BooTime! I Want to Be in a Scary Story by Sean Taylor

"HELLO, LITTLE MONSTER. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO TODAY?"

"I WANT TO BE IN A SCARY STORY!

Well, Little Monster is a monster. But his helpful author/narrator tries to warn him that for novice monsters, a humorous story might be, um, well, more fun for starters!

This little purple monster insists that funny stories are not his thing. Let 'er rip with the spooky stuff, he insists. So the reluctant author conjures up a horrifying haunted house surrounded by a frightful forest of terrifying twisted trees!

"YIKES!"

Okay, maybe not that scary! The author offers to moderate the scene a trifle, sticking with just the haunted house.

Okay, How's this one? He puts Little Monster into a tight shot, with just him and the spooky house.

"OH, MY GOODNESS ME!"

Still too scary? The author is beginning to lose patience with his protagonist. He points out that a story plot requires some suspense leading to the climax.

"WELL, NOW, SOMETHING SCARY HAS GOT TO HAPPEN!" THE AUTHOR PROTESTS.

"YOU CAN GO INSIDE AND A CREEPY WITCH WILL JUMP OUT?" HE SUGGESTS.

Little Monster okays that scenario. But when a wizened weird sister appears, he freaks out. The weary author tries again with a ghost.

"JEEPERS CREEPERS!"

This scary story is going nowhere. The author is teed off. He's running out of terror tropes. What kind of spooky story does Little Monster want? He reminds Little Monster that this scary story business was all HIS idea.

"I KNOW," LITTLE MONSTER CONFESSES, "BUT I WANT TO BE THE ONE DOING THE SCARING!"

Ah, ha! Why didn't you say so? The amiable author comes up with just enough of a scary ending to please Little Monster and his young readers, in Sean Taylor's clever story that is just in time for the scary season, I Want To Be in a Scary Story (Candlewick Press, 2017). His adorable Little Monster gets to scare the begeezus out of some ginormous critters, and everyone gets a just-right fright in Taylor's carefully set up junior jump tale, with satisfying giggles at each page turn all the way to the end of this sly story that just begs to be read aloud.

Artist Jean Jullien provides the lovable little monster with budding baby horns, done up with digital purple fur with wide black outlining that seem to bleed into the background, along with a cast of leafless terrifying trees, a haunted house with a ghastly ghost and wrinkled witch, not to mention a somewhat spurious funny-scary monkey and gorilla whose bit parts provide the fun, all appropriately slapstick spooky, for preschool and primary fare. Preschoolers will appreciate the surprise scares, and older readers will relish the metafiction aspects of this story-within-a-story. There are speech balloons and dramatic page turns that will encourage grownups to look forward to October storytimes, and as Kirkus Reviews says, "...after the final page, readers may just be asking along with Little Monster, "So, can I be in a story again tomorrow?"

A Friend in Need: The Very Fairy Princess A Spooky Sparkly Halloween by Julie Andrews and Emma Hamilton

BOO! You might not recognize me, because I'm wearing a costume... but I'm still a fairy princess underneath.

You can take the princess out of her sparkles, but you can't take the sparkles out of a princess.

But Gerry has a problem with her costume for the school Halloween parade. Her brother wisecracks that she should go as a drama queen! Her dad annoyingly jokes that she can just wear her daily attire, fairy wings and crown. Gerry protests:

"That's not a costume! That's what I AM!"

How to find a costume that allows her to keep her crown and wings? But real fairy princesses rise above adversity, and Gerry has a stroke of brilliance. She adds a draped white sheet and a halo, and voila'--she's an angel!

At school everyone is dressed for the occasion, and her best friend Delilah shows her her dentist's costume, pointing out that that is what she's going to be when she grows up. But at lunch, class clown Connor gets a bit wild with the ketchup for his hot dog and squirts the red stuff all over Delilah's impeccable white medical coat. Delilah is distraught.

"I can't wear this in the parade! It sends TOTALLY the wrong message about dentists!"

But a friend in need is a friend indeed. Gerry takes off her sheet, and tying it around Delilah's shoulders in two big knots, turns her into a giant tooth.

"But what about your costume?" asks the loyal Delilah.

Gerry gets to work with construction paper, glue, and glitter, and presto! Suddenly she's the Tooth Fairy, the perfect parade partner for Delilah, and the two take the trophy for the Most Creative Teamwork.

