Forget about drummers drumming, pipers piping, maids a milking and turtle doves. It’s Halloween, so bring on the marching mutants, dancing demons and singing skulls.
All the dastardly icons of the candy-collecting holiday are on display for your viewing pleasure in debut author-illustrator Guy Vasilovich’s vibrant picture book, The 13 Nights of Halloween.
The entire tale is can be sung to the tune of “The 12 Days of Christmas,” but that’s where the similarities end.
There is no true love gifting foreign birds and golden rings in this book. Rather, Vasilovich counts down to Halloween by having a mummy present spooktacular items to a little girl with a big head and even bigger eyes. Her saucer-like orbs grow exponentially as the creepy countdown unfolds from gobbling goblins to caroling corpses and singing skulls. By the end of the richly illustrated book, the girl’s tiny black bat scrunchies, which decorate her pig tails, are the tamest creatures on the page.
If you are concerned that the book may not be appropriate for youngsters, let me put your mind at ease. The eerie-looking book cover gives way to cartoonish pictures that are more silly (on the third day of Halloween the mummy gives out baseball bats) and slimy (day four brings icky eyeballs) than scary.
Sure, one of the marching mutants has an exposed brain, while another has striped worm poking out of his empty eye socket, but what’s Halloween without a few macabre monsters moving about?
My 7-year-old did more giggling than gagging while she sang her way from one shiny skeleton key to 13 thirsty vampires, who, by the way, look like they would easily prefer a bottle of pop to a pint of blood.
Fear not dear parents, it’s highly unlikely that your kiddos will be drifting off to dreamland with visions of a bony boogeyman dancing in their heads, if you decide to make The 13 Nights of Halloween a bedtime favorite.
The book is all treat and no trick.
You can add the colorful Halloween page-turner to your collection of fun reads by visiting HarperCollins’ website. The 13 Nights of Halloween is also available at major book and discount stores nationwide.
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