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Book Review: Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

Grand Central Publishing, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1538731338

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Acclaimed author Joe Hill promoted Imaginary Friend by saying the first fifty pages would blow you away, and I 100% agree with that. The first chapter, which takes place fifty years before the rest of the story, is absolutely hallucinatory. Jumping to the present day, the central character is Christopher, a seven-and-a-half year old boy whose mentally ill father committed suicide four years ago, and is now on the road with his mother, Kate, who is fleeing a relationship with an abusive alcoholic. Chbosky does a great job of depicting the loving, if anxious, relationship between Kate and Christopher, and I think he shows a very realistic depiction of the effects grief, and the loss of a father, can have on the dynamic between a mother and son.

Christopher struggles in school. He is mercilessly bullied by the son of the richest family in town, which also owns the retirement home where his mother works, and dyslexia prevents him from succeeding academically. One day, his mother is late picking him up from school, and by the time she arrives he has mysteriously disappeared. When he is found after six days, he can’t remember anything about that time, but everything in their lives starts looking up, from his success on a math test to Kate’s winning the lottery. But Christopher is also starting to get terrible headaches, and he is hearing the voice of someone he calls “the nice man” who wants him to build a treehouse in the woods behind the house his mother bought with her lottery winnings. Is there something supernatural going on, or is Christopher manifesting his father’s mental illness?

The story starts to run off the rails for me here. According to Chbosky, Christopher is a second grader, seven years old. But he and his peers (both friends and bullies) aren’t acting or being treated like second graders. I 100% guarantee that an overprotective single mother is not going to allow her son who was recently missing for six days to go on a sleepover without making sure that the other child’s parents were right there in the house. But that is exactly what happens. Christopher and three of his friends trick their parents into thinking that each of them is going to a sleepover at another friend’s house so they can go camping in the woods in Pennsylvania in November and tirelessly build a treehouse from complicated blueprints, stealing wood from a construction site, with rare breaks for food.

There’s an echo of It or maybe The Body here in the depiction of the four outcast boys on a mission, but the kids in those stories are living through the 1950s, when kids had a lot more freedom to roam, and in both cases, the kids in those stories were older. Some of the actions of the kids in this book would have been more believable had they been older. Chbosky, best known for his YA novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, might have done better to age his characters up to middle school. I’m  also pretty irritated that Chbosky refers to one of Christopher’s friends, who is in a special education classroom, by the nickname “Special Ed” , given to him by the school bully, throughout the book.

The story is also weighed down by a lot of unneccessary repetition. In the first chapter, every time David Olson is mentioned, it’s as “Little David Olson”, even though it’s quickly obvious that David is a young boy. It’s sometimes difficult to tell who is talking, or if they are talking or thinking, because the use of italics, spacing, font size, punctuation, and capitalization is irregular. I’m not sure if that’s intentional,or not, because it definitely adds to the sense of disorientation that Chbosky establishes from the beginning, but it also interrupts the flow of the story. Between the repetition in language and plot and the unusual formatting, the story started to exhaust me. There is also a heavy religious element that begins to take over the story and really dragged it out (there is an unexpected plot twist that jumpstarts things, but this book could still have been 300 pages shorter and been the better for it).

Where Chbosky shines is in character and relationship development, especially between family members. Kate and Christopher are at the center of the book and I am wowed by the way Chbosky portrayed their relationship. We also get a window into the lives of characters in the books who aren’t sympathetic at all, giving us a look at their generational or family trauma. I think Chbosky went a little overboard in getting into the minds of the characters of his very large cast at times. When he’s good, he’s very, very good, but when he goes over the top (and he does sometimes) he really misses the mark.

Chbosky also does an excellent job with creating truly disturbing creatures– I will never feel the same way about deer again– and it is painful, unsettling, grotesque, and terrifying to witness some of what he describes people doing to each other and themselves, over and over. This is a true horror novel that walks the reader through hell.

Imaginary Friend has received accolades from some prestigious review sources. In his acknowledgements, he cites Stephen King as his inspiration, and I can certainly see the influence. Ultimately, though, while there’s some really good stuff here, the book is flawed enough, and long enough, that many readers unfortunately won’t make it through to the end. Recommended for public libraries.