Fairy princesses make sacrifices for friends in need, and Julie Andrews and daughter Emma Walton Hamilton concoct another convincing plot for their persistently effervescent and best-selling heroine in The Very Fairy Princess: A Spooky, Sparkly Halloween (Little Brown Kids, 2016), all dressed up for the holiday in an appropriately glittery new paperback edition with stickers, in a story that celebrates the Halloween holiday with the bonus of a perky plug for thinking outside the box. Their illustrious illustrator, Christine Davenier, provides the sparkle in her charming watercolor and pencil artwork of a very fairy princess at work in the world, in a holiday story that young readers will relish (without Connor's ketchup!)

Monster Mansion: This Is The House That Monsters Built by Steve Metzger and Jared Lee

THIS IS THE SPOOKY HOUSE THAT MONSTERS BUILT.

THIS IS THE MUMMY THAT RAISED THE WALL.
THIS IS THE SPIDER THAT STARTED TO CRAWL,
THAT SHOCKED THE MUMMY WHO RAISED THE WALL,
INSIDE THE HOUSE THAT MONSTERS BUILT.

Haunted Halloween houses don't just happen, you know!

When it is time for that moldy old mansion to have a remodeling, the creepy crew takes on the task. But, being a rather gruesome group, they can't help spooking each other.

Werewolf is unsettled by the skeleton crew installing the flooring, and when a ghost lets out a big BOO, the black cat's yowl frightens the bats decorating the trendy exposed beams, spooks the zombie re-vamping the stairs, and gives the old witch a start as she's cooking up some brew for the crew.

As with most renovations, things don't go smoothly, but the monster makeover is finally done just in time for trick or treaters to enjoy the monster mash, in Steve Metzger's This Is the House That Monsters Built (Scholastic Books, 2016).

THESE ARE THE KIDS WHO YELLED, "TRICK OR TREAT!"

THAT WOKE UP THE VAMPIRE WHO TRIPPED OFF HIS FEET.

Author Metzger re-visits the old folk song "The House That Jack Built" with some revamped verses, in a cumulative tale filled with jolly rhyming triplets that manage to include most of the usual suspects you'd expect to show up for any festive All Hallow's Eve do.

Artist Jared Lee, who honed his creepy craft on the illustrations for Lucille Colandro's popular There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! and the many There Was An Old Lady seasonal tales and Mike Thaler's The Teacher from the Black Lagoon and ubiquitous sequels, adds his scratchy, quirky pen and ink drawings, a just-right accompaniment for Metzger's rollicking rhymes. A sure-fire read-aloud for the spooky season.

Beware! Jack O' Jerks! Mitchell on the Moon by R. W. Alley

One windy fall evening, Mitchell was leading the way. Until... Gretchen said "STOP!"

"The moon is disappearing."

"Uh-oh," said Mitchell.

Crunching through the autumn leaves and costumed as a sorcerer for Halloween, older brother Mitchell is leading his trio of siblings forth for some trick-or-treating, when younger sister Gretchen notices that part of the moon is ... GONE!

Sensible Clark points out that clouds are just drifting across the moon, and Annabelle insists that the moon is still safely up there in the sky. But big brother Mitchell accepts the challenge to save Halloween from the dark.

"Gretchen is right. The moon is in trouble. Only I, the Sorcerer of Space, can save the moon!"

Commandeering a ladder leaning against a tree, Mitchell waves his wand, declaring that only the Sorcerer of Space can fly the Moon Ladder of Magic Mystery.

But unnoticed behind him, little Gretchen, carrying her little wagon full of roly-polys (little white balls with smiley faces, capable of morphing to meet the need), climbs on the ladder behind him. With a Zappity Snap! Mitchell waves his wand and blasts into space, soaring into the stratosphere and beyond. With another bit of magic he captures the moon. Hooking his magic ladder on one end of the crescent moon, Mitchell races toward the other end where something sinister is indeed in progress!

"GADZOOKS! Jack O' Jerks are biting away at bits of the moon like candy!"

Suddenly Mitchell's stowaway little sister leads the way, hurling her multi-use roly-polys at the dastardly Jack O' Jerks.

"Let's get 'em!" Gretchen shouts.

But the ravenous Jack O' Jerks look at Gretchen as if she's the pick of Halloween treats, and Mitchell sees that his sister needs some saving!

"Yes, please," pleads Gretchen.

Will the space-traveling siblings prevail? Will the moon be saved? Will Halloween even happen this year for the fantastic foursome?

