Every season, I go through our home collection of picture books and pull out ones that fit with upcoming celebrations and holidays, or other appropriate themes. In October, out come the books featuring monsters, pumpkins, ghosts, scarecrows, witches, and the like, and this year, we have a new book to add to the mix. The Boo! Book, written by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer and uniquely illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli, is just the right level of seasonal spookiness for the picture book crowd.
Written as an instructional guide about book ghosts, the creatures that sometimes choose to haunt books instead of houses, The Boo! Book balances creepy and adorable quite well, with an impishly cute ghost doing the haunting in the examples given. Mischief is more his style than straight out scaring, and his pranks include “meddling” with stories and mixing up the words on a page, the latter of which leads to my favorite passage in which the girl is turning the page and behind it she sees the book ghost with his hands upon the letters which now read:
Play Ghosts to like words with is when looking one. no*
*Ghosts like to play with words when no one is looking.”
The narrator of the book proceeds to advise readers on what to do if they find themselves reading a haunted book, and again the tone continues to be more magical than frightening, even as the little girl gets pulled into the haunted book. When she’s confronted with bizarre and imaginative creatures all around her, she discovers that the best way to deal with a book ghost is simply to read to them, of course! This leads to her release from the haunted book, with promises that she’ll return with new books another time.
But readers are strongly advised to pay attention to their haunted books, for if they go unread for too long, the book ghost may get bored and take his leave, which makes for a surprising ending for young readers on the final pages!
Nicoletta Ceccoli’s illustrations were made combining plasticine puppets, digital photography, Photoshop and acrylics on paper, according to the information in the book, and while I’m not sure I understand exactly how those all come together, I can say that the resulting effect is magnificent. The colors are soft and inviting, and the characters are lifelike and magical at the same time. I’m simply adoring The Boo! Book and I encourage you to add it to your autumn reading with your own children, too!
Dawn adores her Halloween-ish picture book supply, and her kids never tire of their old favorites. She blogs at my thoughts exactly.