The Halloween Moon by Joseph Fink, 288 pp, RL 4

-

 
The Halloween Moon 

by Joseph Fink

Review Copy from Harper Collins

A longtime fan of Welcome to Night Vale, a fiction podcast created by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor that started in 2012, I was excited to see what kind of weird characters and creepy aura Fink could bring to the world of middle grade novels.

While I eschew anything related to the horror genre, I definitely like a good ghost story and will take a chance on the occasional Halloween story. Unlike me, Esther Gold, the thirteen-year-old protagonist of The Halloween Moon, loves all things horror and lives for Halloween. In fact, every year as she is making her three Halloween costumes (one for school, one for trick-or-treating, and one for back-up) she watches horror movies. Esther inherited her love of the holiday from her Grandma Debbie, although her parents and siblings don't share their enthusiasm. Some pre-Halloween night drama at home requires Esther to get crafty and enlist her best friend, Augustín (who normally passes on Halloween festivities in order to spend time with his mother, an overworked tombstone engraver), to ensure a perfect night. But, this Halloween - the first full moon in nineteen years, a Halloween Moon - is far from perfect. Esther and Augustín find themselves partnering with Sasha Min, Esther's bully, and Mr. Gabler, a neighbor and dentist intent on passing out tiny toothpaste and toothbrushes instead of candy, after realizing that all the adults in their neighborhood are in a deep sleep and all the little children have disappeared. Esther, the real world "queen" of Halloween, finds herself pitted against the Dream realm's Queen of Halloween in a fight to save her family, friends and neighborhood.

I definitely think that it's challenging to write a middle grade novel in the scary story genre because there are obvious limitations to how much horror can make it onto the page without spilling over into YA or adult territory, but I would like to have seen Fink do more with The Halloween Moon. I rarely review a book that I have criticisms of, but reading The Halloween Moon (and having expectations based on Fink's other work) was frustrating. As I wrote my review, keeping in mind that not every reader has my taste or expectations, I found myself questioning the plot and characters. That said, I can envision young readers looking for a Halloween story enjoying Fink's story.

Popular posts from this blog

Fox + Chick: The Sleepover and Other Stories by Sergio Ruzzier

-
Image
Fox + Chick : The Sleepover and Other Stories  by Sergio Ruzzier Review Copy from Chronicle Books Friends. Opposites. Inhabitants of a pastel-hued, water color world that is vaguely surreal, Fox and Chick are back for a third installment of their inviting, if curious, easy-to-read stories. In "The Sleepover," "The Hammer," and "The Surprise," Chick's odd logic is once again upending Fox's life. Happily, Fox responds with patience and even wisdom at times. To these unforgettable characters and luminous illustrations, Ruzzier brings a sublime simplicity that makes this series perfect for emerging readers, adding books with character and intelligence to the often dull world of beginning reader books. If you aren't familiar with this delightful duo, definitely check out my reviews of the first two books (links below) where I put the greatness of Ruzzier's work into historical ( Frog & Toad ) context. Then check out ALL of Ruzzier's p
Read more

Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala

-
Image
Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala Review Copy from Abrams Kids I picture-walked Be a Tree! three times before I actually read the words. Felicita Sala's illustrations for Maria Gianferrari's poetic text are mesmerizingly immersive and richly colorful within a palette of earth tones. Throughout the text, Gianferrari, who shares her inspiration for this book in the author's note ( Peter Wohleben's The Hidden Life of Trees ), gently maintains the human connection to trees and the connections (and communications) trees share with each other.  Be a Tree!  begins exuberantly, inviting the reader to "Be a tree! Stand tall. Stretch your branches to the sun. Let your roots curl, coil in the soil to ground you." From your spine/trunk to your skin/bark and your heart/pith, the words carry you inward and then zoom outward and up to the canopy and ultimately, the forest. "You are one of many trees," and our roots "twine with fung
Read more

Reading Levels: A Quick Guide to Determining if a Book Is Right for Your Reader

-
Image
While I wrote an article titled Reading Levels: How I Assign Reading Levels to Books, How the Publishers Do It and How You Can Help Your Reader Find the Right Book at the Right Time that discusses how reading levels are determined by professionals and amateurs like myself, there is more on this subject to discuss. Determining the reading level of a book from the children's section is never easy, mostly because there are several different standardized methods of determining reading levels. Add to this the fact that knowing their children's reading level is most often the only tool a parent is armed with when exploring the bookstore, library, website, etc, and the job becomes even more difficult. While I think that knowing a child's reading level is a very valuable tool if your child is reading below grade level, I think that it is a secondary consideration when finding books for children reading above, especially well above, grade level because, in most cases, content app
Read more