Well, what do you think? In this adventure, R. W. Alley continues his "quadrilogy" about the fantasy adventures of these four imaginative kids through the four seasons in Mitchell on the Moon (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2016), a rousing autumnal tale that leaves the four brothers and sisters and their long-suffering pooch dazed and amazed, but still up for trick-or-treating expedition, now fully lit by the rescued moon.

R. W. Alley's illustrations are outstanding, filled with double-page spreads in which the land of imagination flows seamlessly from the charming New England coastal scene into deep space and back again. With a slight touch of spookiness just right for the scary season and plenty of action in each scene, young would-be holiday celebrants will find this third story in the series will inspire their own trick-or-treat adventures.

Other books in this series, each featuring a different sibling, are Annabelle at the South Pole, Clark in the Deep Sea, and Gretchen Over the Beach.

BOO! Guess Who? Little Blue Truck's Halloween by Alice Schertle

Little Blue Truck
and his good friend Toad
are going to a party
just down the road.

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

says Little Blue.

"It's Halloween! You come, too.

Brightly colored leaves are swirling in the breeze, and jack o'lanterns grin from gateposts and dooryards, as Toad drives Little Blue Truck down the road. Who's that ahead?

Who's this clown
with the big red nose?
and a cap that jingles
wherever he goes?

Under the mask,
who do you see?

"Baa!" says the sheep.
"It's me! It's me!"

One by one, the costumed animals are waiting by the road--Duck in a tutu, a queenly Cow in a crown, Pig with scraggly hair under a tall, pointed black hat, Hen in a feathered pirate hat, and Horse sporting a dragon's fiery breath, wings, and spiked tail. Little Blue Truck stops for each one to ask "Who do you see?" and each party-goer is found under the flap saying "It's me!" Soon Little Blue's loadbed is full of costumed friends who unload at the barn to sample the treats and dance to the music.

The barn is jumpin' and the party is in full swing. But where are Toad and Little Blue Truck?

And who is that looking like a giant ghost--with great big glassy glowing eyes?

Under that sheet it can only be...

It's you-know-who!

"Beep! Beep! BOO!"

In a delightfully designed board book edition, it's Alice Schertle's Little Blue Truck's Halloween (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), all ready to introduce preschoolers to the custom of dressing up to celebrate Halloween. There are clues for the youngest toddlers visible under each disguise, and a lift of each super-sturdy flap reveals the animal's distinctive sound (Quack! Moo! Cluck!) as he or she unmasks and offers an ID. Author Alice Schertle is a past master of of jolly-metered quatrains and predictable rhymes which offer pre-reading skills for tots which also help the emergent reader solo on this story, and with the familiar illustrations of Jill McElmurry, this new one, out in plenty of time to have on hand for the spooky season, adds to the admirable list of books in the Little Blue Truck series.

Sorry to end on an old cliche'.
But there's only one thing I can say!

Little Blue Truck's Halloween is adorable!

Don't Open That Door! In the Haunted House by Eve Bunting and Susan Meddaugh

THIS IS THE HOUSE WHERE THE SCARY ONES HIDE.

OPEN THE DOOR AND STEP SOFTLY INSIDE.

Who can resist the invitation to visit a haunted house? It's tall. It's dark. And the door is ajar.

Two kids take the challenge.

AN ORGAN IS PLAYING A FUNERAL AIR.

IT'S PLAYING AND PLAYING, BUT NOBODY IS THERE.

Only the running feet of the two children are seen, speedily exiting page right.

But there are more scary creatures to be revealed by strategically placed flaps. There's an old chest with a DO NOT LIFT sign, and of course the two kids must lift the lid, to reveal a rising Frankenstein monster. In an upstairs bedroom, a tall door hides--what else--a skeleton in the closet! There are touchy-feely flocked bats in the belfry, and a sleeping vampire in the old claw-footed bathtub. The kids make a quick tour, as evidenced by their retreating feet exiting each room, and finally their feet are seen clattering down the twisted stairway. But wait! What's there on the other side of the front door? Witches and a jack-o'-lantern? But beyond them the kids can see their waiting dad outside!

INTO THE DAY THAT IS A-SPARKLE WITH SUN.

HALLOWEEN HOUSES ARE OH-SO-MUCH FUN!

