FRIGHT NIGHT FLIGHT

A witch goes Halloween trick-or-treating and makes room on her super jet-fueled broomstick for a group of fiendish friends. Narrating in rhyme and first person, the green-faced, green-haired witch asks a question at each location that allows the reader to guess who the next ghoul will be. As the six fiends climb aboard—vampire, werewolf, ghost, monster, skeleton, and mummy—their facial expressions play out the interactions and play up the spookiness, even on the orange-striped cat wearing black-framed glasses and the broom’s robot-like jet engine. With each addition, the refrain repeats the previous passengers: “Hop aboard, there’s always room / for a boo-boo-boo-gity Ghost, / a howling, growling Werewolf, / and a lurking, smirking Vampire / to ride this broom.” The colorful cartoon-like illustrations display the right amount of exaggeration that keeps the scariness within limits and include funny details to spy in the scenes. (Be sure to spend extra time in the graveyard.) Readers will likely tumble to the ending and the witch’s destination from the title—“your neighborhood,” “your house,” to “ring your doorbell” for “TRICK OR TREAT.” Kids will readily hop on board for this fun, frightful flight. (Picture book. 5-8)