Contains: Violence, gore, body horror, child abuse, sexual situations, domestic violence, suicide, references to child sexual abuse, bullying

 

Posted on November 8, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Pet by Akwake Emezi

Make Me A World, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-0525647072

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audio CD, audiobook

 

There was a time before the angels came when monsters caged children, polluted the environment, refused to send aid to hurricane victims and refugees, bombed civilians in other countries, shot up schools, and hurt and killed the people around them. The angels led a revolution, changed the laws, and replaced the monuments. Jam’s teachers tell her these angels took their names from angels who weren’t human: but they were imperfect humans doing their best to create a more compassionate, safer, and more just world, and by the time Jam, our protagonist, was born, there are no more monsters.

Or are there?

Jam, curious about the original angels, heads to the library and asks about them, but the pictures she finds are terrifying, not beautiful. She wonders, if angels are terrifying, what do monsters look like? And how would you know? Jam’s mother, Bitter, tells her, “Monsters don’t look like anything… That’s the whole point.” Bitter, an artist, has been consumed with creating a painting of a bloody, goat-legged, horned creature with metallic feathers, and after it is finished, Jam sneaks in to Bitter’s studio and accidentally cuts herself on a razor blade Bitter has embedded in the canvas. Bleeding over it opens a portal, and the creature pushes through, telling Jam to call it Pet.  Pet is a hunter of monsters, called through by her because there is a monster in her friend Redemption’s house that needs hunting, but the adults in Jam’s life are not willing to recognize that a monster could still be in their midst.

I feel like this is Emezi’s response to N.K. Jemisin’s “The Ones That Stay and Fight”, which takes place in a utopian alien society where all people are respected for who they are, but knowledge of the outside world is illegal. That story ends with “social workers” executing a man found to be communicating with the less enlightened people of Earth in front of his daughter and taking her into custody to also become a social worker. In that story, questioning is not allowed and people are willing to live in ignorance of the evils of the past in order to live in their ideal society, and a child who gains that knowledge must become part of enforcing the need for that ignorance.

Pet, while it takes place in our near future, reflects some of this abstract speculative thinking, but as a book written for children, it needs to be set out in a concrete way. Emezi has created a society that is a little different from Jemisin’s: many of the people who live in the community remember the time of the monsters, before the revolution eliminated them, but they choose to believe the monsters are gone. The children born after the revolution learn about that time, but aren’t curious about it. Even knowing that they should remember the past, the people are focused on the the blessings of the present. In visiting her friend Redemption’s house, which has always seemed a loving place, Pet encourages Jam to look past the surface to see the unseen. It is uncomfortable for Jam to question what she has always seen and felt there, even knowing there is a monster in the house, and to tell Redemption about it. It is scary to learn about the monsters that existed in families in the past and realize they are still around. It is terrifying to confront trusted adults and have them refuse to believe. No one actually stops Jam and Redemption, but the adults don’t believe the monster exists, even knowing a child is suffering. Pet is there to end the hunt, and the monster, but Jam has to decide exactly what that means. Pet has a more positive vision for the future than Jemisin saw, but it is clear about the perils of believing that there can be an ideal world where monsters no longer exist.

Pet also n9rmalizes and celebrates differences without going into detail about them. Jam is a 16 year old black trans girl who is a selective mute; Redemption has three parents, one of whom is nonbinary; the librarian whizzes around in a wheelchair.  Emezi does not stick with standard English. Language is very individual and informal, and dialogue is sometimes almost musical. Without going into graphic detail. Emezi is able to communicate who the monster in Redemption’s house is, and what he has done.

While Jam is supposed to be 16, she neither acts or is treated like a 16 year old. Her thoughts and actions are more like what I would expect from a 10-12 year old, and I think she may have been “aged up” to make it possible for her to have used puberty blockers and had transition surgery (neither of these details are necessary to establish her as a transgender character, so if that was Emezi’s reasoning, the story would have benefited from aging Jam’s character down). While the story does get very dark, I think kids as young as fifth grade might be able to manage this book. At this point, fifth graders have certainly been exposed to the news, and this book gives them a way to process what they’re seeing in the media from a different perspective.  Certainly, my children both read The Giver, which has similar themes, at that age. This is a very relevant book, and while not typical horror, it does have unsettling and disturbing moments. Highly recommended.

