Artwork was excellent, but decided wasn't right for read aloud. ( )

Count up to 13 as two little boys journey through a spooky forest to a school yard at night. Along the way they discover creatures like owls, goats, and wolves. Observing from a careful distance, the boys are in for a surprise at the end.

The Bottom Line: The atmospheric watercolor illustrations featuring each item being counted plus the two little boys on each page are the highlight of this book. Somehow the rhyming seemed a bit awkward for me. This could easily have simply been a fall book except for the witch and ghosts. Page through the illustrations for the best effect.

This review also appears at the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog. ( )

Co-authors Ferida Wolff and Dolores Kozielski, along with illustrator Dolores Avendaño, turn to the spooky doings of a Halloween night in this rhyming counting book. Moving from one to thirteen, the text here describes all sorts of creepy creatures - witches and ghosts, bats and wolves - out and about on this spooky night. The accompanying artwork depicts the creatures being mentioned, often also showing two young children watching in the background...

Having enjoyed the work of both Wolff (The Story Blanket) and Avendaño (Cats and Robbers), and loving the holiday of Halloween, I expected to find On Halloween Night quite engaging. Unfortunately, while I did indeed like Avendaño's atmospheric illustrations, I found the text from Wolff and Kozielski hit or miss. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't, and the rhyming structure - the fourth lines of all the different stanzas rhyme with one another - frequently felt awkward. Textually, this was really a two-star title for me, but I raised my rating, given my appreciation for the artwork. This isn't one I strongly recommend, as there are far better Halloween and/or counting books out there, although fans of the artist might want to give it a try. ( )

On Halloween Night is a book that does not make it feel like it's on a Halloween Night. I thought that the book was rather dull. It was not scary and the title was very misleading. There were some Halloween related things in the book, but they were limited. The paintings were gloomy which was the only real impression that this book was taking place in October. Did you notice the kids in all the pictures hiding? That was about the only cool part of the book. ( )

On Halloween night, we count up all of the various creatures who are awake: one witch, two cats, three owls, and on up to thirteen ghosts. Written in free verse, each verse ending in a ghostly "oo-oo-oo-ooh", this makes a good rhythmic read-aloud. Since most of the creatures are forest animals, this would also be good to tie into a unit about nocturnal animals. At the end, we realize that the white streaks of translucent light that have floated through each picture are the thirteen ghosts who appear on the final page. The illustrations in muted watercolors capture the atmosphere of a cold evening.