The Caldecott award-winning author Eve Bunting provides the catchy couplets and noted artist Susan Meddaugh, creator of the Martha Speaks series, combine talents in the spiffed-up and attractive paperback version of In the Haunted House Touch and Feel Lift-the-Flap Book (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), a lift-the-flap book that provides youngsters a vicarious trip through a haunted house before they encounter one at a neighborhood Halloween carnival. Meddaugh's illustrations offer mildly spooky comic scenes with the clever device of never showing the children's reactions--just their sneakers, hot-footing it through the haunted house, to add to the fun. A nice Halloween treat, with rhyming lines that are easy to read aloud. Read this one with Eve Bunting's classic Scary, Scary Halloween, and the group-participation superstar, Linda D. Williams' wonderful The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. or Dav Pilkey's hilarious The Hallo-wiener. And for fans of Susan Meddaugh's Helen and Martha, there is her nifty Halloween story of the pre-alphabet soup Martha, The Witches' Supermarket. (8x8 with stickers) (Martha Speaks).

Zombie Outlier: Peanut Butter and (Jelly) Brains: A Culinary Zombie Tale by Joe McGee

REGINALD WAS NOT LIKE THE OTHER ZOMBIES.

THE OTHER ZOMBIES WANTED BRAINS.

ALL REGINALD WANTED WAS PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY.

There's one in every crowd. All the other zombies in town shuffle around in search of brains for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, mumbling....

"BRAINSSSS!!"

All Reggie wants to eat is PB and J sandwiches. But even in the school lunchroom, he strikes out, getting a tray with a big hunk of meatloaf instead. URRKKK! he thinks. Too much like brains!

While the good citizens of Quirkville are running, shrieking, from the zombies, Reginald follows a different drummer, moaning a different tune....

"NO BRAINSSS! PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY!

SWEET JELLY!"

And then Reginald's beady little eyes spot something hopeful. There's a girl at the bus stop, holding a brown paper lunch bag with the telltale stains of peanut butter and jelly. He snatches her lunch, but before he chows down... an altruistic thought passes through Reginald's zombie brain.

"IF THEY COULD JUST SMELL THE PEANUT BUTTER!" REGINALD THOUGHT.

Can Reggie make vegans out of a pack of drooling zombies? You bet your brains he can, in Joe McGee's jolly Peanut Butter & and Jelly Brains: A Zombie Culinary Tale (Abrams Books, 2015). Noted artist Charles Santoso's illustrations offer less-than-scary zombies who prove receptive to culinary change in a story filled with sight gags of shambling undead, all stumbling through the terrorized town, all with outstretched arms and thought bubbles with one image--BRAINS! Even the endpapers document the dietary shift in a tale with almost zero frightfulness that will be a welcome addition to the scary season's readalouds. "Run, don't shamble, to get this original zombie tale," exhorts Kirkus Reviews!(And keep a PB 'n' J sandwich at hand!)

Pair this one with Kristyn Crow's would-be ballerina, Zombelina, (see my review here) for more Halloween fun.

Sweets for the Sweet! The Sweetest Witch Around by Alison McGhee

"I'M THE BRAVEST WITCH AROUND.

WHY? BECAUSE I'M THE ONLY WITCH WHO IS NOT AFRAID OF HUMANS!"

This bravest of witches once found herself grounded on Halloween and befriended by a group of trick-or-treaters who admired her "costume" and invited her to go along. The little witch makes a human friend and in gratitude, takes her on a sight-seeing flight on her broom around a haunted mansion.

Now it is time for the Very Brave Witch to instruct her little sister, Witchling, in human Halloween customs. She invites her along on the broom for an overview of the holiday scene.

"STUDY THE HUMANS AND LEARN THEIR MYSTERIOUS WAYS, WITCHLING.

THEY LOVE DRESSING UP ON HALLOWEEN, ESPECIALLY LIKE US.

AND THEY LOVE SOMETHING DISGUSTING THEY CALL CANDY!"

Witchling is an eager student--too eager, it seems!--and when she gets her hands on some of those treats, she turns out to have quite the sweet tooth! Yum!!!

"WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! MY LITTLE SISTER ACTUALLY ATE A PIECE OF HALLOWEEN CANDY! THAT'S ONE BRAVE WITCHLING!"

