Detail from Axel Scheiffer's illustration for the front cover of the book Room on the Broom.
Room on the Broom (ISBN 9780333903384) is a multiple award-winning British children's picture book that was first published in 2001. The story, written in verse, is by Julia Donaldson. The illustrations are by the German-born artist Axel Scheiffer.
The story concerns a witch and her cat who are joined on their broomstick by a dog, a bird and a frog. The combined weight of the witch and the four animals proves too much for the flying broom and it snaps in half. The four animals land in some mud and the witch narrowly avoids getting eaten by a dragon.
Room on the Broom has been translated into twenty-two languages, including British Sign Language and Scots.
The book has been adapted for stage and television.
Plot
On a stormy day, a witch and her cat are out flying on their broomstick. The wind blows off the witch's hat. A dog brings it back. The witch allows the dog to join her and her cat on the broom as a reward. The witch loses the bow from her hair. A bird retrieves it. The witch lets the bird join her, the dog and the cat on the broom. The witch drops her wand. A frog finds it for her. The witch allows the frog to join her and the other animals on the broomstick. Unfortunately, the broom is not strong enough to take the weight of the witch and the four animals. It breaks in two. The animals fall off and land in a bog. The witch carries on flying on the broken piece of broomstick and goes into a cloud.
The cloud is really smoke from the nostrils of a huge winged dragon. The dragon says that it wants to eat the witch. It chases her as she flies higher up into the sky and as she flies down to the ground. The dragon is about to eat the witch when a monster comes out of the bog. It looks sticky and has four heads, feathers, fur and wings. The monster says that it is going to eat the witch. The dragon timidly apologizes to the monster and flies away.
The monster was really the four animals covered in mud from the bog. The cat stood on the dog's shoulders. The frog and the bird stood on the cat's shoulders. The witch is very grateful to the animals for having saved her life. She asks them to help her make a magic potion. After the potion has been prepared and the witch has said some magic words, a new broomstick magically appears. The new broom has seats for the witch, the cat and the dog, a shower for the frog and a nest for the bird. The four animals and the witch fly off together in the moonlight.
Adaptations
Fully licensed video from Fandom Video. A 25 minute animated film adaptation of Room on the Broom was made for television in 2012. The film, a German-British co-production, uses a mixture of stop motion animation and computer generated imagery. It features the voice talents of Simon Pegg as the narrator, Gillian Anderson as the witch, Rob Brydon as the cat, Martin Clunes as the dog, Sally Hawkins as the bird, David Walliams as the frog and Timothy Spall as the dragon. It was first shown on BBC One in the United Kingdom on December 25, 2012. It was first shown in the United States on PBS Kids Sprout on October 30, 2013. The film had a theatrical release in November 2013. Room on the Broom won the Crystal award for Best TV Production at the Annecy Animation Festival in France in 2013. It was nominated for the 2014 Academy Award for Best Short Animated Film.
The book Room on the Broom has also been adapted for the stage by the Tall Stories theater company. The play has been performed at venues throughout the United Kingdom.
External links
- Official Room on the Broom website.
- Room on the Broom on the Internet Movie Database.
- Room on the Broom on the Big Cartoon Database.