BOOKS

Shivery Shades of Halloween: A Spooky Book of Colors

by Mary McKenna SIDDALS
illus. by Jimmy Pickering. 32p. Random. Aug. 2014. Tr $12.99. ISBN 9780385369992; lib. ed. $15.99. ISBN 9780375971815; ebk. $9.99. ISBN 9780375981661. LC 2012951184.
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PreS-K—Can colors other than orange and black be associated with Halloween? Upbeat rhymes make the case for a multihued holiday. For instance, blue can be found in "Darkness falling,/Wizard's robe,/Touch of magic,/Crystal globe,/Chilly-spilly, gloomy-doomy, dreary-weary/Wash of blue." Green is in an eerie glow; white is "A skull, a spook/A face gone \\pale…"; and so on. Cartoon illustrations of nonmenacing monsters, as well as an adorably smiling bat-winged, one-eyed creature that appears on every page, soften the edges of what could be macabre verses if they stood on their own, e.g., "burning-churning, blushing-gushing/Stain of red." A nice summary of all the colors appears at the end, as if the aforementioned wizard conjured up a spell to make a perfect Halloween. A solid and fun read-aloud.—Joanna K. Fabicon, Los Angeles Public Library
"What color is Halloween?" Each page offers an answer (e.g., "Halloween is white") and a brief rhyming verse: "Cobwebs clinging, / Misty trail, / A skull, a spook, / A face gone pale..." A tongue-twisting string of descriptive words ("stony-bony, pearly-swirly, mostly ghostly / Wisp of white") and hip, eye-popping illustrations feature lots of (not too) spooky details. A frightfully good read-aloud.
Reviewed by Joanna K. Fabicon , Aug 01, 2014

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