Halloween ABC

From Publishers Weekly Award-winner Merriam slips on a Gothic cloak and mask to titillate and tease with 26 varied Halloween poems, highlighting all letters of the alphabet, that playfully and ironically address readers. The book offers "guises, disguises, all kinds of surprises" in fresh, original creations. In prominently musical and rhythmic verse, the versatile poet invites kids to wrinkle their noses, squeeze crow's feet into the corners of their eyes and smile knowingly. Illustrator Smith is a perfect accomplice with his wickedly eerie paintings of squat goblins and yellow-eyed witches, tattered umbrellas and other bedeviled images. Ages 5-up. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From School Library Journal K Up These 26 Halloween poems, one for each letter of the alphabet, are, like most of Merriam's work, imaginative, inventive, and playful. Her unusual rhythms, rhythmic schemes, and twists of word or image are often humorous as well as seasonally spooky. For instance, the letter ``P'' is represented by ``a pet that's not the least bit vicious,/ yet finds the neighbors quite nutritious.'' Smith's dark oil paintings on ecru pages match both the mood and the wit of the poems. They are appropriately primitive in style, clever, gently frightening, and often truly funny. The capital letters on each page are integrated into the pictures, made of sticks or bones or bat wings or an animal's tail. This is not a book for young children to learn the alphabet, but it is a witty, whimsical, and happily shivery book for Halloween sharing. It is also a wonderful book for monster- and horror-loving youngsters at any time of the year and a diabolic way for poetry-loving adults to introduce the work of one of our best contemporary poets who elsewhere reminds children that It Doesn't Always Have to Rhyme (Atheneum, 1964; o.p.). Most children will first need to hear these poems read aloud, but then independent readers will return to them on their own. A book that is sure to cast a spell on readers who are bewitched by the skillful use of language. Kay E. Vandergrift, School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.