Customer Reviews

Halloween ABC

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'm in high school now, and my interest in things like the banning of books caused me to research the most COMMONLY banned or challenged books. I was shocked to see 'Halloween ABC' on the list. I remembered the book, so I checked around to make sure it was the same one. Coming across this website, I read people's various reviews on it, and noticed that everyone seems to agree that this book is mainly for older children. While I agree that older kids can enjoy this book, I thought I had to say that I have incredibly fond memories of reading it - over and over and over again - during first grade. Niether my mother nor I had any problems with the pictures or the poems in the book. I naturally respect everyone's opinions, but I just had to say that 'Halloween ABC' is simply to good a book to bar from younger kids libraries!

I don't usually write reviews but after seeing the opinion of the reader from SC who negatively reviewed Eve Merriam's work, I felt a need to express my own opinion. Merriam is a thought provoking and controversial poet. Her work, although in picture book format is intended for older readers. The illustrations are incredible and enrich the text beautifully. Fans of Lane Smith will enjoy this earlier work. Again, 1 star is an unfair judgement. Amazon should not list this book for readers 4-8 but then again, caregivers should always make their own informed decisions. I don't know about "getting deep down in your spirit" but the subject matter is definitely for older readers and highly entertaining. I hope some of you will take the time out to get to know this amazing poet. Always controversial!

(...) There is just something of a mismatch between format and audience: The fact that this is in an ABC format makes it seem suited at first glance to ABC-age children.

The compact poetry of Eve Merriam and sophisticated illustrations of Lane Smith (done before he was famous) make this a great book for older children who enjoy a slightly gruesome edge to their humor --think the movie Beetlejuice, for example.

Lend a copy to the ten-year-old in your life.

Lovely! Just Lovely! What a perfect book for reading (for kids to read alone or as a read out loud/story time book). I note that some adult readers were shocked and disturbed by the images and poems and seem to feel this book only has merit if read and enjoyed by older kids. I agree that the sly and dark humor would definitely be appreciated by older kids (10-14), it's still an ABC picture book, and while probably not suitable for all readers, I read this to my 6 and 8 year old and they loved it...the whole idea is that it's different, creepy, and meant to be quite different than your run of the mill ABC books. Parent's should be reading ahead of their kids at all times, KNOW what your kids are reading, I don't censor per se, but I do decided it I think it should be a year or so before my kids read something, or if it's appropriate to the age they are, even if it might be a little disturbing. I'd recommend Halloween ABC in a heartbeat, each parent must decide on their own if it's right for THEIR child.

The illustrations and page coloring are spot on for the tone of the poems, and each of those is a perfect little gem of Halloween spookiness, fun for alphabet review AND suitably spooky ookie for the fall/Halloween time of hear! Each letter appears on the page, done in bones, bats, sticks, and other similar items adding additional flair and mood artwork and poems! I like this best as a read aloud and would love to have girl and boy do these as "performance pieces," to see how they interpret them on their own, not just going with how I read them...reading them out loud and giving them life outside of the written word! We'll probably do that closer to Halloween (two a night, one for each kid). Overall, I think these are clever, well written and suitably frightening fun for young readers! I give it an A+! I'll definitely be buying a copy for my collection of picture books!

I remember reading this book when I was a young lad. I just bought it for my little brother and he loves it as well.This book is full of great poems and wonderful illustrations. Kids will love it!

This book is a collection of positively gruesome rhymes about violence, ghouls, and monsters in the vein of Edward Gorey. Some young adult readers might find the rhymes amusing, but many other readers, especially young children, will find them quite disturbing. As one example, for the letter "I", we read that "I" is for icicle, the murder weapon that mysteriously vanished leaving the police puzzled. If your kids like grim reaper stories for Halloween, they may find a lot to amuse them in this book. However, the kids who are old enough to potentially appreciate the book's warped humor will probable overlook the book since they are way too old to be practicing their ABCs.

A few excerpts for those who are looking for a fun Halloween book for little ones-

-A is for Apple: "....Delicious, malicious, one bite and you're dead."
-D is for Demon: "....Make this spot infernally hot, put your hate in, Satan....The devil, the devil, the devil, with it all!"
-I is for Icicle: "An icy stabbing so swiftly done, the victim scarcely felt it. The police are baffled: 'Where's the weapon?' The sun shines down to melt it."
-N is for Nightmare: "....closing in for the kill, try to escape, chances are nil; nail you down, box you in a crate, stamp you null and void, seal your fate."

Some INFINITELY more appealing and appropriate Halloween choices for preschool and elementary students:

"The ABCs of Halloween" (Eubank)
"Big Pumpkin" (Silverman)
"The Night Before Halloween" (Wing)
"Shake Dem Halloween Bones" (Nikola-Lisa)

Like several other reviewers, I am confused by the decision to create a book of somewhat disturbing poetry and then market it as an "ABC" book. I imagine it was done in an unscrupulous attempt to generate dollars and sell this book to, well, anyone - in its raw form this book appeals to virtually no demographic.

In my case, my five-year-old brought this home from the school library. She loves books like "ABC USA" and thought this was a similar, somewhat sophisticated ABC book. As we started reading it together, I got to the end of the "A" page and knew this wasn't imagery a child her age should be forced to process. I tried changing some of the words on the fly, but she can read and busted me halfway through "D". I told her the book was just too scary, and she was quite deflated since she only gets to choose one book per week from the library.

I consider myself lucky, though, that she won't be counted among the children who are unwittingly exposed to themes and imagery that even most adults are repelled by.

I'm not a book banning type, but I do plan on bringing this one to the attention of our children's librarian. My 4 and 5 yr olds grabbed it off the shelf at the public library. I don't have a problem with it for older kids, but common sense would tell you that an ABC picture book would be for preschoolers. This one is NOT. I didn't read the entire book. I was reading it to my kids and stopped when I got to letter I. "An icy stabbing so swiftly done, the victim scarcely felt it. The police are baffled: "Where's the weapon?" The sun shines down to melt it." Yikes! That will teach me to be more careful to review anything my kids select before we check it out, even in the children's section where you would think you're safe!

Be careful! The graphic details of horrible acts and images of demons may not be something that you would want your 4 -8 year old to conjure up when they think of their ABCs.

My 5 year old brought this book home from the public school library. As I started to read it, I got chills. The words and the pictures are designed to get down deep into your spirit. It is definitely not a cute little way for young kids to remember their ABCs. Beware!