A Treat in Hand: The Haunted House by Peter Lippman

A black gate swings open,
A sign says "BEWARE!"
But I enter the house
That no others will dare

Of course, you do. With Peter Lippman's irresistible little movable book, The Haunted House (Mini House Book), nobody with an ounce of curiosity, child or adult, could help unfolding this small creepy mansion to see what adventures lie therein.

On the roof hungry bats
Catch their dinner in midair.
In the attic I dodge
A huge spider's wispy snare.

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As the cleverly constructed little minibook is unpacked, more creepy characters are revealed--"creepy arms everywhere," a Frankenstein monster's scare.

Then, at last, the scene opens to the bedroom, where the reader discovers where it all arises:

I flee to the bedroom.
There's something worse there!
And then I wake up
From a silly nightmare!

The story literally "unfolds" in the ingenious diecut design, in which each section is "unnotched" and spread apart to reveal the next scene in the action. Lippman's creative construction, illustrative skill, and rhyming text make The Haunted House (Mini House Book), the perfect tricky treat (that's not a sweet) for a special someone's Halloween bag.

Other intriguing books in this series by Lippman include Mother Goose's House (Mini House Book), The Enchanted Castle (Mini House Book), Mini Wheel Books: School Bus, and that perfect stocking stuffer, Santa's Workshop (Mini House Book).

Taming the Monsters: Mommy? by Maurice Sendak, Matthew Reinhart, and Al Yorinks

This hyper-high-tech pop-up book features a typical monster-taming Sendak protagonist, a toddler who wanders into a suitably spooky-looking house calling “Mommy?” and proceeds to pop a pacifier into a ghoul's mouth, de-“bolt” a Frankenstein monster, nip the knickers off Wolf Man, and unwind a mummy’s wrappings, until he at last finds a suitably maternal monster (the Bride of Frankenstein). An ever-so-slightly macabre spoof on Are You My Mother?, this book has some sly fun for the adults who will undoubtedly have to “read it again!”

Maurice Sendak' unique drawings provide an unflappable toddler character who nonchalantly finds himself inside a house of horrors, equipped with pop-ups, pull-outs, gate-folds, and sight gags (a cranky, diapered baby Frankenstein photo on the wall) all expertly engineered by Matt Reinhart to provide plenty of action. Although Mommy? works as a lap book for toddlers who enjoy seeing one of their own dispelling fearsome critters, its most appreciative readers will be primary graders who have enough literary experience to "get" the gags and appreciate the artfully constructed movable book that it is!