I hate Halloween.

I’ve mentioned this before here but hate it or not it’s coming up and as with all holidays the library has kept us on track with their rack of seasonal/holiday appropriate books. Normally I love the seasonal rack, but these are Halloween books, and I hate Halloween, I also hate Clifford. I really don’t want to read about Clifford and Halloween in the same book.

Ivy does.

It’s a problem.

When I saw that Jon Muth who wrote Zen Shorts had a Halloween book out I pounced on it. I was a little apprehensive since it did involve the word “ghost” but there was no big red dog or ugly drippy monsters on the cover so I thought it was worth a try. I’d like to say it was just as wonderful as Zen Shorts but I can’t get my Halloween hating completely out of my system so I will just say that it is the only Halloween book that I have ever enjoyed.

The illustrations were again beautiful.  And the story.. I’m not even sure what to say, it was a ghost story, sort of, and it was a zen-like-make-you-think-story, and once again Ivy enjoyed it more than I ever would have guessed she would have.

Would I recommend it? Yes indeed! Please replace a certain large red dog with a giant panda named Stillwater, I promise life will get better.