What's Behind That Spooky Door? Pout-Pout Fish: Haunted House by Deborah Diesen

Mr. Fish was nervous about going out on Halloween.

He didn't like getting spooked, but he did love candy and costumes.

But when his buddy with the built-in lantern offers to go out with him, Mr. Fish puts on his witch's hat and goes along to trick or treat. But when he learns that their first stop is Miss Shimmer's Haunted House, his scales begin to shiver and his fins are all a-quiver.

"Don't be fooled by make-believe monsters!" advised Mr. Lantern Fish.

So Pout-Pout Fish screws his courage up to the sticking place and swims bravely inside Miss Shimmer's scary house, giving the guard shark at the door a wide berth.

But once inside, there are a lot of scary sights. There are creepy crawlies, and eerie eels, Yipes!

"They're not real!" whispers Mr. Lantern Fish.

But even Mr. Lantern Fish's bravado fails when they swim right into a bunch of eight scary snakes!

But this time it's Mr. Pout-Pout Fish who reassures his friend. It's only clever Octopus with snake masks on each tentacle!

Pout-Pout Fish is now ready for more fright-full adventures, in Deborah Diesen's Pout-Pout Fish: Haunted House (A Pout-Pout Fish Paperback Adventure) (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019), as this small fry faces the sometimes scary costumes of Halloween and finds them fun. It never hurts for
preschoolers to get some advance preparation before they head out on Halloween night with the other trick or treaters, and illustrator Dan Hanna's comic denizens of the deep in holiday guise add to this not-so frightful tale in author Diesen's popular series.

For more fishy Halloween fun, share this one with Diesen’s and Hanna’s paperback Halloween tale, Trick or Treat, Pout-Pout Fish (A Pout-Pout Fish Mini Adventure).

Sticky Situation: Hedgehog's Halloween by Benn Sutton and Dan Pinto

HEDGEHOG HAD JUST PUT ON HIS SLIPPERS WHEN HE HEARD SOMEONE AT THE TOP OF HIS BURROW.

"HOWDY PARTNER!  Y'ALL READY TO PAAARTY?"

Hannah Armadillo is all decked out as an old cowhand, and suddenly Hedgehog realizes he has forgotten all about the Halloween costume party! Ooops!

Costumes are always hard, and Hedgehog only has a little while to find one before the party begins.

Hedgehog's friends are ready and willing to help, but costuming a prickly person is not as easy as you might think. Their first thought is the ever-popular sheet to turn himself into a semi-scary ghost. But just pulling the cloth over his head turns it into a mess of holes.

"I'M SUPPOSED TO BE A GHOST, NOT SWISS CHEESE!"

Edie the owl comes up with an easy alternative. The friends blow up some purple balloons and tie them together. Hedgehog can go as a bunch of grapes! He tries them on.

Bang! Pow! Pop! Hedgehog's costume deflates instantly.

A mummy wrap turns out to be equally unworkable. Hedgehog is ready to give up.

But there is one costume idea that absolutely requires spines, and with a little help from his friends, Hedgehog is soon attired all in green, a perfectly spiny prickly pear cactus in Benn Sutton's happy Halloween story of the perils of being prickly, Hedgehug's Halloween (Harper, 2013).   Reassuring for young readers who may need some persuasion to put on their disguises and head out among all those creepy costumes and monster masks, this friendly little story may get them in the mood to join the party. Dan Pinto's textured collage illustrations are festive and bright to add to the holiday theme, and Sutton's final costume idea is a fitting and humorous surprise for youngsters to uncover.

Sutton and Pinto's first book about their thorny character who finds his way in a thin-skinned world is the February-themed Hedgehug: A Sharp Lesson in Love Hedgehug (see review here).

Boo! Who Will Haunt My House on Halloween? by Jerry Pallotta

It's Halloween!
I'm scared!
I wonder who will haunt my house tonight?

Most Halloween picture books take us out into the spooky spooky moonlight to trick or treat and meet the creatures of the night. But Jerry Pallotta's just published Who Will Haunt My House on Halloween? offers a view from the other side--an advance screening of Halloween from the inside of a cozy house, where each time the front door opens, scary things might appear on the doorstep. A little girl, treat tray filled and ready for the doorbell, wonders if she dare open that door to the dark, spook-filled night.

For those young children who find the sight of their fellow trick-or-treaters almost too scary, David Biedrzycki's appealing but not-too-spooky illustrations of the imagined characters on the stoop--werewolves, witches offering brew, scarecrows and spiders, skeletons with bony fingers, and zillions of bats--offer a glimpse of the fun to be had just outside the door.

"Did anyone trick or treat yet?" the little girl asks her mom,

"No, it's been very quiet." Mom replies.

Mom hustles the girl into her witch costume, sprinkled with moon and stars, just as the doorbell sounds.

"Someone's at the door! Let's ALL go trick or treating. What FUN!"

And our girl picks up her treat bag and joins the jolly group of costumed kids outside with a merry warning:

We're on our way to haunt YOUR house. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!"