Can't Scare Me! Boo! Made You Jump! (Charlie and Lola) by Lauren Child

"I have this little sister Lola.

She is small and very funny.

I am always making her jump.

But she can never make ME jump.

But Lola is very inventive and very persistent. At the park she and her friend Lotta jump out of the bushes screaming "Boo!" At home the little girls ambush Charlie costumed as moaning ghosts, but big brother is unmoved.

"You'll never make me jump! That will never happen." Charlie says.

Then one night as Lola and Charlie are ready for bed, Lola gives it one more try.

"I'm going to tell you a really scary story about a terribly terrible old castle full of icky spiders," Lola says, and launches forth with a story about two boys (presumably Charlie and Marv) and two "not quite biggish small girls" (Lola and Lotta) who enter the scary castle, slowly climb the creepy stairs ("that's what you do in scary stories") and dare to open an enormous door behind which loud creepy sounds are heard.

"Do you know what it was?" Lola asks ominously. "It was Twinkle, Mrs. Elmore's kitten from next door!"

"Oh, Lola," Charlie says. "How's a funny little furry animal going to make me jump?"

It's the perfect setup for Charlie's comeuppance. Just at that moment, their dog Sizzles leaps up right onto Charlie's lap, and Charlie, startled, almost jumps off the bed in surprise. "Hmmmm," says Lola. "NOW I know how to make you jump!"

Lauren Child's understated story and characteristically spare, witty illustrations make Boo! Made You Jump! (Charlie and Lola) not-so-scary haunted castle story with just the right humor and atmosphere for preschool listeners.