J’s Take on Fiction “Halloween” Children’s Books – II

This is Part II of my reviews on fiction children’s books with the word “Halloween” in the title. As before, they are mostly picture books and early readers.

Introduction
Nonfiction
Fiction Part I

Ghost Afraid Halloween Book CoverSuper Why: The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Halloween adapted by Samantha Brooke from a script by Jennifer Hamburg (2009)

I should get a job adapting scripts for children’s books. So, this was a little confusing brand-wise. At the top of the cover it says ‘All Aboard Reading(TM) Station Stop 1’ and ‘Super WHY’. Because why be part of one series when you can be part of 2?

I had not heard of this television series, but you could rather tell it was from television from the picture on the cover. They look like computer animated round characters. The general gist of the story is that these superhero kids with various abilities like ‘spelling power’ go into a book and change the story. One of the four is scared of Halloween, so they find a book about a ghost who’s afraid of Halloween. Then they make a change so the ghost and everyone else knows that Halloween is make-believe.
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The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages: A-


From the back cover:
It is 1943, and while war consumes the United States and the world, eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan lives with her father in a town that—officially—doesn’t exist: Los Alamos, New Mexico. Famous scientists and mathematicians, including Dewey’s father, work around the clock on a secret project everyone there calls only “the gadget.” Meanwhile, Dewey works on her own mechanical projects, and locks horns with Suze Gordon, a budding artist who is as much of a misfit as she is. None of them—not J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project; not the mathematicians and scientists; and least of all, Dewey and Suze—knows how much “the gadget” is about to change their lives…
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J’s Take on Fiction “Halloween” Children’s Books – I

For October, we’re doing books with ‘Halloween’ in the title. I’ve grabbed a bunch from the children’s room. Here are reviews of a slew of fiction books. Mostly picturebooks or easy readers. Can we spot any trends or common themes? (Did that question sound too much like English class?)

My “Halloween” introductory post
My nonfiction children’s “Halloween” post

Dragon Halloween Party Book CoverThe Dragon Halloween Party: A Story and Activity Book by Loreen Leedy (1986)

A mother and her dragons plan a Halloween party. The tale is told in verse, and while you’re reading there are a lot of instructions. How to make various costumes, decorations, how to carve a pumpkin. There’s even some recipes. I didn’t like at first that all the dragons were blue. But when the guests arrived, they were different colors. So it started making a little sense to me that all the related ones would be the same color. At the end is instructions for how to make a dragon costume. It’s cute. It’s short. There are things to do if you’re motivated to do them. And, well, dragons are always a bonus.
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A Newbery Halloween


The Plot
This book is a collection (anthology?) of (loosely) Halloween related short stories by authors who won the Newbery Medal. Some of the stories are actually chapters excerpted from longer works, while others are stand-alone stories republished here. I did not do extensive research, but I don’t believe anything original beyond the introduction was created for this book.
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J’s Take on Nonfiction “Halloween” Children’s Books

What follows are short reviews of nonfiction children’s books with ‘Halloween’ in their title. Let’s see if we spot any trends.

Halloween Book CoverHalloween: Why We Celebrate It The Way We Do by Martin Hintz & Kate Hintz (1996)

A plain, old boring pumpkin on the cover of this. It might as well be a pumpkin book. Or an autumn book. Or, heck, Thanksgiving. Seriously, they couldn’t even be bothered to carve the thing?

Page 8 starts ‘wear for Halloween’. What happened to the first part of the sentence? I scan back. The previous two pages are pictures of two kids in costume. The line before that on the previous page is apparently a caption for another photo. Or something. Continue reading “J’s Take on Nonfiction “Halloween” Children’s Books”