Leslie Patricelli's (Tickle) adorable toddler returns in a pitch-perfect introduction for first-time trick-or-treaters.
"Halloween is here!" says the diapered narrator, who may be a boy or a girl, with arms raised in celebration near a cornfield with pumpkins in evidence. The child teaches sizes while examining a pumpkin that's "too small," another that's "too big" and a third that's "just right." Next, Daddy cuts off the pumpkin's top, and "I clean the insides" (Patricelli shows the narrator emulating a jack-o'-lantern's grin, wearing the pumpkin top like a hat and scooping out the seeds by hand). Readers help the toddler choose an expression for the pumpkin ("How should we carve our jack-o'-lantern?") and then help select a costume ("What should I be?") from among a series of choices that speak to gender non-conformity: princess, pirate, cowboy and ballerina number among the eight possibilities. The cover foreshadows the narrator's final selection ("Boo! I'm a ghost!"), and Daddy dresses just like his toddler. At first, the small ghost is frightened of the other costumed children, but the treats in store soon help the narrator overcome any fears.
Patricelli varies the moods with backdrops that go from bright colors to muted blues and purples on Halloween night. She depicts the toddler's growing courage by showing the little ghost gradually working up to ringing the doorbell solo. The final spread shows all the things the narrator loves about Halloween. A treat. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness