Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Happy Halloween, Stinky Face
Illustrator: Cyd Moore
Picture Book
For ages 4 to 6
Scholastic, 2007 ISBN: 978-0439779777
Stinky Face and his Mama are getting ready to go trick-or-treating but before Stinky puts on his costume he has a number of questions to ask his Mama. He is worried that Mrs. Petry will be so scared by the costumes of the trick-or-treaters that she will throw the candy bowl in the air with fright. Luckily for Stinky his wise Mama is able to reassure him. She tells her little son that all will be well even if Mrs. Petry is scared.
This concern is only the beginning though, for Stinky has lots of other worries about the Halloween evening to come. He worries that Reese's butterfly costume will turn her into a real butterfly and that Jack and Anderson will get their pirate hooks "caught together." He worries that Brian dressed as a lion will run so fast that no one will be able to keep up with him. He worries that Ally's witch's cauldron will turn all her candy into a "goopy oozy river of candy soup."
One by one Stinky's mother is able to calm her son's fears, finding solutions for his imagined problems and always treating every concern with the proper respect. And, in the end, she is able to get him into his costume and out the door so that they can join in the Halloween celebration.
Just as with the other Stinky Face books, this title is sure to give young readers plenty of reasons to smile. Stinky's imagined calamities are just the kinds of things a child would indeed think up. Thankfully for Stinky, and for children like him, there are mothers who are willing to patiently find solutions to these calamities.