But before big sister can continue her lecture on other curious customs of humans, Witchling (who has no flying license) hops on the broom with Cat (Holy Catnip!!) and soars off for her own trick-or-treating expedition, returning with a huge treat bag full of candy. Big Sister pulls rank, jumps on the broom in the pilot's seat, and does a steep takeoff to get her little sister away from temptation as fast as possible. Sadly for Witchling, the treat bag spills its contents behind them, pleasing the little trick-or-treaters below, who have an easy haul to top off their treats. Although it's not exactly what she had in mind, big sister has to admit that Witching is the bravest and "sweetest" witch in the coven.

Alison McGhee's The Sweetest Witch Around (Simon & Schuster, 2015), in a new just-in-time-for-Halloween paperback edition, is a good example of a popular sub-genre, the interface between humans and the fantasy creatures of Halloween, carried out in this inviting story of little Witching, who, like her big sister in an earlier story, has an impromptu close encounter of the trick-or-treater kind, illustrated cleverly with Harry Bliss's witty artwork which add to the fun of the story with comic details not in the text. (Witchling's toys include an Easy-Bake Cauldron and her Graveyard Barbie Set--"Gravestones Included" for Ken and GIJoe.) With a funny double entendre in the title and happy Halloween ending, when Witchling's loss become the trick-or-treaters' gain, this story is sure to be popular treat for young readers in the scary season. Read my review of McGhee's and Bliss's companion book, A Very Brave Witch, here.

Pair this one with its companion book and with Kristyn Crow's Zombelina and Anne Marie Pace's Vampirina Ballerina. for more fun encounters of the spooky kind.

Monster Members Only! Ethan Long Presents...Fright Club by Ethan Long

IT WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE HALLOWEEN WHEN VLADIMIR CALLED ONE LAST FRIGHT CLUB MEETING TO GO OVER OPERATION KID SCARE.

All the legacy members are in attendance--Vlad the Vampire, Fran K. Stein, Sandy Witch, Virginia Wolf(man), and the other usual suspects--mummies, ghosts, zombies, and ghouls--all certified FRIGHTFUL.

But a review of the charter members terrifying techniques shows that they are all a bit rusty at being horrific. Vladimir is just launching into a lecture when there's a timid knock at the door. When Vlad grudgingly opens up, there is an adorable pink-eared bunny on his doorstep, asking to join the club.

"YOU? IN FRIGHT CLUB? THAT'S SUCH A CUTE IDEA!

BUT I AM AFRAID FRIGHT CLUB IS FOR MONSTERS ONLY. SHOO!

But Bunny is not easily abashed at being on the outside looking in. And he's not alone, either. He gathers his own cadre of outsiders and is soon back with legal assistance--Frances Foxx, attorney-at-law, waving a discrimination suit brief, on behalf of all the cutesy critters being denied membership. Vlad slams the trapdoor in their faces, but they are soon back with a passel of sign-carrying, shouting protesters:

"HISS, MOAN, BOO! WE CAN SCARE, TOO!"

And in Halloween's Operation Kid Scare, the new pledges of the Fright Club fraternity join the monsters in a very scary Fright Night caper, in Ethan Long's Fright Club (Bloomsbury Books, 2015). A winner of the Theodor Seuss Geisel award for beginning reader books (for Up, Tall and High) puts his winning cartoon ways to work in this not-to-frightful Halloween tale for early graders. Great for reading aloud (the opportunities for silly voices are wide open here) and not too hard for primary readers, this one has a worthy premise of how it feels to be on the outside looking in, all in this clever story of a spooky clique outwitted and outspooked. As Publishers Weekly points out, "Long’s dark, ghostly palette sets an appropriately eerie mood, and he has a lot of fun with the cuddly animals’ reign of terror (a butterfly wields chains, Jacob Marley style, as it chases a ghost)."

This Little Light of Mine....: Little Boo by Stephen Wunderli

THE WIND BLEW, THE LEAVES FELL, AND A TINY SEED HID IN THE GARDEN.

"BOO!" SAID THE SEED TO A LEAF.

The leaf snickers and finds Little Boo not the least bit scary.

Sad, the little seed doesn't give up. He tries out his boos
on a passing grub, with the same results.

Then the snowflakes started to fall. They are not intimidated by Little Boo either.

"THERE'S MORE OF US THAN THERE IS OF YOU!" THEY BRAG.

"IT'S NOT TIME TO BE SCARY," SAYS THE WIND.

"I WANT TO BE SCARY NOW!" LITTLE BOO INSISTS.

But winter will have its way, and the little seed sleeps through the cold months. Then suddenly he wakes as a little green sprout ready to try out his boos on the spring butterflies--who are not flustered either.

