Byron Barton (1930–2023)

Waiting for her guests to arrive for her Halloween party one year, Hester the alligator gets restless, and sets out to fill her time by trick-or-treating through her neighborhood. Coming to a spooky house, she knocks on the door and is invited in by the old lady who answers. Introduced to the old lady's friend, given a tour of the house, and then taken on a nighttime broom-ride—for this old lady is a witch!—Hester has a marvelous time, before returning home to her own Halloween celebration...

Published in 1975, Hester is the first book I have read from prolific picture-book author and artist Byron Barton, although I have long been familiar with his work. His board books, particularly the ones featuring vehicles, were always popular with our customers, back in my bookstore days. In any case, I found the story here engaging, and liked the parallel between the witch's party, with its clearly monstrous guests, and Hester's party back home, with its dress-up monsters. The broom-ride was a lot of fun, reminding me of a number of other witchy tales I have read, and I appreciated Hester's generosity in offering her own broom, when the pair crash lands, destroying the witch's broom. The artwork is vibrantly colorful, with lots of oranges, yellows and greens—very appropriate for the season!—and a simple style that had a distinctly 70s feeling for me. All in all, this was a sweet little witchy confection, perfect for a Halloween story-time, and it for that purpose I would recommend it.… (meer)