As the moon rises, the scene is set for a scary celebration where the power of imagination reigns supreme, in a delightfully frightening Halloween tale. 50,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)
Simple rhymes describe the sights, sounds, and smells of Halloween. - (Baker & Taylor)
A Halloween story with just the right amount of spookiness for preschoolers.
Trick or treat,
pounding feet,
jack o'lanterns
line the street.
It's Halloween night! The rising moon lights the way for trick-or-treaters and sets the mood for a spooky celebration where imagination rules.
Award-winning author/artist Denise Fleming turns her talents to every child's favorite holiday.
- (
McMillan Palgrave)
Denise Fleming has written and illustrated many children’s books, includingIn the Tall, Tall Grass, Shout! Shout It Out!, and Sleepy, Oh So Sleepy. She won a Caldecott Honor forIn the Small, Small Pond. Denise published her first painting in the third grade, when she started taking classes at the Toledo Museum of Art and one of her paintings was chosen to be the cover of a teacher’s magazine. She now works primarily with paper, by pouring colored paper pulp through hand-cut stencils. She lives in Toledo, Ohio.
- (
McMillan Palgrave)
Booklist Reviews
/*Starred Review*/ Ages 6-8. The fun of Halloween is the deliciousness of being scared. Not too scared, of course, but enough to make you--just for a moment--catch your breath. That's exactly the feeling Fleming creates in this Halloween journey round the neighborhood: "Trick-or-treat-- / pounding feet" as "jack-o'-lanterns / line the street." Her signature art technique (pouring colored cotton fiber through hand-cut stencils) makes for spectacularly atmospheric pictures. Colors bleed into one another causing lighted windows to flicker and shadows to disappear into inky blackness and then re-emerge in dancing silhouette. Gorgeous, sparkling candles fill a page with golden light; a giant jack-o'-lantern, set askew, eyes the costumed trick-or-treaters as they gingerly journey through the dark, scaring one another and themselves. The very simple text, in large, white display type, tells of monsters in the night. The pictures, with dark and distorted shapes, show kids being thrilled and having fun: "trick or treat-- / pounding feet, / Halloween / has found our street." ((Reviewed September 15, 2001)) Copyright 2001 Booklist Reviews
Horn Book Guide Reviews
A string of images evokes the sights and sounds of Halloween in this simple illustrated poem. ""Spirits spill"" in glowing purples and greens while ""witches roam"" in dark silhouette against the blue-black night of FlemingÆs pulp paintings. The atmospheric book conveys the spooky excitement of the holiday. Copyright 2002 Horn Book Guide Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
All eyes in a Halloween story hour will be riveted to this stellar story of trick-or-treaters enjoying the deliciously scary nature of this special night. Images of eyes peek out throughout the story with golden cat eyes, lighted windows in houses, and the pie-shaped eyes of jack-o'-lanterns looming on oversized pages. Fleming (The Everything Book, 2000, etc.) uses her signature medium of cotton pulp poured into hand-cut stencils to create the shapes for her paper collages with midnight-blue backgrounds lit by a full moon. Each double-page spread has a rhyming couplet set in huge white type, relating a pitch-perfect story full of heart-pounding excitement ("toes curl, heads swirl, things bump, hearts thump"). The brilliant design includes creative text placement and superb left-to-right flow as the trick-or-treaters work their way down the street, becoming more excited and animated as the night progresses. Those who object to witches will want to skip this one, as "wretched witches roam the street" and fly through the sky on the final page-but for those who celebrate Halloween in all its spooky glory, this story seems destined to become an essential read-aloud for October story hours. (Picture book. 3-7)Copyright Kirkus 2001 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved
Publishers Weekly Reviews
A jack-o-lantern stares from triangular holes: "Piece of pie,/ pumpkin eye." A brisk refrain quickens the pace: "Trick or treat / pounding feet,/ eerie shadows/ fill the street." Fleming (The Everything Book) kindles seasonal thoughts with concise couplets and handmade-paper images, in which vermilion and fuschia highlights glow like neon against grainy black and evergreen. Her pleasingly spooky visions of peaked roofs, pumpkins and trick-or-treaters convey an expectant atmosphere. Ages 2-5. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
School Library Journal Reviews
K-Gr 2-Simple rhymed couplets evoke the anticipatory mood of Halloween night in which "Trick or treat-/pounding feet,/jack-o'-lanterns/line the street." Fleming's signature illustrations of paper pulp poured through stencils glow with deep night colors set off with bright orange pumpkins, yellow hair, and the huge harvest moon. Challenging vocabulary ("wretched witches/roam the street./Clacking bones,/muffled moans") will appeal to independent trick-or-treaters while younger hand-holders will respond to the slightly scary word choices (tattered, toothless, eerie, hissing, swooping). The repeated phrase of pounding feet conveys the excitement of running from house to house in the night as "Halloween/has found our street." This is a great read-aloud for storyhours and a semi-scary but ultimately friendly reminder of the childhood joys of being out and about, disguised but a little bit frightened by others' costumes, and getting candy on this special holiday.-Susan Hepler, Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.