As the soil warms and the sun shines down. Little Boo becomes a bright orange blossom, blowing sweetly in the spring breeze. who laughs at his boos, along with the shovel and the watering can. But soon he grows into a green pumpkin. And as summer wanes, the chill wind returns to see that Little Boo is now a big orange pumpkin, ripe for the picking.

And on Halloween Little Boo is big--a big, glowing Jack o' Lantern.

"Y-E-E-O-W!" SHRIEKS THE CAT.

"GOOD SCARING!" WAILS THE WIND.

Stephen Wunderli's new Little Boo (Henry Holt and Company, 2015) is a shining new addition to picture book stories for the scary season. For an autumnal tale, this one has it all--a lesson in the life cycle of a seed and the cycle of the seasons, a poignant when-will-I-be-big premise, and a Halloween hook that will keep children captivated until Little Boo finally gets his own chance to shine! Artist Tim Zeltner's glowing acrylic paintings, done in full-bleed two-page spreads and spot art on wood shine bright as well. It's not easy to imbue a pumpkin seed with as much personality as Zelter does with his emotive little protagonist, but in this story author and illustrator blend their talents into perfect read for a primary grade October unit or story circle.

Pair this one with Margaret McNamara's evergreen How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? (Mr. Tiffin's Classroom Series) (read my review here) for a cross-the-curriculum story and project that almost teach themselves.

Live at Five! Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins by James Dean

Five painted pumpkin heads... were planted on a gate!

Along with Pete the Cat... on Halloween!

Never a cat to miss a big event, Pete joins some friendly pumpkin heads, decorated as pirates, a vampire pumpkin, and one Frankenhead.

The first pumpkin on the gate takes note that it's late, and the the second points out witches flying through the air. The third pumpkin doesn't have a care, the fourth pumpkin proposes a run, and the fifth and last suggests that they try to have some fun. They're off, on a roll--on five skateboards, with Pete sharing his own board with a pirate pumpkin with an eye patch.

OOOOH! WENT THE WIND

OUT WENT THE LIGHTS!

AND THE FIVE LITLE PUMPKINS,

ROLLED OUT OF SIGHT.

The popular poem, "Five Little Pumpkins" is a preschool Halloween staple for youngsters learning to count from one to five, and James Dean's Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins (Harper, 2015) teaches tots to count from one to five as the five jolly jack o' lanterns join the witches, ghosts, vampires, and bats on All Hallow's Eve. Dean's familiar faux naif style is not displaced by the creepy crowd one bit, and Pete the Cat is definitely "walking in his red shoes" for this one.

But if you have planned a holiday-ish class reading circle or a festive bedtime read, you're going to need a few more books as back-up for this short and sweet fare. On the other hand, the limited but rhythmic text and rockin' rhymes make it a natural for emergent readers to read solo to themselves.

Share this one with a review of the countdown in Marcia Vaughn's vivacious Five Pesky Pumpkins: A Counting Book with Flaps and Pop-Ups!, whose five Jack o' Lanterns make their disappearances with a great deal more drama, and Margaret McNamara's classroom classic, How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? (Mr. Tiffin's Classroom Series), (read review here). And have a pumpkin at hand for Halloween carving!

Get Your Head In The Game! Nancy Clancy: Soccer Mania by Jane O'Connor

SOCCER PRACTICE HAD JUST ENDED.

"ALL I WANT IS TO BE MEDIOCRE," NANCY TOLD BREE. MEDIOCRE MEANT BEING AVERAGE, IN THE MIDDLE.

"I'LL NEVER BE GREAT. BUT I HATE BEING TERRIBLE." NANCY SIGHED. "MEDIOCRE. THAT'S MY GOAL."

Nancy has a problem. She is a strikingly bad soccer player. She admits to being a slow runner, and she even has a hard time following the ball on the field.

Her dad has a problem. He loves coaching Nancy's soccer team, the Green Goblins, but his team can't seem to win a game.

Nancy's mom has a problem. Halloween is almost upon them, and little sister Jojo is going through a unfortunate phase for late October. She's terrified of anything vaguely scary--even Nancy's goofy friend Lionel who volunteers to cheer for the Green Goblins in a green fright wig and vampire teeth.

But Nancy's teacher Mr. Dudeney doesn't have a problem with his current language arts unit. His class is having a lot of fun "burying" over-used words like great and awesome--dropping them into the "tombstone" on his desk--and substituting fresh words from the thesaurus (fancy for dictionary of synonyms).

