Trick or Treat

PreS-Gr 2–Oliver, a friendly ghost living in an empty house, has a lot of work ahead of him in preparation for his Halloween party. He glides in ghostlike fashion out the door to deliver invitations to the witches, to skeletons Skully and Jake, and to the bats in the cave. However, as he hurriedly heads home, he drops an invitation in front of two human children. Back inside, Oliver must perform the ghost version of preparing for guests: dusting the furniture (by applying dust on it), inviting spiders inside, waking black cats, and making sure that the jack-o’-lanterns are ready. Soon the partygoers arrive; the witches have brought their brooms to share rides, and Skelly and Jake are ready to perform as the “Spooky Bones Band.” Then, the two little accidental guests arrive, dressed up as a cow and a jack-o’-lantern. After some quick conferring with the other guests, Oliver decides not to frighten the children, but to welcome them. The children believe that Oliver and the other guests have terrific costumes. They all have a great time, and the next day they invite Oliver to Jack-o’-Lantern’s upcoming birthday party. The illustrations, done in watercolor and pencil, are simple, uncluttered, and cartoonlike. Each page has one to two sentences of text. A suitable addition to collections of non-scary Halloween tales.–Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA