The Trouble with Mum - Babette Cole

If you hear a young lad saying 'The trouble with mum is the hats she wears...', what would you think? Perhaps he is embarrassed that she is off to the local shop in a wedding hat, or pulling a tea-cosy-style woolly bonnet down round her ears. In the case of Babette Cole's 'The Trouble with Mum', however, you'd be wrong: she wears pointed black witches' hat, because mum is indeed a witch. The first picture we see of her shows her putting on her lipstick, but there's a blue snake twisting round her hat and a mouse peeping down at her from the brim. Imagine how a child must feel if others give him funny looks when he first starts school, especially if it's ...

An amusing book in which a little boy is having "problems" with his mum. The book starts with the words "The trouble with mum is the hats she wears. There is the little boy resplendent i shorts looking helplessly at mum who is indeed wearing a rather fabulous witch hat, complete with a mouse peering over the brim, and a snake entwined around the point. When he starts school, the other children give him funny looks, and at first, children can't see why until we spot them, high in the sky, riding on a broomstick. Yes, mum is a witch! Mum has kept dad pickled in a jar "Pickled husband 1982" and won't let him out until he ...