Bedtime for Boo

K-Gr 2—Baby Boo is the youngest member in a not-so-scary family of ghosts. They are going "a-haunting," and Boo is excited since this will be the first time he gets to join them. Flying in the night sky, playing hide-and-seek behind the clouds, and whistling "happy-ghost-lucky" songs are all great fun. But it is all soon over and time for bed. Boo isn't tired, but Mama Ghost has an idea to help him fall asleep: "Listen to the sounds of the house," she says. Ghosts float by, "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh." Bats are "flapping, flapping/And footsteps tapping-tapping, tapping." Doors creak, skeletons rattle, wolves howl, and monsters moan. And soon little Boo is asleep. Those sounds are a familiar part of his safe and warm home. This rhyming tale is rendered with acrylics in dark, but not frightening, hues. It is suitable as a fall bedtime story one-on-one, or paired with Halloween favorites such as Eve Bunting's Scary, Scary Halloween (Clarion, 1986) and Lucille Colandro's There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat (Scholastic, 2005) for lighthearted seasonal storytimes.—Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA