Govind Sinha, age 9, of E. Lansing, Michigan, for his question:

Are there really witches?

Nowadays there is a lot of talk about witches    and nobody feels very comfortable about it. We hear about them and even see their scruffy pictures. Actually, this is a very silly fashion and let's hope it soon changes. It is silly because people who say they are witches are just pretending. Most of them just want to scare you because this makes them feel important. The truth is, they can't harm you. And, like everybody else, they can only guess what is going to happen in the future.

If witches bother you, even a tiny bit, there is one sure way to calm your fears. The time is Halloween night. This is your chance to dress up and pretend to be a spooky old witch    just as weird as any other old witch. When you do that, you know for sure that the whole thing is just a game of make believe. You want to laugh at the joke    and one giggle puts an end to all the world's witchcraft.