Boo Bash! Hot Rod Hamster at the Haunted Halloween Party by Cynthia Lord

IT WAS HALLOWEEN! HOT ROD HAMSTER HURRIED OFF TO FIND HIS FRIEND DOG.

"DOG! LOOK! IT'S A HALLOWEEN PARTY! FOOD, GAMES, FUN! LET'S GO!" HE SHOUTED.

"OKAY, BUT WE'LL NEED COSTUMES," DOG SAID.

It's the usual Fright Night problem: what to wear? There's even a prize for the best costume! Dog and Hamster study the choices at the store.

"GHOST FUN? CLOWN FUN? STAR FUN? CROWN FUN? WHICH WILL YOU CHOOSE?"

Then Hot Rod Hamster has an inspiration! He'll be a rock star and Dog and the others can be in his band! Hamster combs his topknot into a striking blue Mohawk do. Drumming, strumming, blowing, and shaking it! Rock 'n' Roll!

They load up their gear in the hot rod and set off for the party. But before they get very far, there is an unfortunate mechanical malfunction. The Hot Rod has broken down, and they must ask for help. But the only house in sight is a bit spooky. The windows are dark, and the sagging door hangs open. Whoooo lives there?

Well, they're pale and float instead of walk, but they do have tools to repair the hot rod, and they offer Dog and Hamster a deal they can't refuse.

"IF WE LOAN YOU TOOLS, CAN WE COME? GHOSTS LOVE PARTIES!"

Luckily ghosts don't weigh much, so they all pile onto the hot rod and roll up just as the party is getting into full swing. Soon Hot Rod Hamster and the band take the stage, and they are a hit!

DOG PLAYS THE DRUMS, HAMSTER SINGS THE SONG.
MICE SHAKE AND DANCE. AND THE GHOSTS HOWL ALONG.

Who knew ghosts make great backup singers? The wailing wraiths definitely pass the audition, and Hamster's band has a brand-new name--Hot Rod Hamster and the Howl-Agains--in Cynthia Lord's newest beginning reader tale, Hot Rod Hamster and the Haunted Halloween Party! (Hot Rod Hamster) (Scholastic Readers, Level 2: Hot Rod Hamster) (Scholastic Press, 2015). Noted Newbery author Cynthia Lord and ace artist Derek Anderson are known for their full-format picture book series, Hot Rod Hamster, which have become popular preschool fare, and this beginning reader, with its jolly rhymes and repeating refrain ("Which will you choose?") offers a light and easy read-alone treat for the scary season.

I Gotta Be ME!! Ladybug Girl and the Dress-Up Dilemma by David Soman

What to wear for Halloween? It's the perennial question. But Lulu hasn't given it much thought. After all, she is Ladybug Girl!

"AGAIN?" SAYS HER BROTHER. YOU'RE ALWAYS LADYBUG GIRL!

"YOU SHOULD BE SOMETHING DIFFERENT!"

It's an arresting thought for Lulu, who has to admit that her brother is right. Maybe she should find a new costume for Halloween.

She collects some boxes and puts together a robot costume. But it's too boxy. She can't even get out the door for trick-or-treating wearing that! How about some facepaint to turn her into a vampire panda! Her brother pronounces that the silliest idea ever.

She puts together an outfit of the Little Tramp from silent movie days, complete with baggy pants, Derby, and a little mascara mustache. Pretty good! she thinks as she studies herself in the mirror. But...

"A SILENT MOVIE STAR CAN'T ASK FOR CANDY!"

Just as Lulu realizes the costume's fatal flaw, her parents call them to get ready for the annual expedition to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch, so Lulu puts on her customary Ladybug dress and wings and heads out for some apple-picking, on the lookout for an inspiration for a different costume while she's at the farm. Scarecrow? Pumpkin? But they've all been done!

Then on her solitary trek through the corn maze, Lulu is distracted by a small girl who is obviously hopelessly lost from her family. How to help?

"THIS IS A JOB FOR LADYBUG GIRL!"

Ta-Da! Lulu's dog Bingo notices right away that the little girl has a half-eaten bag of popcorn, and taking her hand, Lulu leads her back along the trail of dropped popcorn the way she came, with Bingo taking care of any "littering" as they go.

It's another problem winningly solved by Ladybug Girl, and Lulu decides to stay in character for trick-or-treat after all, in David Soman's latest in his best-selling series, Ladybug Girl and the Dress-up Dilemma (Dial Books, 2015). Soman's storytelling is succinct and well-paced, as the Halloween rituals unfold while Lulu deals with disturbing thoughts of breaking out of her usual persona, and his evocative illustrations of the harvest scene and the throngs of costume-clad trick-or-treaters are as charming and filled with eye-catching detail as ever. "Soman's watercolors are right at home with autumn's muted hues ... helping make this thoughtful story another winner for Ladybug Girl." says Publishers Weekly.

