A mysterious ‘boo’ has got a cute crew of Halloween creatures in a quizzical mood. Just who is making that noise?
All the ingredients of a spooky Halloween are evident in this chunky boardbook. There’s a full moon in the twilight forest, a witch on her broomstick, a black cat, a wizard and bats flitting around the night sky – but this tale is definitely more light than fright.
Using a repetitive refrain (with echoes of the classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle) each spread poses a question to discover the mystery identity: “Night owl, night owl, was that you?” “Wasn’t me!” comes a succession of denials.
The simple narrative comes to life with the addition of cut-outs that represent each characters’ big wide open eyes and invite little fingers to poke through for lively interaction
A playful game of hide-and-seek ends as the mystery identity is finally revealed with a final bold “Boo!”. But don’t worry. With a big happy smile on his face, this spirit is clearly of a sunny disposition.
With lots of cute pictures and smiley faces, this toddler-friendly read is the perfect introduction to some of the familiar faces and traditions of Halloween, but without any hint of scariness.
Did you know? Ghostbusters creator and actor Dan Aykroyd was the initial driving force behind the film. His family, especially his grandfather, whom Aykroyd says once attempted to construct a radio that reached the spirit world, were fascinated by ghosts.
Fun fact Ghostbusters was originally called Ghost Smashers.