But as October goes by, Bree makes sure Nancy practices after school every day, and although practice doesn't make her perfect, Nancy at last begins to learn to get into position for the play and to keep her head in the game. Bree and Nancy offer to cheer for Lionel at his soccer game, using the pom-poms Mrs. Devine gives them from her memory box, and decide to dress in their cheerleading outfits for Halloween. Nancy invites Jojo to be their junior cheerleader, solving Mom's costume problem.

But Dad's coaching problem continues down to the last game. On the field Nancy is followed by the one thing she's afraid of--bees--even on the bench, and the opposing players are really big--and fast. Nancy really tries--not even to score--but just to make her goal of being mediocre!

SACRE BLEU! THE BALL WAS HEADING RIGHT FOR NANCY. A STREAKS DEFENDER MOVED IN CLOSER TO HER.

OH, NO, YOU DON'T! NANCY THOUGHT. THIS ONE IS MINE! SHE TOOK A STEP BACK, HER EYES LOCKED ON THE BALL. AND THEN...

A BEE WAS BUZZING TOWARD HER. NANCY PANICKED. SHE FORGOT ABOUT THE SOCCER BALL FLYING TOWARD HER! TOO LATE! THE BEE ZAPPED HER IN THE NECK.

NANCY SHOT UP FROM THE PAIN.

ZWOCK! SHE GOT ZAPPED AGAIN IN THE FACE.

IT WAS THE SOCCER BALL!

But Nancy's impromptu header is the assist that sends the ball right to Bree, who passes it to the team's skillful (but not humble) scorer, Grace, who kicks it past the goalie to give the Green Goblins a win at last.

The team, even Grace, agrees that Nancy has met her goal of being mediocre (almost, adds Grace), in Jane O'Connor's just-published-today sixth chapter book in series, Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy, Soccer Mania (Harper, 2015). O'Connor is a master at humorously incorporating new language into plots which engagingly combine childhood concerns and school and family life that are spot-on for early grade readers. It's a superb (fresh and fancy for awesome) book for a classroom read-along for units on the thesaurus and appropriately inspiring for kids who aren't exactly the stars of their own teams. Author O'Connor and illustrator Preiss score at winning chapter books for young readers who definitely won't have mediocre vocabularies.

Not-So-Nice Icy Land: Tacky and the Haunted Igloo by Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger

HALLOWEEN WAS COMING TO NICE ICY LAND.

AND THIS YEAR WAS SPECIAL, BECAUSE THE PENGUINS HAD DECIDED TO TURN THEIR IGLOO INTO A HAUNTED IGLOO.

All the penguin gang--Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect--get together to decorate with hanging bats, spiderwebs, carved pumpkins, and skeletons and stir up the treats, yummy gummy Swedish fish, batsicles, and awful waffles.

Tacky the Penguin exercises his special talent: he taste-tests the treats diligently and pronounces them all-too-tasty.

The penguins turn to choosing costumes, deciding to dress as the things that frighten them most. Angel dresses as a monster. Neatly is afraid of storms and crafts a black cloud beset by lightning bolts get-up. Goodly is attired as a wingy, buzzy insect, dark-fearing Lovely is gowned in black with a dark and droopy mustache,  and Perfect is covered in bubbles. (Don't ask.)

Only Tacky hasn't come up with his costume. What is he afraid of most? He retires to his thinking place to reflect on his attire, with the usual result. ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz!

The Halloween haunted house is a hit! The trick-or-treaters line up at the haunted igloo to shriek and fill their bags with Swedish fish, batsicles, and awful waffles. The scarily attired revelers party hearty and their guests depart with tons of treats.

THIS WAS THE BEST HAUNTED IGLOO IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

BUT WHERE, OH WHERE, WAS TACKY?

Then the penguins are shocked out of their post-party glow.

KNOCK-BANGITY-KNOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

They open the door of the igloo to find ... three ghosts wearing vaguely familiar hats.

"We're trick or treating ghostzies
And we ain't no toothie fairies.
So give us all yer yummy treats,
Or we do something skearies."

The penguins would be all too happy to hand over their yummies. But it seems that between the handouts to their guests and the awesome amount that Snacky Tacky sampled, there are no more treatzies to share. The testy trick-or-treaters unmask themselves!

GASP! THE HUNTERS WERE BACK!

