Trick-or-Treat: A Happy Haunter's Halloween

K-Gr 3—Fifteen spooky poems, each with its own spread, celebrate Halloween as youngsters in costume share the night with a variety of ghosts, goblins, and unknown fiends. Bright neon colors contrast smartly with dark, brooding backgrounds as skeletons enjoy a cookout in the graveyard and Frankenstein goes trick-or-treating. A sliver of moon and a sprinkling of stars light the dark as, "Witches on broomsticks/fly over treetops./Except when it rains,/then they use mops." One verse extols the pleasures of a mummy mommy: "She reads my favorite horror story/and makes up extra parts-real gory." Another lists reasons that a vampire makes a wonderful daddy: "You can fly with him in the full moonlight./When someone picks on you, he'll bite!" Young readers will identify with the children searching for monsters under the bed and the source of strange noises at bedtime. They will also be reassured by the final verse, "Happy Haunter," featuring a smiling girl tucked into bed, safe from the creatures carousing outside on the rooftops. This collection of funny-scary verses is sure to delight even the faint of heart.—Mary Jean Smith, formerly at Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN