The Boo! Book

K-Gr 2–The premise here is that just as there are haunted houses, there are also haunted books. What follows is a list of ways to determine if a book is haunted, followed by instructions for what to do should children find themselves reading one. Much of what transpires is disturbing and some of it is just plain creepy. “If you hold a book up to your ear and hear something that sounds like a ghost trying to hold its breath so you won’t hear it breathing... the book is definitely haunted.” “Never read a haunted book on the anniversary of the day the ghost first took up residence in the book. Most people who make this mistake get sucked up into the book... and are trapped between its covers forever.” The digitally enhanced illustrations featuring clay models are also disturbing. The ghosts themselves are pale blue creatures with tails and sharp, pointy teeth who peer eerily out from between the pages, and the scenes where the youngster has been sucked into the book feature a nightmare world with things like a floating child holding its own head on a string like a balloon. Children who enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (HarperCollins, 2002) might find this offering to their liking, but the picture-book format would attract considerably younger children, who could conceivably find it frightening.–Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