Bah! Halloween Humbug! Click, Clack, Boo! A Tasty Treat by Doreen Cronin

FARMER BROWN DID NOT LIKE HALLOWEEN.

WITCHES GAVE HIM NIGHTMARES.

But do the merry pranksters out in the barnyard give a marshmallow peanut? No, they do not.

Farmer Brown may pull the shades, hang a DO NOT DISTURB sign on his locked front door, put on his fuzzy, footy PJs, and douse all the lights, but out in the barn the cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens are all set to par-tay in the hay! Cow skeletons and princess pigs cavort and prance, sheep sprout witches' hats, and the chickens--are those the hens under those ghostly shrouds?

Snug under his quilt, Farmer Brown can't help hearing the racket being raised in the barn--and the leafy footfalls near the house, followed by  a tap, tap, tapping at his door. A furtive peek under the shade shows a shadowy, cloaked figure, haunting the house from under a dark tree outside. Then there is an even stranger sound.

"QUACK, QUACK, QUACKLE."

QUACKLE?

With all this suspicious activity, what's a conscientious farmer to do?

As all readers will have guessed by now, Dracula Duck will see to it that Farmer Brown will soon be raising the roof out in the barn with his critter tricksters in this Halloween treat, Doreen Cronin's and Betsy Lewin's latest, Click, Clack, Boo!: A Tricky Treat (Atheneum Books, 2013). Cronin's verses are still dressed with her characteristic verve and rhythm, and Betsy Lewin's illustrations (see her chickens comically draped as ghosts) glow with Halloween humor like a smiling Jack-o'-lantern. That big ole' harvest moon lights the scene, done up in a midnight blue background with plenty of Halloween orange accents, while the pigs scarf up candy corn at liberty, the sheep boogie down, and everybody gets a prize. It's a happy holiday treat for fans of Cronin and Lewin's barnyard bunch.

Other books in this rowdy rural series include the best-selling Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure, (see my review here) and Dooby Dooby Moo, to name but a few.

Switcheroo: Five Little Monkeys Trick-Or-Treat by Eileen Christelow

THE FIVE LITTLE MONKEYS DRESS UP FOR HALLOWEEN.

"HURRY" SAYS MAMA. "YOUR FAVORITE BABY SITTER IS HERE TO TAKE YOU TRICK-OR-TREATING."

"GHOST, PRINCESS, GOBLIN, ALIEN, BANANA," MAMA REMINDS LULU. "DON'T LOSE THE RASCALS!"

"DON'T WORRY!" SAYS LULU.

Lulu leads her charges down the street, where Alien meets a friend dressed as a fluffy blue bunny. The two admire each other's costumes so much that they decide to trade outfits on the spot.

"EVERYONE WILL BE SO CONFUSED!" THEY WHISPER.

The new alien joins the group. Lulu is too busy to notice, but the other four monkeys do, and they suddenly feel the urge to trade costumes with their friends. One by one, Banana, Princess, Ghost, and Goblin switch outfits, and the non-monkeys join the bogus alien in Lulu's entourage, while the real little monkeys, disguised as Bunny, Pumpkin, Grapes, Robot, and TV, trail at a discreet distance down the street, giggling at their joke.

"THIS IS THE BEST HALLOWEEN TRICK!" SAYS THE GOBLIN.

LUCY DOESN'T SEEM TO NOTICE.

While the mischievous monkeys chortle at their joke, Lulu takes an inventory of her charges. Suddenly she changes course.

"WE HAVE TO GET HOME FOR THE BIG HALLOWEEN TREAT!" SHE CALLS.

As the impostor trick-or-treaters gleefully hurry after Lulu hoping for the big treat, the five little monkeys are suddenly worried. What big treat? Their joke seems to have backfired.

At first Mama is a bit surprised to see the returned trick-or-treaters. Somehow Alien, Banana, Ghost, Goblin, and Princess seem rather different from the way they looked when they left. A peek at the five faces peering anxiously through the window and a nod and wink from Lulu tell Mama the whole story.

Meanwhile the desperate real monkeys ring the bell and cry,

"TRICK OR TREAT, MAMA!"

"THERE MUST BE SOME MISTAKE," SHE SAYS.

Mama points out that her little Alien, Banana, Ghost, Goblin, and Princess are already present and accounted for, and pretends to close the door on the now sad little tricksters.

Now what do they do?

Eileen Christelow's beloved five little monkeys are back in a perfect trick-the-tricksters treat of a tale, Five Little Monkeys Trick-or-Treat (A Five Little Monkeys Story) (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2013), as Mama and Lulu turn the tables on the would-be tricksters. There's a happy conclusion and a treat from Lulu, who has a final trick up her sleeve, in the form of eyeball cookies and worm juice for all, including the impostors. As a final treat Christelow even appends the recipes for these tricky treats on the final endpapers! A great night out with some favorite book friends, right in time for a pre-Halloween treat.

Christelow's Five Little Monkeys stories are an excellent extended series, one which has maintained continuity and consistent quality from the initial title, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, right through to this fun-as-a-barrel-of-monkeys title, forthcoming for the upcoming scary season.

