Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Scary Scary Halloween
Illustrator: Jan Brett
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Clarion Books, 1986 ISBN: 978-0899194141
The sun has set and it is Halloween night. Something is going on outside and someone sees things that make them "shiver," and that makes their hair stand on end. A skeleton walks past with bones gleaming, and a ghost "with sunken mouth and sunken eye" drifts along the path.
Someone tells the "little ones" to "stay safe inside" for there are vampires and werewolves on the loose. There is a pair of witches with "pointy hats and pointy chins," and who knows what else might be hiding behind a tree.
In this deliciously creepy picture book Eve Bunting and Jan Brett combine their considerable talents to create a simple story that will have young readers wriggling in their seats with delight. With a thoroughly chilling rhyming text and illustrations packed with Halloweenish images, this is a title that begs to be read out loud on Halloween night. Best of all the final pages have a surprise for readers, one which will make them smile and say "I knew that all along!"