The chase is on, as the petrified penguins run for their lives. Luckily for the flippered and feathered hosts, Tacky has, er, finally dreamed up a fabulous costume of the thing he fears most--A Hunter--and arrives just in time to bamboozle the bad guys, in Helen Lester's latest Tacky the Penguin tale, Tacky and the Haunted Igloo (Tacky the Penguin) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books, 2015). The usual suspects. the predatory Hunters, take to their heels as always, in the new collaboration by author Helen Lester and ace artist Lynn Munsinger in a Nice Icy Land treat for the upcoming scary season. Munsinger's illustrations, set in spot art on single pages and flowing, full-bleed, double-page spreads, are filled with tasty details for kids to pour over as the bad guys get their comeuppance in a clever twist that makes the penguin pack again appreciate their own "odd bird" Tacky.

Illustrator Lynn Munsinger was awarded the Caldecott Honor Award for her collaboration with Helen Lester on their ever-popular Hooway for Wodney Wat.

Can't Scare Me! Not Very Scary by Carol Brendler

Dear Melly,

Please come tonight. I have a surprise for you!

Your Ghouly Cousin,
Malberta

It's an invitation from her favorite cousin, and on Halloween night. too. Malberta is the surprise queen! Melly Monster can't wait!

She sets out through the early twilight. The bats are already flitting, and it's gloomy and dark under low clouds. And what's following her through the gloom?

It's just one black cat.

"THAT'S NOT THE LEAST BIT SCARY," SAID MELLY, FEELING VERY BRAVE.

But then as the black cat continues to shadow her, she sees two skittish skeletons who fall in line behind.

"NOT QUITE SCARY," SAID MELLY, AS SHE SHUDDERED FROM HER HORNS RIGHT DOWN TO HER HEELS.

But then she feels her fur standing straight up, because the gang of strangers keeps growing behind her--three wheezy witches, four mournful ghosts, five grimy goblins, six sullen mummies, seven fierce fruit bats, eight spindly spiders, and as Melly begins to run toward Malberta's house, nine rambunctious rats scamper to fall in line.

There's a pattern in her retinue, and Melly has to admit that the scary factor is rising! As she unlatches Malberta's gate, the air behind her is filled with ten vexing vultures, and she has to admit that although it's not VERY SCARY, her fangs just might be chattering as she rings Malberta's spooky doorbell!

But in Carol Brendler's not-too-scary story, Not Very Scary (Farrar, Straus and Giroux,2014), there is, of course, a party waiting for Melly, as well as for all her seasonal followers, inside Malberta's dark house, with games like bobbing for crawdads and pinning the drool on the ghoul waiting for them to make merry. In this jolly little cumulative Halloween counting book, Theodor Seuss Geisel award-winning artist Gary Pizzoli provides the treats, dishing up just the sort of (not very) scary denizens for the evening in all the appropriate colors, and Melly's black-clad three-eyed cousin is the hostess with the mostess! "A terrific Halloween title to share with those readers who prefer giggles to shivers," croaks Kirkus Reviews.

Buggy Boos! Halloween Bugs by David Carter

WHO'S BEHIND THE MAGICAL DOOR?

THE BAT-IN-THE-HAT BUG!

What do bugs and Halloween have in common?

They're both CREEPY!

And a lot of creepy-crawly critters can be found in bugmeister David Carter's redo of his Halloween Bugs (Bugs in a Box Books) (Little Simon).

There are scary hairy crawlers, Great Pumpkin bugs, and a one-horned, one-eyed, so-called people-eater bug, all concealed artfully behind sturdy flaps in this charming toy-and-movable book illustrated specially for the scary season. Kids will interact with each two-page spread to find one of Carter's creative creepy-crawlers, a spiffy bug in a top hat, or a touchy-feely orange-yarn many-legged critter, hidden behind each distinctive door.

But the artist-designer saves the best for last--an elaborate pop-up of a buggy graveyard, with ghostly Halloween bugs peering out from behind some cleverly inscribed tombstones:

MILLICENT MOTH

Bless her soul.

She went to the outhouse

And fell down the hole

.
For preschoolers who go buggy over these critters, other famous flap and pop-up bug books by David Carter include Bedtime Bugs: A Pop-up Good Night Book by David A. Carter, Birthday Bugs: A Pop-up Party by David A. Carter, and The 12 Bugs of Christmas: A Pop-up Christmas Counting Book (Bugs in a Box Books).