Strange Neighbors

Anne Hutchings, a former elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Durham Board of Education, is an educational consultant.

Sam (short for Samantha) the “talking” sheepdog detective is
perplexed when the movers drop a box belonging to her new neighbors and
a line of ugly, warty toads emerge and hop away into the fields nearby.
Subsequent puzzling and mysterious incidents lead Sam, Jennie, and her
best friend, Beth, to conclude that their three creepy new neighbors are
witches and that the small animals in the witches’ menagerie were once
human beings that are now destined for the “brew” bubbling away on
the stove. Will Sam, Jennie, and Beth be the next to come under the
witches’ spell and turned into fodder for the cauldron?

Children will delight in this funny, fast-paced romp. The twists and
turn of the plot will keep them reading until the misunderstandings are
cleared up and the truth discovered. Strange Neighbors, the third in the
Sam, Dog Detective series, is an ideal choice for late primary and early
junior grades, and especially for Halloween. Recommended.