cover image Scary, Scary Halloween

Scary, Scary Halloween

Eve Bunting. Clarion Books, $16 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-89919-414-1

Two green eyes shine in the night sky and someone whispers, ""I peer outside, there's something there/ that makes me shiver, spikes my hair./ It must be Halloween.'' As the unnamed narrator looks on, a skeleton, a ghost, a vampire, a werewolf, witches, goblins, gremlins, a devil and a mummy pass by. The monsters are in fact children dressed up in Halloween costumes, but Brett's pictures are deliciously scary. They strike a perfect balance between the children's costumes and their imaginary personae, drawing readers into a make-believe world. When the children go indoors, the narrator and his friendsa gang of adventurous pussycatsstalk the streets to prowl till dawn. Luminescent colors glow eerily in the darkened neighborhood; this holiday poem possesses all the atmosphere of the spookiest Halloween. (4-8)