Contains: Violence, references to rape and child sexual abuse

 

 

Posted on November 7, 2019 by , Reply

Book List: Halloween Picture Books

 

 

Before Halloween season is officially over, I’d like to share some Halloween related reviews of children’s books– mostly picture books– from the original Monster Librarian website. They’re now older titles, but especially with children’s books, great ones rarely go out of style. At the bottom is an additional list of titles you might look up for the youngest Halloween lovers that haven’t been reviewed but are also great choices.

 

Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marisa Montes, illustrated by Yuyi Morales

Henry Holt, 2006

ISBN-13: 978-0805074291

Available: New hardback, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

In Los Gatos Black on Halloween, Marisa Montes and Yuyi Morales have created an amazing fusion of words and pictures. Montes’ clever bilingual rhymes bounce through an assortment of creepy creatures and eerie happenings, as Morales paints clever and funny images into her truly dark and scary monsters. The chilling zombie child with glowing eyes is a little less frightening when you see the smiley face on his T-shirt, and the toothy wolfman peering nearsightedly through his glasses is almost lovable looking. As Montes’ jaunty words float across the double-spread illustrations, the interplay of story and art keeps the book scary- but leavens it with humor. Readers will want to come back to this book again and again, as every time new details pop out. The humor in Morales’ work may escape younger children, since overall the illustrations are very dark and disturbing, but preschoolers and elementary students in search of “scary books” won’t be disappointed, and they might even learn some Spanish along the way. Younger children may enjoy the brighter, cheerier illustrations in Morales’ Pura Belpre Award winner, Just a Minute. Highly recommended for school and public libraries.

Contains: mentions of the supernatural and the occult.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 


All Hallow’s ABC by Jenni Kaye

Daring Ink Press, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-9884914-1-0

Available: Paperback and Kindle edition

 

There are lots of Halloween alphabet books, but a majority tend toward the cute or use branded characters (or both). While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with cute, the contemporary look of All Hallow’s ABC is a breath of fresh air. Bright and contrasting colors with solid shapes and figures are winners when it comes to getting the attention of young children, and the streamlined,  All Hallow’s ABC will really appeal to parents looking for an attractive, cheerfully menacing, approach to the Halloween season. Jenni Kaye takes an original approach to choosing words to match each letter, as well. D is for Dark, I is for Imagining, U is for Unearthly. Each page gets its own letter and artwork, with the rhyming text and illustrations paired in some rather unusual combinations: P is for Princess has a black skeleton with a crown and a tower, for instance—not the image of a princess most of us normally conjure up;  and T is for Tutu shows a smiling ghost wearing a purple tutu, rather than a ballerina. All Hallow’s ABC, with its clean lines and genuine enthusiasm for the Halloween season is a great choice for parents and kids who celebrate Halloween all through the month of October, tombstones and all.  Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Midnight in the Cemetery: A Spooky Search-and-Find Alphabet  by Cheryl Harness, illustrated by  Robin Brickman

Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, 1999

ISBN: 0689808739

Available: New and Used

 

Midnight at the Cemetery tells the tale of two children who go to a cemetery in search of buried treasure.  The treasure is guarded by Dead Ed, who summons the spirits of the graveyard to scare the kids away.  The rhyming text is alliterative, with each verse focusing on a specific letter. Each two page spread is dedicated to one or more letters, and readers paying attention will notice many things on the pages associated with the letter that appears in the rhyming verse. For example,  the initial pages, devoted to the letters A and B, reveal angels, ants, bats, and bugs. The illustrations are creepy, unique and fantastic, created solely out of watercolor paper, paint, and glue, The book does have a major flaw, however. The letters are not individually mentioned, as in most alphabet books, and the reader is never told  either that there are items on the pages beginning with the letter or what items to search and find until the last page of the book. Although the publisher’s suggested age range is 5-9, the level of observation required makes the book more appropriate for older elementary students who have mastered Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo’s I Spy books.

