IT'S HALLOWEEN NIGHT.
A NIGHT TO BEWARE.
GOSLINGS ARE ON THE PROWL.

OLLIE STALKS IN THE CORNFIELD.

The gosling gang goes out to scare somebody and grab for treats everywhere. Gossie goes as a wizard, and it's fowl play for Gertie, costumed as a chicken. BooBoo is a fuzzy bunny rabbit, and Peedie does his darndest to be a dragon.

Little Ollie, the odd man out, trails along behind, wrapped as a mummy, while the rest of the gaggle find treats in the pumpkin patch, the beehive, the haystacks, and the standing cornstalks. Ollie falls even farther behind as the other goslings hoot and howl and stop to bob in a bucket of apples.

But wee Ollie spots a ghost just hanging around in barn door and greets him in his own language-- BOO!-- and gaggles at a gang of grinning jack-o'-lanterns.

Whooooo! The wind rises, thunder crackles, and a spooky scarecrow sways in the breeze, and Gossie, Gertie, BooBoo, and Peedie sprint for the shelter of their barn to scarf down their remaining treats.

But Ollie has gotten into the autumn ambiance and takes his time hiking home, so that the other little goslings are already zoned out on candy and dozing by the time he arrives. But when he piles his share of goodies between them, the goslings wake and go for Ollie's offerings, ready to share his haul. It's an outstanding Halloween outing for all!

Oliver Dunrea's trick-or-treat tale, Ollie's Halloween (Gossie & Friends) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), is all ready for Halloween, dressed up this year as a new board book edition which boasts all of the goslings in a group adventure, with all the trappings--fake ghosts, pumpkins galore, wind-borne leaves flying, and a dark and stormy night for the setting, all done up in his trademark cute-as-a-button illustrations, set against bright white mid-page in a wash of watercolor. A fine first Halloween story which introduces the traditions of the scary season without the scare to young spooks.

For a pair of fine fowl stories, pair this one with Tad Hill's Halloween adventure, Duck & Goose, Find a Pumpkin (Oversized Board Book) (see my review here.)