The Switch Witch strikes again in this entry in author Stephen Cosgrove and illustrator Charles Reasoner's series of picture-books about the Whimsies, a group of colorful soft-furred creatures who lived an idyllic life in the Land of Whim, in the shadow of the Quirk Mountains. Quiet, considerate Bluebell, who always liked to listen to others, is transformed into an insufferable chatterbox after an encounter with the Switch Witch and her pet, Wizard Lizard. Now wearing the Muddle Muffs, she only liked to hear her own voice, and was constantly talking over others. Fortunately, Bluebell's mother knew to consult with Grandma Whimsie, who knew just where the trouble lay...

Chatterbox is the second book from The Whimsies series that I have read, following upon Gobble & Gulp. I sought both titles out largely because of the Switch Witch character, given my interest in the depiction of witches in picture-books, early readers and other heavily illustrated texts. Like Cosgrove's better-known Serendipity series, each of the books in The Whimsies series teaches a particular lesson—a lesson about a bad habit. In Gobble & Gulp, the lesson was about gluttony, and eating too many sweets. Here the lesson is about talking too much, even when one has nothing to say and it is inconsiderate of others. In both books, the crisis is precipitated by the witch, who is evidently the antagonist in the Land of Whim, and whose interventions inevitably lead to otherwise innocent Whimsies developing bad behavior.

This is a fairly sweet story, despite the obvious didacticism, and felt very much like a product of the 1980s (which it is), recalling to mind any number of books available at that time, during the course of my childhood. I appreciated the fact that we see more of the witch here—we get to see her traveling wagon, and we learn she lives in the Land of Frippery—as she appears in only one brief scene in the other book. Given my tendency toward completism, I suspect I will eventually seek out the other four books in this series, just to see if the witch appears in all of them. Recommended to those seeking more light-hearted, fictional picture-books about learning to control one's impulse to babble, and resisting the impulse to try to dominate the conversation. ( )