Lula’s Brew

By Elizabeth O. Dulemba

Lula was a young witch that lived with her three aunts, the most evil witches around. While they worked hard to teach Lula their witchy ways with spells and broom flying Lula had bigger things in mind. Lula had a dream and a talent for ditching those nasty spells and creating delicious smells instead. Lula wanted to be a Chef and own a restaurant. One night she created a smell spell that may just work….

This was an adorable story full of encouragement that dreams do come true and you can be anything you wish. Lula convinced her three witch aunties to let her open the house as a restaurant for the entire world to taste her cooking. She worked hard and was successful.

The book has amazing full page illustrations created by Elizabeth O. Dulemba. The font is easy to read and though it is a perfect book for Halloween it works for anytime of the year! I highly recommend this book in both the print and electronic format!

Visit the accompanying website for even more Lula fun including brew recipe, coloring pages and printable activities! ( )

Lula wants to open a restaurant but her aunts, who are witches, are teaching her to make potions not delicious food. Lula decides to show them she will do good food, not potions. Does she succeed?

I enjoyed this book. It was fun as Lula studied cookbooks while her aunts tried to teach her potions. Eventually one aunt tries Lula's "potion" and decides it is good. The rest of the town smells it and feels the same way. It was fun what they would do to get Lula's food.

Your little one will enjoy this. I look forward to more from this author. ( )

Lulu was destined to be a witch but instead she would rather be a chef. While her aunts try to prepare her to be a witch, she's busy reading about cooking. This can meet the criteria of fantasy because it teaches a good lesson but also witches aren't real. Media- pencil genre- fantasy ( )

Although her aunts are determined that she should become a wicked witch like them, Lula longs for something else entirely. More interested in cookery than in potion-making, and in pleasing the senses, than in bewitching them, her dream is to open her own restaurant. When her aunts hand her instructions for a potion to turn a child into a mouse, her own extemporizing with the ingredient list leads to a delicious soup instead, with inviting aromas leading the townspeople to her door. You can only fight fate for so long, and soon Lula's Cafe is born...

I enjoyed both artwork and story in Lula's Brew, a witchy picture-book that I stumbled on quite by accident, when a used copy came into work. The warm colors and "little witch who doesn't fit in" theme were both very pleasing. I can't say that the rhyming text - "Lula dreamed of being a chef / in her neighborhood's favorite haunt. / She wanted a four-star bistro, / her very own restaurant" - flows particularly well (sometimes I found it rather awkward), but leaving that aside, this was just a sweet little witchy tale. Something for which I have a decided weakness... ( )