Contains: attempted grave robbing.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 


There Was An Old Monster by Rebecca Emberley, illustrated by Ed Emberley

Orchard Books, 2009

ISBN-13: 978-0545101455

Available: New and Used

 

Parents looking for relief from reading the same tired rhyme about the old lady who swallowed a fly are in luck. Rebecca Emberley and her father, Caldecott winner Ed Emberley (author and illustrator of Go Away, Big Green Monster!) have created a colorful monster-themed version for the preschool crowd. Naturally, monsters, unlike old ladies, don’t limit themselves to farm animals. Starting with “There was an old monster who swallowed a tick…” the cumulative rhyme gets more surprising and sillier, as the monster swallows ants (which make a “scritchy-scratch” sound), a bat, a jackal, and so on. There’s also an opportunity to jazz up the physical book. Singer Adrian Emberley, Rebecca’s daughter, has recorded an addictive version with a refrain of “scritchy-scratch” that I’ll warn you does get stuck in your head, and that preschoolers and even older children will want to listen to again and again (listen here, if you dare). Ages 2-8.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Sarah’s Little Ghosts by Thierry Robberecht, illustrated by Phillipe Goossens

Clarion Books, 2007

ISBN: 978-0618892105

Available: Used hardcover

 

When Sarah breaks her mother’s necklace, her first instinct is to hide it and pretend nothing is wrong. But as soon as the first lie passes her lips, a little ghost pops out of her mouth and starts chanting the words she really ought to say- “I broke your necklace”! Only Sarah can hear and see the ghost, but its mere presence gets in the way of her relationship with her parents. With each lie, another ghost pops out of her mouth, Soon she’s being chased by a horde of chanting, singing ghosts.

The ghosts in Phillipe Goossens’ illustrations don’t look threatening at all. They’re small, cute, and harmless-looking. Seeing them in a cloud around Sarah, though, it hits home that even little lies add up to a lot of misery. While this isn’t a particularly spooky story, the idea of lies literally catching up with them will give the K-3 crowd the creeps, and the unscary representations of ghosts are likely to cause a few giggles as well. Recommended.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Halloween Day by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell

HarperCollins, 1997

ISBN: 9780064435895

Available: Used hardcover and paperback

 

Anne Rockwell once again presents an accessible text aimed at preschoolers and kindergarteners. The same class that appeared in Show and Tell Day, also a collaboration with her daughter Lizzy, is now preparing for the school Halloween parade. An excited child narrates the story, describing her friends’ costumes and the party afterwards. The illustrations are colorful, with a gentle humor, and complement the text well. This is a good book for first-time trick-or-treaters who may be afraid of costumed characters, and a good preparation for kids who have difficulty with transitions who haven’t participated in a school Halloween parade in the past. I wish I’d had this book at this time last year when my son participated in his first Halloween parade- it would probably have been a lot more fun for everyone involved! While Halloween Day isn’t particularly scary or a compelling page turner, it is a worthwhile title for the children’s section of a public library or a school library media center.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Halloween Night by Marjorie Dennis Murray, illustrated by Brandon Dorman

Greenwillow Books, 2008

ISBN: 9780061351860

Available: New and Used

 

“Twas Halloween night, and all through the house/Every creature was stirring, including the mouse”.

So begins one of the stranger variations on “ Twas the Night Before Christmas”, where instead of greeting St. Nick, the residents of a haunted house prepare for their visitors. The illustrations are a dead giveaway that readers should expect a tickle to the funny bone. There’s a significant “gross-out” factor that’s aided considerably by the illustrations- it’s one thing to read about ogres setting up a buffet of live bugs, but the visual impact is another experience entirely. There is a lot to see in the illustrations for those readers who really want to take the time to look. Zombies march through a graveyard that’s barely visible from the foreground of a basement scene; the chairs are decorated with skulls, each with its own expression; a one-eyed jack-o-lantern grins from the corner of a page. But the illustrations are just part of what makes the story work. The truth is that kids rarely get to join in with the monsters to scare the pants off other kids, and it’s just plain fun to be part of the plan and part of the party. The art is digital, and the characters populating the pages seemed to be drawn in a style similar to Pixar’s. In fact, the illustrations scream out “Animate me”! The illustrations aren’t enough on their own, though- the characters need the driving force of a silly, gross, and maybe-a-little-bit-scary story. Halloween Night will probably be most appreciated by kids in grades 2-5. Recommended for elementary school library media centers and public library children’s departments.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

A Vampire is Coming to Dinner! 10 Rules to Follow by Pamela Jane, illustrated by Pedro Rodriguez

Price Stearn Sloan, 2010

ISBN-13: 978-0843199642

Available: New and used hardcover and paperback

 

A Vampire is Coming to Dinner! is a cute picture book  When a vampire is unexpectedly coming to visit a young boy for dinner, the book consists 10 rules that one must follow when a vampire invites himself to come for a visit.  Each page gives one of the rules and the page then folds out to show a devious little boy in process of breaking the rules, to the dismay of the visiting vampire.  All is well at the end as both child and vampire appear in a surprise popup, having a good old time!  The art is clever, and the mischievous little boy tormenting the vampire by breaking every rule is sure to get giggles out of children as they appreciate the sight gags.

