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Hallowilloween

Nefarious Silliness from Calef Brown
by Calef Brown
40p. 978-0-54721-540-2.
COPY ISBN
Gr 2—5—Brown's playful collection of poems and paintings is likely to inspire as many giggles as it does shivers. Readers meet a werewolf named Jack, Duncan the shrunken head, and an unhappy mummy: "Why oh why/was I so badly mummified?/Where is the pride/in good mummification?" Gory René admires his self-portrait, a faithful rendering of his festering sores and hideous mange until his painted image turns oddly handsome, and in shame, he hides it away in the attic. "The Vumpire" stares at the back of players' necks; and the "Oompachupa Loompacabra" lures goats with chocolate bars, then "gobbles up their brains." Brown's acrylic illustrations add to the creepy silliness: an artful mix of naive and stylized, whimsical details and vibrant color. Young readers will relish the wordplay and find themselves torn to choose a favorite among this wacky menagerie. Fans of Eve Merriam and Lane Smith's Halloween ABC (1995) and Spooky ABC (2002, both S & S) will be won over by Brown's whimsy.—Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA
Brown presents a series of cleverly constructed--and masterfully incongruous--rhymes and wordplay. Ants gather debris for the title arboreal celebration; the Oompachupa Loompacabra lures goats with chocolate bars; and the Portrait of Gory René turns shamefully handsome. Autumnal tones and geometric creatures in the acrylic illustrations enhance the humor.
Calef Brown’s rhymes are witty and mischievous. A mummy worries about his wrappings (“‘What a bummer!’ / the mummy cried, / ‘Why oh why / was I so badly mummified!’”); a vampire becomes an umpire (“He only works night games. / His signals are creepy.”); and some smartly dressed witches from Texas practice hexes “in comical conical ten-gallon hats.” Whimsical, folk-art-inspired illustrations perfectly match the poems’ freewheeling, ebullient silliness. Readers will laugh at a host of hilariously non-threatening creatures, from a ghostly waterspout known as the Poltergeyser to a Frankenstein look-alike that loves to decoupage.

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