Halloween Hustle

PreS-Gr 1—This toe-tapping, bone-cracking, jive-happening book is a great way to celebrate Halloween and/or dancing. Gunnufson uses a finger-snapping rhyme as she relates a skeleton's journey (along with his smiling monster friends) from home via bus to shops and then line dancing his way to a big Halloween party to participate in a dance contest. Nothing stops him from doing the Halloween Hustle, even the fact that three times his "Bones scatter!/What a clatter!/Spine is broken like a ladder!" Like a trooper, Skeleton uses rubber bands then tape and twine to keep himself together, until a girl skeleton he meets at the party suggests a bottle of superstrong glue."You're fixed forever! You're just like new!/Hey, I'd like to dance with you!" Atteberry's lively illustrations depict a happy, dancing Skeleton surrounded by his equally delightful monster friends. The only ick factor is the dancing zombie with an eye dangling from its socket (it's his detached foot that trips up Skeleton one final time). It's the most non-scary eye dangle ever, but still-ewww. Certain youngsters will love it! This fun-to-read dance of words is sure to be popular at storytime and at home.—Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH