Black Cats and Broomsticks: The ABCs of Halloween by Patricia Reeder Eubank

A is for attics, spooky, dusty and dark.

B is for black cats and broomsticks of hickory bark.

For the preschool set, what time is better than the spooky season, with its memorable symbols, for learning the alphabet? And with two lovely black kittens as frisky guides and bright carved pumpkins as the letter boards--not to mention all the awesome alliterations that Halloween brings forth--the nighttime is the right time for a Halloween alphabet adventure.

G is for glowing ghosts, glimmering ghouls,
giggling gargoyles, and grinning green goblins galore.

H is for hollow, haunted houses and crooked high hats that haggled-haired witches once wore.

Patricia Eubank's art, reminiscent of that of Jan Brett, is endearing without being cutesy, and her text does more than just rhyme, making poetic use of sibilant sounds and evocative images:

S is for spinning spiders and scary skeletons with secret spells unbound.

T is for tiny toad toes, tasty turnip tea, and twisted tombstones that topple over the ground.

A book that is great to read to one child or a group, Eubank's eye-catching The ABC's of Halloween should be around for Halloween as long as cats creep, crones cackle, and houses are haunted.