"Another winner in the further adventures of the familiar five," says School Library Journal.

Black Cats and Broomsticks: The ABCs of Halloween by Patricia Reeder Eubank

A is for attics, spooky, dusty and dark.

B is for black cats and broomsticks of hickory bark.

For the preschool set, what time is better than the spooky season, with its memorable symbols, for learning the alphabet? And with two lovely black kittens as frisky guides and bright carved pumpkins as the letter boards--not to mention all the awesome alliterations that Halloween brings forth--the nighttime is the right time for a Halloween alphabet adventure.

G is for glowing ghosts, glimmering ghouls,
giggling gargoyles, and grinning green goblins galore.

H is for hollow, haunted houses and crooked high hats that haggled-haired witches once wore.

Patricia Eubank's art, reminiscent of that of Jan Brett, is endearing without being cutesy, and her text does more than just rhyme, making poetic use of sibilant sounds and evocative images:

S is for spinning spiders and scary skeletons with secret spells unbound.

T is for tiny toad toes, tasty turnip tea, and twisted tombstones that topple over the ground.

A book that is great to read to one child or a group, Eubank's eye-catching The ABC's of Halloween should be around for Halloween as long as cats creep, crones cackle, and houses are haunted.

Near Cat-astrophe: Boo to You! by Lois Ehlert

That scary cat's back.
Boy, what a bummer!
See, that puss could spoil our summer!
A raccoon or a squirrel might bite a veggie.
But a cat loves meat,
And that makes us edgy!

We're having a harvest party tonight.
Guess who's the creep we didn't invite?

It's a vegetation celebration for the mice. The crops are coming in--Indian corn is ripe, there are sunflower and pumpkin seeds aplenty, nuts and wheat berries abound, and the mice would like to celebrate their bounty. But there's one carnivore that they abhor--the black cat whose skulking presence overhangs their festivities.

Just as we're about to dine,
That cat peeks out from behind a vine.

But we know exactly what to do.
We'll scare that scary cat...

BOO TO YOU!

And from their produce plenitude, the clever mice construct a monster terrifying enough to rout the cat, and the mice proceed with their celebration, safe to eat and not be eaten.

Lois Ehlert's amazing collage illustrations have delighted youngsters for years, and her just published Boo to You! (Beech Lane Books 2009) certainly keeps up the tradition. Her playful mice are constructed from rough-edged torn artisan paper, with twine limbs, tiny tomatoes for eyes, and seed pods for tails, and they frolic amid a whirlwind end-of-summer scene abounding with seeds, nuts, horse chestnuts, seed pods, berries, and pine cones, all held together by a swirling ribbon of brown craft paper uniting the scene. Minor characters such as birds are formed from colorful ornamental gourds and turban squash, and the cat himself is a bushy-tailed beast with preposterous pumpkin seed teeth. It's a festival for the eyes with a three-dimensional look that begs to be touched.

Backmatter includes Pumpkin Talk, with photos of children costumed as pumpkins and cats and many varied Jack-o'-lanterns, and Harvest Colors, a double-page spread which features all the autumnal bounty used in the collages which kids will love to seek out in the illustrations.

Boo to You! joins Ehlert's wonderful Leaf Man (Ala Notable Children's Books. Younger Readers (Awards)) and Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf (reviewed here), all three playful yet reverent salutes to the turning of the seasons.

Spook Spoof: Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody by Michael Rex

In a cold, gray tomb
There was a gravestone
And a black lagoon,
And a picture of--
Martians taking over the moon.

Hey, wait! This sounds familiar, but something's not quite right! Wasn't there supposed to be something about a red balloon, cows over the moon, a bowl of mush, an old woman whispering "Hush?"

And this place is creepy, not cozy. There're three little mummies in the painting, and something with toothy jaws is rising out of a lagoon where the hooked rug is supposed to be. And there's a tombstone with R.I.P. carved on it, and bats and a witchy hat, and a werewolf in the rocker where the old knitting lady is supposed to sit, and a big red spider suspended from the ceiling instead of the balloon, and an octopus in the fireplace, and, and..., well, YIKES! What could have happened to those playful kittens anyway?

Huh! This is not the beloved bedtime story. I'm looking carefully at the title page this time. Goodnight GOON. Ok-a-a-y, I get it. This is a SPOOF. Well, then...

Goodnight tomb.
Goodnight Goon.
Goodnight bones and black lagoon.

Goodnight moans.
Goodnight groans.
Goodnight creature,
Goodnight goo.
And goodnight to the werewolf whispering "BOO!"

Michael Rex's Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody isn't scary enough to keep anybody awake, but kids who still remember the real Goodnight Moon may want to stay awake chuckling through this semi-spooky spoof several times. For a classic which lends itself easily to parody, it's a tribute to the old bedtime staple that it stretches comfortably to accommodate this brand-new version just out for the scary season.