Bringing up Baby Spooks: My First Halloween by Tomie de Paola

For some youngsters, their first Halloween is anything but fun! Scary masks where neighborhood kids' faces used to be, toothy jack-o'-lanterns bobbing through the darkness, and noisy vampires and werewolves showing up at the front door at bedtime--it's no wonder that some toddlers clearly wonder what's supposed to be fun about it all.

But it IS fun when you know what to expect, and that's where Tomie de Paola's little board book, My First Halloween (Grosset & Dunlap, 2008) comes in. De Paola takes a gentle, step-at-a-time approach to the holiday, beginning with an easy-going decorating of the house for a party. Dad places a just-carved, happy-faced jack-o'-lantern on the mantle, and homemade black cats, bats, and orange crepe paper are hung about the room, and with a little black cat to hug during the process, there's nothing to fear.

It's time to put on our costumes.

We all go trick-or-treating.

When we get home, everyone comes to our party.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

With an appealing tactile pumpkin on the cover and cheery grandmoms handing out treats, kids costumed as clowns and chickens as well as ghosts and werewolves, and apples to bob for inside, My First Halloween is a soothing introduction to the fun and traditions of Halloween, good for reading to impressionable tots before that first doorbell sounds on October 31.