Contains: Rampant rule breaking!

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

AlphaOops: H is for Halloween by Alethea Kontis and illustrated by Bob Kolar

Candlewick, 2010

ISBN-13: 978-0763639662

Available: New and used hardcover

 

In this Halloween-themed AlphaOops story,  the mixed up alphabet is getting ready to celebrate Halloween in traditional AlphaOops style. When the letter A isn’t ready to start the Halloween alphabet,  the letter H gets top billing.  The other letters appear throughout the book representing different creatures and items of Halloween. Kontis includes some alphabet book in-jokes, as when the letter J apologizes to the jack-o-lantern for picking another word, saying “J can’t always be for jack-o-lantern”. Q, always a hard letter to get creative with, successfully breaks the mold, and S and X come up with an imaginative pairing. Unfortunately for the letter B, booted from his early place in the alphabet, other letters keep stealing his costume ideas. The letter P is a pirate, with the same costume as B’s buccaneer; Y’s yeti is identical to B’s Bigfoot.  Readers will cheer (and jump) when B finally gets the last word! The illustrations are fantastic and fun, and the kids will giggle at Bob Kolar’s art and Alethea Kontis’s story.  AlphaOops goes a step beyond the typical letter representing a word in that the letters themselves have been given some personality.  AlphaOops: H is for Halloween has catapulted itself up to a must have for any school library or public library’s children’s section and would make a great addition to any display.    It is a wonderful read for kids who have become acquainted with the alphabet and is engaging enough that parents will enjoy sharing it with their kids. Once Halloween has passed, children and adults who love this book will want to check out the first book in the series, AlphaOops: The Day Z Went First.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

The Halloween Mouse by Richard Laymon and illustrated by  Alan M. Clark

Cemetery Dance Publications, October,  2001

ISBN: 158767047X

Available: Used, Collectible

 

Timothy Maywood Usher Mouse lives in the library, reading about fantastic adventures. One Halloween night, Timothy gathers his courage to leave the library to go on an adventure.  After escaping a run in with a snake thanks to a piece of candy corn. Timothy dreams of going trick or treating but must first survive an encounter with the neighborhood cat involving a jack-o-lantern. In the end, far away from his cozy home in the library, Timothy discovers that having adventures is even better than reading about them.  Alan Clark’s illustrations are detailed and colorful, and the book is a visual treat. Richard Laymon has created an engaging (if lengthy) story. Although the dialogue is awkward, Laymon’s inventive description and great action sequences will grab the reader. Laymon is writing as much for adults as he is for children: some vocabulary and most literary references will go right over children’s heads, but will add an extra dimension of meaning for the adult reader. A very cute Halloween picture book.  This book could be shared with patient primary grade readers as a read-aloud or with intermediate readers either as a read-aloud or as independent reading.

Reviewed by Dylan Kowalewski

 

Mouse’s First Halloween by Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Buket Erdogan.

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2000

ISBN-10: 0689831765

Available: Hardcover, paperback, board book, Kindle edition

 

Mouse’s First Halloween won’t inspire fear, but when you read it aloud, it might make your toddler jump. Thompson offers a suspenseful setup, “Deep in the shadows/Mouse saw something flickering”, then breaks the tension with Mouse’s frightened squeak. Turn the page and the author reveals that the mystery is “not so scary after all”. It’s pretty clear from Mouse’s friendly appearance that this isn’t going to be a book to terrify, but Erdogan uses dark colors and outlines effectively to engage the reader’s imagination about what exactly could be rustling around in the night. Turn the page and even things that might be scary to kids (or mice) are portrayed at their most benign (and cutest). The book ends on a positive note, making it a good choice to share with first-time trick or treaters. Recommended.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Sarfozo, illustrated by Valeria Petrone

Aladdin, 2004

ISBN-13: 9780689871351

Available: New

 

Lumpy, bumpy, showy, glowy, sunny, sumptuous… Mary Sarfozo obviously had fun playing with words when she wrote Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin. The story describes Peter, a joyful tiger, and his search for the perfect pumpkin to carve with his dad and enter into the jack-o-lantern contest. The rhyming is irregular, but instead of disrupting things, it simply keeps the story skipping along. Colorful, well-defined illustrations glow on the pages.   You can’t read Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin without smiling, and preschoolers and early elementary students will love looking at the pictures and hearing this read out loud. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler, illustrated by S.D. Schindler

