It’s Hall-Lore-Ween Again!

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

Authors Josh Spero and Leigh Fryling have taken the winning formula from Hall-Lore-Ween, Spero’s first collection of spooky stories for kids, and improved it for the sequel.  Like the first, this one features short tales, poems, and illustrations.  This time there are fewer tales, they are longer, and they are oriented towards a slightly older audience.  The first one worked well for roughly grades 1-3, but this one feels like it would be a better fit for grades 3-6.  Most important, it has all the charm and whimsy of the first one.

The book consists of three tales and six poems, slotted into 171 pages.  The story length is significantly increased this time, which allows for greater character development.  Similar to the first book, the stories are spook stories for a young audience, and they again rely on universal themes, such as love, loyalty, righting a wrong, and so on, to provide tales with a bit of creep, usually with an uplifting ending.  Let’s take a look at what’s under the hood.

“The Kings of Halloween”:  The story establishes the tone right away. This is more for the pre-teen set, as part of the tale revolves around the classic nerdy misfits getting bullied at school by the “cool” kids.  As for revenge, the downtrodden will get it– but in a fun, monster-filled fashion, with no real harm done to anyone in the end, except for maybe a few shattered egos.  This one illustrates the style of the stories well: all the elements of Halloween are present, but in a fun, non-threatening fashion.  

“The Jamboree”:  A ghostly romance of sorts between the living and the dead, it’s a charming, romantic, and melancholy tale all rolled into one, with a hint of tragedy tossed in for good measure.  It’s an extremely engrossing story that covers all the bases, and should be a guaranteed hit with pre-teen girls.  It’s the longest, and probably the best yarn in the book.

“In the Dead of Night”: This one is just fun, loose silliness with zombies, and an ironic explanation for the undead. It’s guaranteed to make the reader chuckle at the end, and it ends the book on a happy, uplifting note.

My only complaint with this book is the same as the last one: more illustrations please!  There is still only one illustration per story, I would really like to see two or three.  It’s a book for younger readers (and overgrown kids like me), and a few more illustrations would really appeal to the likely reader base.  There are some good sketches in between each story showing Jacko, who is kind of the book mascot/narrator. but more of them based around the story should be included.

My bottom line: I liked this even more than the first one, which I was quite fond of.  Even if readers don’t find it to be better than the first, there is no way they will find it to be a downgrade from the prior book.  Definitely recommended for good, safe, family-friendly Halloween fun.  If Disney had decided to do Halloween films back in their heyday, this is probably the style they would have gone with.

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson