Halloween Forest

If you take your trick-or-treat sack and venture into the dark woods on Halloween night, you'll find cat bones, rat bones, and bat bones—and all are looking at YOU! "Take care! Beware! Despair!" the bone creatures cry. "You can bet you've just met your worst nightmare!" What will you do? Cry? Sigh? NO! "Because you're too tough / to worry about stuff / like the rattle / and prattle / of bones!" Told in unmetered verse, this Halloween adventure is a real treat.

From School Library Journal

K-Gr 2-In this creepy Halloween tale, a trick-or-treater leaves the safety of town on All Hallow's Eve to find treats in a forest of bones. Bat, cat, and rat bones crawl among tree bones. The illustrations capture the spooky feel while not straying too far into the scary, though this title is better shared with school-age children. The text is sometimes awkward. Some pages have a more solid rhythm than others, but there doesn't seem to be a consistent pattern or rhyme. A few odd details such as "fog bones" add to the confused feeling of the book. Purchase where Halloween books are in demand.-Laura Stanfield, Campbell County Public Library, Ft. Thomas, KYα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About the Author

Marion Dane Bauer has received many awards, including a Newbery Honor, for the books she has written for young people. Her picture books include In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb,illustrated by Caldecott winner Emily Arnold McCully, and Halloween Forest,illustrated by John Shelley. You can visit the author at www.mariondanebauer.com. John Shelley's illustrations are known internationally, especially in Japan, where he lived and worked for twenty-one years. He is the illustrator of Halloween Forest, by Marion Dane Bauer. John's website is www.jshelley.com.

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