Aladdin, 2005

ISBN: 1416902767

Available: Hardcover, paperback

 

Chaos ensues when Skeleton wakes up with the hiccups. He tries to go about his everyday activities but with the hiccups rattling his bones, it’s hard to get things done right. Margery Cuyler’s text is very basic, but it is brought to life through witty illustrations and page design. Uncluttered pages with vivid colors pop Skeleton out from the page. Cuyler tells us that Skeleton “brushed his teeth”, but Schindler feeds us the visual punchline, which is that Skeleton’s entire jaw flies off when he hiccups. Of course, none of the traditional methods for getting rid of the hiccups work with a skeleton- the illustrations of Skeleton trying to drink water upside down, eat sugar, and hold his breath are worth a thousand words. There are plenty of “in-jokes” for the observant- Skeleton sleeps in a bed with a headstone for a headboard, wears furry bat slippers, and uses “Ghost White Bone Polish”. The text’s repeated words “hic, hic, hic” jump across the pages unsteadily, complementing the illustrations with strategic placement. Skeleton Hiccups is a true picture book. On its own, adults might find writing falls flat, but the illustrations and design complement Cuyler’s story beautifully, and beginning readers will appreciate her pared down language and repetitive patterns.  The quality of the finished product will engage the youngest readers, and can be enjoyed by their grown-ups, too. Recommended for public library children’s collections and elementary school library media centers.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Megan Halsey

Walker & Company, 2001

ISBN: 9780802776143

Available: Used hardcover, paperback, board book

 

I admit there is nothing scary about Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night. Still, it’s a great book for the Halloween season. With simple words and spare text, and lots of repetition, Anne Rockwell describes the experience of a child exploring a pumpkin patch, choosing a pumpkin, scooping out the insides, and carving a jack-o-lantern with his mother. Older readers may smile, looking back on the days when they roasted and salted pumpkin seeds in the oven (mine were always a little burned). Halsey’s illustrations fit the text well- uncluttered paper sculptures give the pages a three dimensional appearance, so pumpkins really look like they’re piled up, and even cast shadows in places. Clean lines and bright colors make this a perfect choice for sharing this Halloween tradition with a preschooler before venturing out to the pumpkin patch together.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

What Will You Be For Halloween? by Mark Todd

Houghton Mifflin Company,2001

ISBN-13: 9780618088034

Available: Used hardcover

 

What Will You Be For Halloween? uses short verses accompanied by illustrations to describe a number of traditional Halloween costumes. The book’s strength is the artwork. The bright colors and dark lines do a nice job of making the illustrations pop out from the page. The irregular outlines suggest children at work, carefully drawing their intended costumes. Luckily, the pictures do their work without needing explanation, since the rhythm is uneven and the lines do not fall in a predictable pattern. These flaws make it difficult to read the story aloud, although the illustrations scream out for exactly that. The lack of background information in a book clearly intended for young children is frustrating, as well. How many kindergarteners know what binary code is?  Young children will like the illustrations, but the unpredictable text will throw new readers for a loop.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson and Shmuel Thaler

Tricycle Press, 2002

ISBN-13: 978-1582460789

Available: New and Used

 

Pumpkin Circle shows the life cycle of a pumpkin, from the time the seed is collected from a pumpkin in the fall,  through its planting and growing, and finally to its harvesting, just in time to carve into Halloween jack-o-lanterns. Brief, simple text accompanies color photographs of children in the garden planting and taking care of the pumpkins as they grow. The candid photos will draw young readers into the story, and there are some good opportunities to talk about gardening, plants, and the life cycle- Pumpkin Circle is about much more than Halloween. Young readers may just love the pictures, though, especially in the last few pages, which show creatively carved jack-o-lanterns glowing in the darkness-a wonderful finish for the life of a pumpkin, as the cycle starts over again. This is a perfect preschool read aloud that can also be enjoyed independently by children in the early elementary grades. It’s not frightening, which makes it a good choice for children who are easily frightened at a time of year where scary stories rule.  Note: Since it focuses on the life cycle of plants, it might be shelved in nonfiction, so librarians should take note to seek it out and promote it with the Halloween books.  Highly recommended for public library children’s collections and elementary school library media centers.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 


Little Goblins Ten by Pamela Jane

HarperCollins, 2011

ISBN: 978-0061767982

Available: New

 

Little Goblins Ten is a delightfully spooky version of the counting rhyme “Over in the Meadow”. Rather than recounting the activities of the ducks, frogs, and other adorable creatures in the original version, Jane has moaning mummies, cackling witches, and rattling skeletons.

