Picture Book -Room on the Broom

Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.




‘Room on the Broom’ is a very appropriate storybook at this time of year with it being Halloween. Room on the Broom involves the adventures of a witch who flies around on her broomstick with her trusty cat. The witch has an unfortunate series of loosing items firstly her hat, secondly her bow and thirdly her wand. Each item is retrieved by a different animal firstly a dog, secondly a bird and thirdly a frog who subsequently join her on her broomstick as a reward. Then the drama ensues as the broom breaks in half and the witch heads into a cloud only to be greeted by a scary dragon! The dragon is adamant to have ‘witch and chips’ for his tea. Luckily the witch is rescued by her four loyal friends who masquerade as a horrible beast to scare the dragon away, they are victorious and the witch is saved. The witch then employs the help of her little friends to create a magic potion resulting in a marvellous luxury broomstick to accommodate them all. They all fly away happily into the night.

Interestingly the book takes place over the space of a day, in the opening page we are presented with a light blue morning sky at the end of the book we are presented with a harmonic night sky as the witch and her friends fly away into the night. This gives a distinct feeling of a journey as well as a clear beginning and end. The weather also mirrors the events in the book. The more items that the witch looses the darker the sky becomes and eventually it rains which ties in with the witch loosing her wand. This gives this scene an aquatic feel which is appropriate as the reader is introduced to frog at this point in the story. Later on the clouds become even a darker shade of grey leading up to the witches encounter with the dragon. The sky and the weather cleverly depict the mood of the book and chime in with the story.

The layout of the pictures and text varies throughout the book. For example on the first two pages three quarters of the page are taken up with illustration and the other quarter with text. However pages three and four have small pictures dotted around the page with four chunks of small text. This entices the reader to explore the page and it adds to the adventure of the book.

The illustrations are very soft depicting a friendly tone. Even the witches hat is bendy there is no sharp point to it. There is also a consistency in the pictures in that all the main characters have identical eyes. The villain in the book shares the same eye shape only they are an evil yellow colour.

The book is in the third person so the reader assumes the role of onlooker, interestingly other animals in the book adopt this role (a crow, a stalk).An owl is the most consistent onlooker seems to fly toward the happy bunch when they fly into the night at the end of the book.

The title page allows the reader to become familiar with the scenery which appears consistently throughout the book. It presents a stereotypical image of a witch and the clothes she will wear in the book. It also introduces the reader to the items which will be central in the book that are on her person i.e. the bow, wand and hat.

The very back of the book contains the poetic verse which started the book, leaving the reader with food for thought. Not only does this memorable verse leave a lasting impact on the reader, it adds to the circular and structured feel which the book evokes. The verse suggests that the witch is flying back out into a new day for more adventures.

The rhyming style of the book heightens this structured feel of the book. A great deal of repetition occurs in the book. For example the language used to describe the witch going down to find whichever item she has lost (bow, wand, hat) is identical:

“Down cried the witch
and they flew to the ground.”

Additionally to this each time an animal comes to her rescue and delivers her a lost item they enquire in similar ways to be let up on the broom:

“I am bird, as green as can be.
Is there room on the broom for me?”

“I am a frog as clean as can be. Is there any room on the broom for a frog like me?”

“I am a dog, as keen as can be. Is there room on the broom for a dog like me?”


The effect of using the same rhyming sounds here creates links within the book giving the reader a cumulative effect which in turn creates a heightened sense of predictability.
This predictability is also mirrored in the illustrations. The way in which the book heightens this sense of anticipation and urges the reader to predict is apparent when the illustration shows the witches bow flying past the birds nest with the bird’s eyes peeping up through a hole in the tree. This would allow a child to guess what is coming next. The pictures also move the story onwards, you either see the witch zooming off on her broomstick as if she will fly off the page which urges the reader to turn the page. Another example of this is when the witch’s hat flies off it lodges itself in the corner of the page pointing toward the edge of the page. This a great use of space on the pages, really effective. There is even one point in the book when the illustration actually tells part of the story e.g. when the witch sets off with all the animals on her broomstick. This is an essential part of the story and the picture is integral to this.


So the pictures fill in for the text and elaborate on the text, as well as work hand in hand with it. They also add a comedy element to the book e.g. when the dog asks to go on the broom he appears incredibly regal on the illustration which elaborates on the text. In this book the relationship between the rhyming verses and the illustrations are really. There is also a bit of give and take at points the words explain what the pictures fail to encapsulate and vice versa. The words bring the stagnant pictures to life we can never see the witch tap her broom before she sets off, we don’t see the dragon fly. We would also be unaware of the dog’s regal manner if it weren’t for the picture showing us or the reactions of the animals to the witch loosing things which is mostly despair. I strongly recommend this book it’s a delight! This book really does contain a complex relationship between picture and text which I imagine is what makes the book so fabulous.

This is a very very popular book, and I think you've conveyed why. Well done!