Welcome to Monster Town

When night falls, Monster Town comes alive: zombies head to work (with carryout coffee and mumbled good mornings), Professor Igor demonstrates test-tube explosions to his pupils at the Ghoul School, and a multitasking giant squid chef "serves the best midnight brunch in town." Heshka relies on familiar-feeling gags (a skeleton mailman being attacked by dogs, vampire bats working at a blood bank, a master electrician named Frank N. Stein), and the book never quite escapes feeling like a catalogue of events and old jokes. Still, his ghastly good sense of color—especially his use of sickly green and blood red—evokes classic horror movie posters, while the sculptural compositions invite lively reader response. Ages 4–7. (July)