HALLOWEEN POEMS

by Myra Corn--Ed. Livingston ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1989

In the publisher's useful series of holiday anthologies, here's a collection of 18 poems, 12 of them commissioned for this volume. More staid in tone that Bennett's Spooky Poems (see above), many of these are pleasantly descriptive: ""Apple Bobbing,"" ""Trick-or-Treating at Age Eight,"" etc. There are also touches of the imaginative (""corn on the cobweb, cauldron-hot"" in Kennedy's witch's kitchen) and the spooky (Esbensen's concert of skeletons: ""music for dancing bones!""). Spooky predominates in Gammell's b&w illustrations--his creatures are recognizably from the same hand as his joyful color work for such books as Song and Dance Man (1988 Caldecott Medal), yet also--appropriately enough for the night when the dark underside holds sway--truly frightening. Unfortunately, bits of these fine illustrations are lost in the sidesewn gutter, especially on the title spread.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Holiday House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1989

Categories: POETRY