I Went Trick-or-Treating by Paul Howard
Published by Bloomsbury
Date: 1 October 2018
R.R.P. $12.99
I went trick-or-treating and I scared… A creepy, sleepy spider.
Mwa-ha-ha!
When you start a book where the first paragraph mentions scaring and spiders you know it is going to be a lot of fun, and I can tell you I was not disappointed. For those of you that are familiar I Went to the Supermarket, you will know that Paul Howard writes his books to be enormous fun. This book for Halloween is a must have – regardless of whether you celebrate it or not – it is about scaring naughty, warty toads, and super silly skeletons, along with lots of other spooky wooky looking things.
This book is simply entertaining and Paul Howard has used words like boogie, howling and growling, and creepy which children love. The book is rhythmic, repetitive, lively, full of spirit, and bound to make your little reader laugh a lot. I also think the content suits a range of ages from 3 to 8 years of age, which means it will be used for many Halloween’s to come.
The illustrations are not at all scary and although there are ghosts, skeletons and toads, they are more KOOKY than SPPOOOKKKY. The author/illustrator has used loads of colour including shades of green, purple, white, blue, orange, and black. Each page is very busy, but it seems right for the book that it is, there is so much to discover and count on each page and is highly relevant to the story.
I am not a fan of books that actually scare children which is why I like this one so much, it takes a holiday that is known for its spookiness and made into an story with a delightful sense of bizarre with a side of sibling rivalry and surprise. I have decided that this is a must have for Halloween story times this year and can’t wait to see how it is received by the preschool group.
Thankyou Bloomsbury for the opportunity to read and honestly review this book.
Little Big Reads 