intervene...?

Perhaps I'm simply becoming a little tired of "witchy" stories - I've read sixty-four so far this season! - or perhaps Palatini has already mined all she can out of this character, but I found myself much less amused by Broom Mates than I was by the preceding two tales about Gritch the Witch. Puns and wordplay still abound - Mag is from "Maliboo," the two sisters have been fighting since they were little "ghouls," their mother is a "Mummy" - and Howard Fine's illustrations are just as colorful and exuberant as ever, but somehow I just wasn't as entertained as I'd expected to be. Still, fans of this author/illustrator team, or of the character, will probably enjoy it. ( )