Mog goes missing in this seventeenth Meg and Mog picture-book, falling off of Meg's broom as she rides to a witchy gathering with Bess, Jess, Tess and Cress. The five witches organize a search party, but they end up one step behind the missing feline, until Meg cooks up a spell - "Glow worm, toad / And mistletoe / Where Mog's gone / Everybody go!" - that lands them all in tight quarters in her cauldron. All ends happily once they are extricated, however, as Meg's witch-friends depart, and she and Mog head home for breakfast...

Published in 2005, some thirty-three years after the initial Meg and Mog, which first saw print in 1972, Mog's Missing is an entertaining addition to author Helen Nicoll and illustrator Jan Pieńkowski's witchy picture-book series. It is the first to include other magical practitioners (all of whom look very much like Meg), and contains a number of humorous scenes - Meg's crash-landing at the witches' gathering; the two-page spread in which everyone is inside the cauldron, the darkness relieved only by their eyes, and the various speech bubbles containing their exclamations - that add to the sense of fun. Recommended to young children who enjoy witchy fare, particularly if they are already familiar with these characters. ( )