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.

Snow Job: Tacky's Christmas by Helen Lester

DECK THE ICEBERG, WRAP A GIFTY!
FA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA
MAKE AN ORNAMENT THAT'S NIFTY!
FA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA.

'Tis the season down in Nice Icy Land, and those precise penguins, Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect, are out to out-do Martha Stewart. Their igloos are encircled with Christmas lights; those persnickety penguins are designing their own signature ornaments; and with the plenitude of ice cubes in their fridges, there are plenty to spell out MERRY CHRISTMAS for all to see.

The only problem is a lack of, er, well, Christmas trees to decorate, but hey, with not a tree in sight down in Nice Icy Land, there's nothing festive upon which to hang those ornaments and under which to put their gifties.

"WE COULD DECORATE TACKY," SUGGESTED GOODLY AND LOVELY.

"HE'S SORT OF TREE-SHAPED, IF A BIT HEAVY ON THE LOWER PART," ADDED ANGEL, NEATLY, AND PERFECT.

"HEY, SUIT ME UP!" CRIED TACKY

The agreeable Tacky the Penguin agrees to a dual role--Christmas tree and Santa--even if he does need a little shove from the gang to make it down those chimneys. The penguins are now all done with Christmas preparations, and there's only one thing left to do--OPEN THOSE GIFTIES!

And the gifties don't disappoint. There's a jar of belly-sliding slickum for all, speedy flippers for their feet, snappy red holiday bowties, feather dusters (hey, no more dusty feathers for these birds!), and bottles of Yellow Brand Beak and Foot Polish. Only Tacky's present seem a bit, well, less than apropos. Shaving cream?

But Tacky knows what to do with it. "Hey, this is really fun stuff," he yells, as he begins to squirt the white stuff in everyone's faces. But before they can mount a protest, they hear that sound that Nice Icy Land fears above all:

Thump...thump...thump!

Yikes! It's the hunters, thumping toward them with their rocks and locks and maps and traps, chanting their marching song, rough and tough as always:

"WE'RE GONNA MARCH SOME PRETTY PENGUINS
AND WE'LL DRAG THEM THROUGH THE SNOW
AND WE'LL TAKE AWAY THEIR GIFTIES
HO, HO, HO."

But, wait! Who is this with the red suit and long white beard? And who are these little short guys with the red and green caps and fluffy white beards with him?

"WHOA! HIM'S NOT A PRETTY PENGUIN. HIM'S SANDY CLAWZ! LOOKY THAT BEARDY!

WHY, LOOKY, THEM'S SANDY'S ELFIES. THEM'S GOT BEARDZIES TOO. WHOA, LOOKY THAT!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ELFIES!"

Works for me, figures Tacky, and the other pretty penguins go along with the deception. With their shaving cream beards firmly frozen in place on their chinny-chin-chins, the penguins party down with fish pudding all around, and to the tune of Tacky's carols, it's a very merry Christmas for penguins and hunters alike down in Nice Icy Land .

Helen Lester's latest in her long-running and evergreen Tacky the Penguin series, Tacky's Christmas (Tacky the Penguin) (Houghton Mifflin, 2010), comes in plenty of time to be a nifty gifty for the Christmas season, is sure to be a hit with fans of the rotund Tacky. With Lynn Munsinger's signature illustrations and its own CD of Nice Icy Land carols on board, this book should be at the top of the Christmas list.