Manning’s illustrations are a perfect complement to Jane’s bouncy rhymes and vivid language. Manning does a marvelous job of creating spooky settings, from washed out haunted forests to bilious green swamps. Her monsters are adorably disturbing, and in spite of sharp teeth and (occasionally) crazed expressions, they smile a lot, are a playful bunch, like any little monsters on Halloween.  Kids who scare easily might not make it past the first few pages, which suggest a darker tone, but what starts out seeming creepy ends up being a lot of fun!

Little Goblins Ten provides some great opportunities for interactivity when reading aloud. Kids can have a lot of fun howling with the werewolves, breathing fire with dragons, and swooping like bats. It’s a great choice for a Halloween read-aloud, and for sharing with the same kids who love Goodnight Goon and The Runaway Mummy.  Highly recommended.

Contains: spooky images.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Here’s an additional list of titles you might consider for a Halloween collection or display. We’ve reviewed some of these, and you can find those reviews on our original site’s “Scary Books for Kids” page, but some you’ll just have to check out for yourself, which I encourage you to do!
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A Beasty Story by Bill Martin, Jr., illustrated by Steven Kellogg

Bone Soup by Cambria Evans

By the Light of the Halloween Moon by Caroline Stutson and Kevin Hawkes

Cinderella Skeleton by Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by David Catrow

Dorrie’s Magic and others by Patricia Coombs

Goodnight Goon by Michael Rex

H is for Haunted House by Tanya Lee Stone

In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories (I Can Read) by Alvin Schwartz

In the Haunted House by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Susan Meddaugh

No More Monsters for Me! (I Can Read) by Peggy Parish, illustrated by Marc Simont

No Zombies Allowed by Matt Novak

Scary, Scary Halloween by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Jan Brett

Tell Me a Scary Story… But Not Too Scary! by Carl Reiner, illustrated by James Bennett

The Ghost of Sifty Sifty Sam by Angela Shelf Medearis, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers

The Hallo-wiener by Dav Pilkey

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams, illustrated by Megan Lloyd

The Runaway Mummy by Michael Rex

The Tailypo: A Ghost Story by Joanna C. Galdone, illustrated by Paul Galdone

This Book is Haunted(I Can Read) by Joanne Rocklin and Joann Adinolf

Dogzilla and Kat Kong by Dav Pilkey (reviewed here)

The Lima Bean Monster by Dan Yaccarino (reviewed here)

The Ghost Eye Tree by Bill Martin and John Archambault

Feliciana Meets d’Loup Garou by Tynia Thommasie and Cat Bowman Smith

Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marisa Montes and Yuyi Morales (reviewed here)

Just a Minute by Yuyi Morales

I Spy Spooky Night by Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo

A Monster in the House by Elisa Kleven

The Golem by David Wisniewski

The Viper by Lisa Thiesing (reviewed here)

Creepy Cuisine by Lucy Monroe

Fiona Loves the Night by Patricia MacLachlan, Emily MacLachlan Charest, and Amanda

Shepherd

The Aliens Are Coming! by Lisa Thiesing

It’s Halloween! by Jack Prelutsky and Marilyn Hafner

Dragon’s Halloween by Dav Pilkey

By the Light of the Halloween Moon by Carolyn Stutson and Kevin Hawkes

Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

Halloween Skyride by Elizabeth Spurr

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams

Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown

At the Old Haunted House by Helen Ketterman and Nate Wragg

Frankenstein: A Monstrous Parody by Rick Walton and Nathan Hale

When the Clock Strikes on Halloween by Lisa Ferland

Halloween Hustle by Charlotte Gunnufson and Kevin Atterbery

Miss Smith and the Haunted Library by Michael Garland

The Halloween Tree by Susan Montanari and Teresa Martinez

 

Now that you have some books to read we encourage you to share a scare this Halloween!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on October 31, 2019 by , Reply
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