The 13 nights of Halloween

Guy Vasilovich

Book - 2011

A Halloween version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" featuring macabre gifts such as icky eyeballs, demons dancing, and thirsty vampires.

Saved in:

Children's Room Show me where

j394.2646/Vasilovich
2 / 2 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
Children's Room j394.2646/Vasilovich Checked In
Children's Room j394.2646/Vasilovich Checked In
Subjects
Genres
Picture books
Published
New York : Harper c2011.
Language
English
Main Author
Guy Vasilovich (-)
Edition
1st ed
Physical Description
unpaged : ill
ISBN
9780061804458
9780061804465
Contents unavailable.
Review by New York Times Review

More cute than creepy, this lullaby follows two monsters from classroom to bedtime routine. Its somewhat simplistic, off-kilter rhymes falter a bit at the end, but the narration benefits enormously from witty illustrations by Murphy ("Hush Little Dragon"), which abound in slithery, sinister asides: a stacking toy stacks on a bone; a Totoro-like ghost trails a larger figure. And googly-eyed monsters eat worm-ridden salad. Slurp. LITTLE GOBLINS TEN By Pamela Jane. Illustrated, by Jane Manning. 32 pp. Harper/HarperCollins Publishers. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 7) The classic counting rhyme "Over in the Meadow" goes spooky in this Halloween riff, which should endure well past Oct. 31. Beginning with its opening "big mommy monster/and her tittle monster one," readers are rewarded with ample humor and wit. Manning's ghosts, zombies and dragons look as if they've just emerged from a color-saturated waterworld. And there's a sweetness to the parental-offspring interactions in the playful, alliterative text. BONE DOG Written and illustrated by Eric Rohmann. 32 pp. Roaring Brook Press. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Genuine goose bumps arise from this moving story of a boy and his recently deceased dog by Rohmann, who won the Caldecott Medal in 2003 for "My Friend Rabbit." At once heartbreaking and heartwarming, "Bone Dog" recounts the enduring friendship between Gus and Ella, who promises always to be with her human companion. "A promise made under a full moon cannot be broken," she says. In this exceptional book, wishes come true on Halloween. THE 13 NIGHTS OF HALLOWEEN, written and illustrated by Guy Vasilovich. 40 pp. Harper/HarperCollins Publishers. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Vasilovich's first book as author as well as illustrator tweaks "The 12 Days of Christmas" by pitting a flame-haired Kewpie against a ghoulish backdrop of marching mutants, singing skulls, icky eyeballs and their Allhallows ilk. The wildly purple illustrations will more than distract from the occasionally disappointing text. (Why not "witches warbling" or "witches whispering" instead of "witches witching"?) But the bats wearing baseball caps, the eyeball flowers and the corpses caroling are wickedly original. FRANGOLINE AND THE MIDNIGHT DREAM By Clemency Pearce. Illustrated by Rebecca Elliott. 32 pp. Chicken House/Scholastic $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Another moon, another saucer-eyed minx! (What did Halloween heroines look like pre-Tim Burton?) Redheaded Frangoline is a do-gooder girl: "Pure as milk and good as gold,/She always did as she was told." Until sundown that is, when, unbraided, she re-emerges as a fiery-haired daredevil. "I'll do exactly as I please!/I'm Frangoline!' she said," goes the refrain. Parents will love the girl's gumption, and children will adore her irreverence. Elliott's dark, scratchy, animated drawings will please both. PAMELA PAUL ONLINE A slide show of this week's illustrated books at nytimes.com/books.

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 16, 2011]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In a raucous revamp of the "Twelve Days of Christmas" carol, an impish child describes the gifts that her "mummy" gives to her, starting with "a bright, shiny skeleton key." On the third night of Halloween, she receives "3 Baseball Bats" (the flying mammals wear baseball caps); on the fifth night, "5 Singing Skulls;" and on the seventh night, "7 Goblins Gobbling." With a fluorescent palette and an undead Nickelodeon aesthetic, debut talent Vasilovich offers a suitably creepy vision of Halloween night. Ages 4-8. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 2-Using the formula for "The 12 Days of Christmas," Vasilovich has created a mildly spooky rhyme for Halloween. On the first night of the holiday, a small girl with an oversize head, huge eyes, and antennaelike pigtails receives a bright, shiny skeleton key from her mummy. Each successive night, a spread describes the next eerie gift and recaps the previous presents. Some of these alliterative offerings are clever: icky eyeballs, baseball bats, singing skulls, corpses caroling, and marching mutants. But others are merely redundant: witches witching and ghosts a-ghosting. The illustrations are delightfully macabre. The smiling little ghoul and the bright, angular creatures she is given are set against swirling backgrounds that should elicit squeals from youngsters who are looking for slightly scary stories.-Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review

This spooky-funny twist on "The Twelve Days of Christmas" presents thirteen nights of Halloween tricks and treats. A huge-eyed, witchlike girl narrates the list of gifts "my mummy gave to me," including a "2-headed snake," "5 singing skulls," "6 corpses caroling," and "10 demons dancing." Glossy, animated illustrations balance the ghoulish gifts with cartoon humor. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

"The 12 Days of Christmas" inspires a creepy countdown to Halloween night.Before any text appears, a spunky little witch girl flies into the body of the book clutching her crooked broom and imploring with oversize manga-bright eyes for readers to come, too. "On the first night of Halloween / my mummy gave to me: / a bright, / shiny / Skeleton Key." The following nights bring a 2-headed snake, 3 Baseball Bats, 4 Icky Eyeballs and so on. (All cardinal numbers are rendered as numerals, while the ordinal numbers are spelled out.) Some days are less successful than others. Ghosts a-Ghosting and Witches Witchinghuh? But Vasilovich is one to watch: His extensive experience in television animation and comics illustration is evident. Any page looks like a still from a scary cartoon movie. He achieves a Tim Burtonesque mood with settings full of sharp angles and zigzagging lines. Backgrounds of deep greens and purples and glowing oranges and yellows set off the dark action on each spread. Even though the creatures seem more sinister as each night goes by (the eyes are particularly chilling), the witch seems positively charmed. The big day finally arrives, and the text spirals with the key at the center of the page. It unlocks a room where all the characters come together for a most haunting Halloween celebration.More shivery than stunning; for slightly older readers.(Picture book. 5-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.