Making the Sale: Hardly Haunted by Jessie Sima

There was once a house that was an apparent drag on the real estate market--never rented or bought.

WHY? (Could it be the black cat that always sat on the FOR SALE sign?)

"I THINK"... SAID THE HOUSE... "I MIGHT BE HAUNTED."

"IF I AM ON MY BEST BEHAVIOR, NO ONE WILL NOTICE."

But all the spooky signs were there. The house tried to stand quietly and appear habitable, but everything was dusty and draped with spiderwebs. The stairs squeeked and the door hinges creaked. Dead tree branches scratched ominously at the windows. The timbers groaned. Drafty passages moaned. The black cat shredded the curtains and the raven croaked in the tree outside.

But the house had to admit that it liked its familiar noises.

"I'LL JUST HAVE TO FIND PEOPLE WHO LIKE THAT I'M SPOOKY. . . . "A FAMILY WHO WILL HELP THIS HAUNTED HOUSE BECOME A HAPPY HOME."

And when a family of wispy ghosts discover the listing, they and their spooky domicile live hauntingly together ever after, in author-illustrator Jessie Sima's latest, Hardly Haunted (Simon and Schuster, 2021).

It's a happy Halloween habitat for youngsters who like their spooky season stories on the droll side, in which there are different strokes for different spooks--who prefer to be happily haunted and hauntingly happy. Says Publisher's Weekly, "... a lovely twist on finding one’s place in the world, told with a light touch and plenty of ominous onomatopoeia.

Another hit by Jessie Sima which also celebrates the out-of-the-ordinary in her best-selling Not Quite Narwhal. (See my review here:)

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.