Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-"Creak, Creak." Here lies the haunted house version of "The House That Jack Built." Cumulative verses and onomatopoeia build on a lighthearted Halloween theme (the sound of each object or character is represented in text next to its image) while a collection of cut- and torn-paper collages and variation of colorful fonts create textured and detailed cartoons. Readers may simply search for the smiling spider on each page or follow the tombstones for a bit of graveside humor, e.g., "RIP-Imma Star, who lived life with a sparkle." Repetition of each verse-a creaking house, black spider, booing ghost, flapping bat, rolling pumpkin, rattling skeleton, and a genial green witch (warts included)-completes the usual list of spooky images accompanying an adventure shared by a boy (with finger in nose), a scolding mom, and an affectionate dad. An additional purchase with a solid language-arts connection for libraries in need of seasonal fare.-Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX (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
Based on "The House That Jack Built," this cumulative tale comes complete with suggested read-aloud sound effects: "This is the cat (meow, meow) / That lived in the house (creak, creak) / That Witchy built (clap, clap, clap, clap)." It isn't very imaginative but could be fun for Halloween. Not every picture's a hit, but there are some creative elements to the cut-paper art. Copyright 2010 of The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Can a picture book inspired by "The House that Jack Built" do anything new? Storyteller de las Casas gives it her all in converting one of her favorite stories to the printed page.Pairing sound effects or movements to each introduced line of text results in a lively, interactive experience that begs any audience to join the fun. Beginning with "This is the house (creak, creak) / That Witchy built (clap, clap, clap, clap)," it will soon have readers meowing with a cat, flapping with the bat, booing with a ghost and rattling like a skeleton. It all makes sense until the pumpkin rolls in and the parentheses prompt a "(yum, yum)," but readers will cruise right along anyway. A boy is introduced with "(yuck, yuck)" because he is picking his nose, poor mom wags her finger as she says "(no, no)" and dad plants a "(smooch, smooch)" on mom. The finale "...is the / witch (cackle, cackle) / That spooked / them all / (cackle, cackle)." The collage illustrations are truly impressive. Stone-Barker manipulates various papers to create palpable textures for the house's roof, swishy broom, furry cat and transparent ghost. One quibbleon several pages there are headstones with clever epitaphs, but the same ones are repeated, losing an opportunity to inject further humor into the romp. That aside, Witchy definitely rocks this house!Use to get the (Halloween) party started.(Picture book. 3-6)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
