Judith M. Ackerman

This book screams, self-published. First, the story is too long. It feels more like a spoken wood story than a written story. The illustrations are nice, but the art style and the color make it feel dated. Like I’ve picked up a book from my childhood that is ready to be recycled. The other issues I have with this book is how easy it makes tt seem to adopt a kitten form a humane society. Anyone who has tried to adopt knows there are rules and budget constraints, home visits, and various hoops to jump through to adopt animals. This isn’t the case at all shelters, but at many, especially if one wants to adopt special needs animal. The seven-year-old birthday girl adopts a cat that’s cross eyed, and most shelters would be very strict on who can adopt a special-needs animal. A kid getting their first pet is not normally someone who gets to do that. So for this book I think is a leave it on the shelf, leave it at the store. There are better done and more accurate books on pet adoption and children.… (más)

Judith M. Ackerman's story idea for this book is very sweet. The story is about the extraordinary bond between a girl and her grandmother. The love between the two glows off every page. The words reminded me of my mother and grandmothers, and I felt their love even though they were long gone. The story is a lovely one. However, it may not be a good fit for the younger ages listed. Although the number of pages fits within the usual picture book parameters, each page contains a large amount of writing. Also, some writing, such as saying the main character "sobbed," could be a bit much for little ones. The writing is punctuated oddly, and at least one word is used in a way I have never seen. Ms. Ackerman suffers from my condition of using too many exclamation points! The illustrations, which Ms. Ackerman did as well(?), are gorgeous. They are primarily in muted colors and contain a tremendous amount of detail. A reader could spend a lengthy amount of time perusing them.
Thank you to NetGalley, BookBaby, and the author. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.… (más)

The local children like to watch the old woman who lives on the hill above town in this rhyming picture-book, convinced by her appearance - her black clothing, the mole on her nose, her hunched back - that she must be a witch. The fact that the town cats like to follow her, even when she gets irritated and tells them to scat, seems further evidence. But just when the children think the old woman is about to cast a spell, she lets out a massive sneeze instead, demonstrating that "she wasn't a witch. She just had an itch..."

As someone who loves witchy picture-books, and who is always on the lookout for new (or new to me) examples, I happened across Judith M. Ackerman's Do You Think She's a Witch? on one of my periodic online searches. Much like Sine van Mol's Meena, I wasn't sure whether it would turn out to be the story of a real witch, or whether the eponymous figure would simply be an old woman mistaken for a witch. Stories of the latter type are not uncommon - in addition to the van Mol book, see also such titles as Carol Carrick's Old Mother Witch, or Stephanie Morgan's The Witch Down the Street - and often offer an interesting examination of intergenerational fears and misunderstanding. I created my "the crone" shelf to keep track of such tales, and I find them as interesting, in their own way, as actual witchy stories.

However that may be, unfortunately I did not enjoy this one as much as I would have liked. The story idea is engaging - clearly, I have a weakness for this kind of thing - but the rhyme scheme often felt quite forced, and the text read awkwardly. The accompanying artwork from Kieu Diem, done in a colorful, cartoon-like style, didn't appeal to me. Tastes vary of course, and the other online reviews of this one are universally positive, so it's possible that other picture-book readers will have a different reaction. I don't strongly recommend this one, although those interested in this story type - the old woman thought to be a witch - might want to take a look.… (más)