Stalking the Classics! Scary, Scary Halloween by Eve Bunting and Jan Brett

"I peer outside, there's something there
That makes me shiver, spikes my hair.
It must be Halloween."

A watcher in the dark, seen only as a pair of green eyes, looks out at the darkling sight, as strange creatures begin to appear in the twilight--a skeleton's white bones glimmer in the fading light, rising ghostly figures trail by, werewolves and vampires prowl and growl and howl, witches with pointy chins cackle, and gremlins, goblins, and a horned devil prance by the grinning pumpkin heads glimmering from fence posts.

More green eyes appear in the dark, and someone, almost silently, hisses a warning:

"Little ones, stay safe inside!
It's best to stay at home and hide
On hallowed Halloween."

Suddenly there is a thunderous thump of feet above the heads of the little watchers....

Still hidden, the watchers see and hear a mummy with hairy clawed feet climbing to the porch above them to knock on the front door framed by two jolly Jack-o' Lanterns.

"Trick or Treat! It's Halloween!
Am I the scariest thing you've seen?"

Halloween as seen through the eyes and ears of three kittens and their mother cat can indeed seem quite scary, scary, in Eve Bunting's and Jan Brett's classic trick-or-treat story, Scary, Scary Halloween (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

Author Eve Bunting's rhyming triplets are both lyrical and evocative, using all the tricks of the poet--end-rhymes and internal rhymes, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and sibilant sounds--to set the spooky scene for a perfect Halloween, a time just right for costumed trick-or-treaters to make the night their own. Her little Greek chorus, the three young kittens and their graymalkin mother, observe it all, with the wise mama cat finally observing that "we're not the ones they came to scare," as they wait until that time when the night will again be their own. Bunting's lovely language makes this one a memorable readaloud even for novice storytellers.

Caldecott artist Jan Brett takes it from there, with absolutely stunning illustrations-- her pumpkins, her spooky old tree, those decked-out trick or treaters, (their identities revealed in their sneakered feet), and her glowing fall palette, all set against the shiny blackness of an autumn night. These two masters of the picture book art skillfully pace the rising suspense for youngsters with each page turn. The trick-or-treaters are both convincingly costumed and yet clearly children dressed to scare, and by the last pages most young readers will have guessed the identity of the green-eyed watchers, welcoming the feline family as the full moon rises high and they emerge from their hiding place under the porch to stalk the night unseen as only cats can--with a wink and a word to their readers--

"Goodbye 'til next year, Hallowe'en."

Bunting's and Brett's Scary, Scary Halloween is a masterful combination of narration and illustration that offer a timeless Halloween story, one for the ages. No child should miss it.