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Outside after dark, whirling down the street, boldly banging at grown-up doors and demanding candy — for kids, Halloween is the wildest holiday. It's also the strangest, a grab bag of prehistoric rites, medieval religious lore, and & harvest symbols. Toddlers often scream with fright when they see their brothers and sisters in Halloween masks, and even brave trick-or-treaters may be found checking under their beds for monsters when goblin season rolls around.
Books that celebrate the fun and help kids play with and master their unspoken fears are a great way to make the most of the countdown to Oct. 31. Here are some of the best:
A Dark Dark Tale
(Written and illustrated by Ruth Brown; Ages 5 to 9)
A black cat slips through the door of an old, dark house and
explores its winding corridors and spookily empty rooms. The
poetically terse, hauntingly understated text is exquisitely
calculated to raise shivers of suspense. Everything is left to the
imagination. The tension mounts and then dissolves in laughter when
the last picture reveals a delectably funny surprise. This lovely
story, published in 1981, rates as a Halloween classic because it
tickles up a scare without ghoulishness, and provides a perfect,
child-size catharsis. A+
The Soup Bone
(Tony Johnston; illustrated by Margot Tomes; Ages 4 to 8)
The Soup Bone is for braver souls. A little old
lady needs a soup bone for her broth, and digs up an all-too-lively
skeleton. ''Boogity-boo!'' he clacks as he chases her up a tree. The
jaunty tone and inventively humorous vocabulary take the chill off
this potentially frightening tale. By the time the little old lady
slips into her Halloween dog costume and frightens the skeleton, we
know everything's going to be all right. Margot Tomes' witty,
folk-style illustrations are delightful. A
Halloween Monster
(Written and illustrated by Catherine Stock; Ages 2 to 6)
Halloween Monster is a reassuring story with warmly sympathetic watercolor
illustrations, just right for the very youngest trick-or-treaters,
who might feel a little iffy about the night of disguises and
goblins. The story is told by Tommy, an African-American boy who
rakes leaves with his friend Billy, roasts pumpkin seeds with his
Mom — and decides not to go trick-or-treatiig after all. Too scary. At
the last minute, his homemade costume and his Mom's encouragement
change his mind. B+
Haunted House
(Jan Piénkowski; Ages 3 to 7)
Haunted House is the granddaddy
of Halloween pop-up books and still the best pop-up of all. Doors
creak open, cats' eyes swivel, spiders dangle — it's all garish,
uproarious spoofery and it doesn't miss a single horror-story
cliché. Demons rise from the toilet, skeletons pop out of the closet,
and, most marvelously, a ghost appears and vanishes over the canopy
bed. The engineering is as clever and durable as the paper sculpture.
Even after dozens of rereadings, the bat's wings flap in a nasty,
leathery way and the saw cutting its way out of the crate marked
'Transylvania Express' rasps convincingly. A
The Dark Way: Stories From the Spirit World
(Virginia Hamilton; illustrated by Lambert Davis; Ages 8 and up)
The Dark Way is a big, handsome volume of 25 ''spirit'' stories drawn from many cultures, ranging from Welsh gypsy to Haitian to Kikuyu, all tingling with the mystery of the unknown. Some are rollicking, some are roughly strange, but Hamilton manages with chameleon virtuosity to tell each in its distinctive cultural
style. A nice touch: Each story is followed by a brief interpretive
note. Unfortunately, Davis' full-page color illustrations don't live
up to the richness of the text. They're static and often merely
horrible rather than genuinely eerie. B+
