A visually inviting adventure for spooky season.
A round-headed, big-eyed ghost produces light for the neighborhood on Halloween night.
Anyong uses the first line and meter of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” for the opening stanzas of this rhymed saga: “Once upon a mid-night dreary / While I pondered weak and weary.” The narrator, a ghost with a box of memorabilia and a “congratulations on retiring card” nearby, is awakened from a snooze by “someone gently rap, rap, rapping.” Costumed children are at the door. Surprised, the ghost screeches, rattles chains, and tosses a red-eyed spider companion into the crowd to spook the trick-or-treaters, who remain unfazed. When one announces that there’s no candy to be had here, they all decide to move on, but the ghost, still eager to frighten them, retreats to build an elaborate machine. Unfortunately, the contraption blows a fuse, throwing street and sidewalks into darkness. It takes some ghostly ingenuity to brighten things up again. Clunky verse with often forced rhymes “Halloween is just so trying. / A century of children eyeing, / ‘CANDY! CANDY! CANDY!’”) makes for an awkward read-aloud. The trick to getting past that, though, is to focus on the treat: Quarles’ vibrantly colored, spirited illustrations, depicting a blithely comical ghost and amusing details for eagle-eyed readers to spot. The youngsters vary in skin tone.
A visually inviting adventure for spooky season. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: July 21, 2026
ISBN: 9780063478008
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
New parents of daughters will eat these up and perhaps pass on the lessons learned.
All the reasons why a daughter needs a mother.
Each spread features an adorable cartoon animal parent-child pair on the recto opposite a rhyming verse: “I’ll always support you in giving your all / in every endeavor, the big and the small, / and be there to catch you in case you should fall. / I hope you believe this is true.” A virtually identical book, Why a Daughter Needs a Dad, publishes simultaneously. Both address standing up for yourself and your values, laughing to ease troubles, being thankful, valuing friendship, persevering and dreaming big, being truthful, thinking through decisions, and being open to differences, among other topics. Though the sentiments/life lessons here and in the companion title are heartfelt and important, there are much better ways to deliver them. These books are likely to go right over children’s heads and developmental levels (especially with the rather advanced vocabulary); their parents are the more likely audience, and for them, the books provide some coaching in what kids need to hear. The two books are largely interchangeable, especially since there are so few references to mom or dad, but one spread in each book reverts to stereotype: Dad balances the two-wheeler, and mom helps with clothing and hair styles. Since the books are separate, it aids in customization for many families.
New parents of daughters will eat these up and perhaps pass on the lessons learned. (Picture book. 4-8, adult)Pub Date: May 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6781-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
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