Fearful Funhouse: The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman and Gus Grimly

No jolly APPLES, BALLS, and CATS here. The creators of The Dangerous Alphabet promise "an alphabet with a dangerous flaw" (easy to spot) with "two brave children, their diminutive but no less courageous gazelle, and a large number of extremely dangerous trolls, monsters, bugbears, creatures, and other such nastiness."

The story begins humorously, with a brother and sister sneaking stealthily past their dad, apparently totally engrossed in his newspaper. Below street level the intrepid two descend into a shadowy stone-walled underground waterway and into a boat which resembles the skeleton of a prehistoric fish. As if in a ride through a carnival tunnel of horrors, the children float past a montage of mysterious and quirky sights as they make their way downstream through an off-beat alphabetical journey.

E is for EVIL that looms and entices.

F is for FEAR and its many devices.

G is for GOOD as in HERO and MORNING.

H is for HELP ME! A cry and a warning.

The children elude toothy monsters and sneaky pirates and all the usual spooky suspects as they persevere in following their map through the perilous waters--until

V is for VILE deeds done in the night.
X marks the spot if we read the map right.

The kids are not the only ones who are reading the scene right. As they come to the end of their fun house ride, they find a REALLY surprising sight--their dad and his now well-read newspaper, waiting patiently for them like the light at the end of the tunnel. Dad, it seems, was only feigning ignorance of their plan, and now that the kids have had their nighttime fun, he's there to take them safely home.

Gaiman's text is quirky and its vocabulary may require some adult explanation for the age group who are the usual audience for alphabet books. For example,

Q is for quiet (bar one muffled scream).

R is a river that flows like a dream.

S is for snare--a skull and its smile.

T is for treasure, heaped in a pile.

However, for slightly older kids who adore scary illustrations full of tongue-in-cheek detail, Grimly's signature mock-macabre style carries the load in this offbeat alphabet book just suited for the spooky season.

Flow It, Show It, Long As God Can Grow It: Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman

"I don't mean to stare.

Mister, you've got crazy hair!"

Bonnie is a feisty girl who can't help remarking on the stranger's amazingly long, luxuriant and utterly wild locks. Even when he warns her that his hair is, well, unique...

"In my hair
Gorillas leap,
Tigers stalk,
And ground sloths sleep....

Hunters send in
Expeditions,
Radio back
Their positions.

Still, we've lost a dozen there,
Lost inside my crazy hair."

... she is unfazed. Bonnie whips out her special comb and tackles the tangle, only to find that the hair is a world of its own. Drawn inside the man's shock of hair, Bonnie finds another dimension, filled with bears, pirates, and adventure, where she gladly "dances with the dancers there, happy as a millionaire."

Fans of Gaiman's surrealistically styled work (Coraline: The Graphic Novel, The Graveyard Book, (reviewed here) and The Dangerous Alphabet, (reviewed here), will dive into this mysterious thatch with glee, despite the characteristic looming sense of, if not danger, at least a certain menacing ambience which underlies the dreamlike exuberance of the verse and art. McKean's angular and wispy drawings are juxtaposed with the realistic photographic portrayal of the hair itself, which swirls, twists, and curls through the pages in the same flow as Gaiman's words, set with great typographic variations, in a current of design which carries the reader's eyes through the pages seamlessly with the illustrations. Crazy Hair (HarperCollins, 2009)is sure to please the adventurous picture book fan with its inimitable style and spirit.

Sing Along with Spooks: On the Thirteenth Night of Halloween by Guy Vasilovich

ON THE FIRST NIGHT OF HALLOWEEN

MY MOMMY GAVE TO ME

A BRIGHT SHINY SKELETON KEY.

And what does that magical skeleton key open for our little pigtailed gal during those last days of the scary season? Well, all sorts of those costumed critters and and creepy spook house icons to be expected on Halloween night.

There are three "baseball bats," the flying kind, of course, dressed in baseball caps, icky eyeballs, singing skulls and caroling corpses, werewolves wailin', witches witching, and to finish off the countdown of this creepy crew, thirteen thirsty vampires, all ready to par-TAY on the big day. This alliterative counting book comes all ready for a sing-along to the well-known tune to "The 12 Days of Christmas," so most kids can jump right in on the performance.

In his new The 13 Nights of Halloween, veteran animator Guy Vasilovich's quirky illustrations have a bit of the feeling of Gus Grimly's drawings in Neil Gaiman's The Dangerous Alphabet, a good pairing with this new book, both of them just spooky enough for a little frightful fun for those final days of October.