Evelyn Witch Gets a Pet is an adorable early ages story by Beth Ferry, illustrated by Charles Santoso. Due out 8th July 2025 from Macmillan on their Roaring Brook Press imprint, it's 32 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
This is such a cute story; young Evelyn has almost everything a witch needs: messy hair ✅, bubbling cauldron ✅, perfectly carved pumpkins ✅, but no pet! When she visits the shop, the only pet she can afford with her coins is the plain white egg. The egg doesn't hatch right away, so she takes a trip to the library for info (great messaging!). The egg is stubbornly still an egg, so she has to just exercise her patience and wait (another great message!).
The simple story is told in loosely rhyming freeform prose. It's written for 3-6 year olds, so the content is age appropriate (with the possible exception of pet adoption without thorough research, but given the target audience, they're not going to be adopting pets unilaterally), and it's *cute* and fun and lighthearted.
The audiobook is wonderfully narrated by Kate Coventry with additional music and background effects. It's a short book, so the audio track is only 8 minutes. It's a surprisingly good adaptation, and would work superbly for a read-along with the physical book for learning readers. The narrator has a young, neutral (Colorado? Pacific Northwest?) American accent with lots of enthusiasm and playfulness which adds a lot of fun to the read. It's a Macmillan Audio release, so sound and production quality is very high throughout.
Five stars. This would be an excellent choice for public/school/classroom/home library acquisition. It would also be excellent for learning or sight impaired readers.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
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