Just Say Boo!

PreS-Gr 1—Three costumed youngsters prance throughout their neighborhood on Halloween in this rhyming story that teaches tiny trick-or-treaters to "just say BOO!" to scary situations. The story begins wordlessly on the endpapers, where the children leave the house with their father. "If the ghosts in the trees wibble-wobble your knees, what do you say?" A quick turn of the page instructs readers to shout, "BOO!" The revelers encounter spooky shadows, whiny wind, flickering grins in a jack-o'-lantern, and groaning skeletons along their travels. When they reach a house, they say "TRICK OR TREAT!" instead, and then "Thank you!" The story continues homeward bound where their mother and a younger sibling are waiting. When the children shout out "BOO" at their door, the baby is startled, and the story ends with the older siblings teaching the toddler to "just say BOO!" The art is done in muted watercolors dipped in a fall palette of oranges, browns, and rusty reds. Touches of humor abound, keeping the story light and nonthreatening. The simple text will make this an interactive choice for fall sharing. Useful for libraries that are always in need of new Halloween titles.—Lisa Gangemi Kropp, Half Hollow Hills Community Library, Dix Hills, NY