"Eek!" Mouse squeaked. What could it be?
I love the cadence and rhythm of those words because I've heard them out of the mouth of my preschooler for a couple of years now, and I never tire of reading them myself. They are from Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson. This book should not appeal to me. It's part of the "Mouse's First..." Series, a collection of books that seems to seize every holiday and every season as yet another opportunity to sell a book, to turn a profit - Mouse's First Christmas, Mouse's First Spring, and so on. Yet, I adore this one. The illustrations by Buket Erdogan are insanely beautiful to me. They are simply acrylic on canvas, but they are vibrant, saturated colors, and I love the way the eerie blue almost glows from behind each page. Plus... the language. I really do think the sentences are well-crafted and pleasing to the ear. I know this because all of my kids have repeated the reassuring rhymes over and over and over again for years now... and I will still happily read this book to them anytime they ask. That says a lot. Perfect, perfect, perfect for the wee little ones in your life!
And Then Comes Halloween by Tom Brenner is undoubtedly a poem written by a grown-up in remembrance of Halloweens past. It's beautiful; it's rife with literary devices, and the watercolor and collage art work is lovely to look at. Your kids will like it... and you'll get to let them feast on alliteration and personification like this: "When autumn spiders weave silver webs from pillar to post, and the wind whispers winter and the bones of trees begin to show..."
The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin has been a favorite of ours for years, and we read it as a family tradition before we carve our pumpkin. It's weird. I mean really. It's really weird but charming. Margaret Wise Brown (of Goodnight Moon fame) is just some kind of a genius because she writes these books that hardly make sense to me but that my children are just captivated by. My kids love the idea of this fierce yellow pumpkin who longs to be ferocious enough to scare all the field mice away. And it truly is fun for adults to read. If you're an insane person, you might just giggle at the grocery store produce section thinking of Brown's words: "He grew so fat and full of himself that he began to think he was a very fierce vegetable, as fierce as the sun that warmed his fat round sides."
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams is my brand-new favorite. It was published nearly 30 years ago, but I just discovered it! A little old lady finds herself out on a walk later than she expected and is followed home by a host of characters (who make delightful sound effects). Fortunately for us, she is not afraid of anything, so we aren't either. Instead, we just get to join in on the fun. The story demands everyone's participation and the ending resolves itself beautifully. Depending on the age of your audience you could read this with a bit of suspense and spookiness or simply giggle and laugh the whole way through. I highly recommend it.
The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis is on this list because my children demand it. But please know that I object. I find the rhyme to be clunky and the rhythm totally elusive. However, I do actually read to delight my children... and this book delights them. They love the idea of this giant pumpkin rolling down the hill causing one disaster after another. I suppose there is some sense of justice in it all since it is finally tamed (maimed?) into pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin pie by Granny Baxter.
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