The Old Witch mourns the loss of her dear old cat in this fifth picture-book - following upon The Farmer and the Witch (1966), The Old Witch Goes to the Ball (1969), The Witchy Broom (1969) and The Old Witch and the Snores (1970) - devoted to her adventures. Who, she wonders, will stare at her fire now, winking and blinking until it is merrily burning? Certainly not the young puppy, exuberant and very determined to adopt her, who shows up at the mouth of her cave one day. Then she finds a coal-black kitten in a feline litter that has been up for adoption (by the farmer's wife!), and it seems that her problems are solved. Until, that is, she finds someone has been stealing the poisonous toadstools she uses to make her brew. Does a witch need a dog after all...?

The answer to that (of course) is a resounding yes, but it is still entertaining to watch Old Witch discover that she can have both a cat and a dog. What Does a Witch Need?, which was originally published in 1971, is a story with a distinctly dated feeling to it - I have difficulty imagining anyone putting a basket of kittens by the side of the road today, with a sign reading "Free Kittens - Help Yourself" - and the accompanying artwork has a decidedly vintage sensibility. Each of the entries in DeLage's fourteen-volume witchy series seems to have been illustrated by a different artist, with Ted Schroeder contributing the visuals here. His work is quite different in style from that of both Gustave E. Nebel (The Old Witch Goes to the Ball) and Jody Taylor (The Old Witch and the Ghost Parade), the artists who worked on the two other Old Witch books I have thus far read, and that contrast added an extra level of interest to the reading experience. It's fascinating to see how different artists have interpreted the same character - Schroeder's witch is rather dumpy, for instance, when compared to Nebel's wire-thin one, with her tall hat. We'll have to see what others have made of the character, in subsequent entries in the series! ( )