Natalie Savage Carlson's fifth and final picture-book devoted to the adventures of ex-witch's cat Spooky - following upon Spooky Night, Spooky and the Ghost Cat, Spooky and the Wizard's Bats and Spooky and the Bad Luck Raven - follows Spooky and his companion Snowball as they confront a caprine intruder. When the goat gets into the Bascombs' petunias, Spooky and Snowball don't really care. But when he gets into their bed of catnip, that's a different story altogether, and the two cats must work together to drive him off, discovering in the process that he belongs to (who else?) their old nemesis, the witch...

Although the fifth Spooky book, Spooky and the Witch's Goat is only the fourth title I have read in the series, so I can't say definitively that it is the weakest of the lot. But of those I have read, I would say that it was the least engaging, with a narrative that just dragged a bit (and felt very similar to those that had come before), and illustrations for which (as with the first three titles) I had little fondness. Truthfully, this is a series that I "appreciate" more than I like, which makes it odd, I suppose, that I intend to track down that last title... What can I say? I'm a bit of a completist! Recommended to young readers who are particular fans of Spooky and his adventures. ( )