Oh no! Wiener Dogs And Ghosts!

A couple of fun Halloweenish picture books for the littlest of your offspring.

The Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey

Artist/Writer Dav Pilkey is best known to kids and nerdlings as the creator of the popular Captain Underpants series. A perusal of his website tells me the guy must spend his entire life chained to the drawing board. He's got a tremendous number of comicbooky novels and picture books under his belt, most of them dealing with monsters and robots and other sci-fi tropes. Hallo-Wiener is the best of his Halloween books. It's the tale of a wiener dog named Oscar (of course) with low self esteem because, well, he's a wiener dog. His own mother makes matters worse by buying him the most unfortunate costume imaginable- a hot dog suit. Of course much teasing and angst follows before our hero proves his worth not only to his fellow canines, but to himself as well. The story is really nothing remarkable, but the art is what sells it. Like all good cartoonists, Pilkey manages to use the fewest lines possible to convey some hilarious expressions and moods.

Check out his website for further silliness. There is a lot of crazy stuff there for kids in the age range of his Captain Underpants audience. I especially dug the Behind The Pages segments wherein he illustrates a book's journey from preliminary sketches to publication. That's just the kind of thing I would have loved as a kid. Check it out HERE.

Oh No! Not Ghosts! by Richard Michelson & Adam McCauley

Not an actual Halloween book, but it's got werewolves and demons as all good childrens books should. It's the tale of a brother trying to help his sister go to sleep quietly by describing how he would scare of any invading monsters. Each solution sounds more terrifying than the initial threat causing more fear and anxiety in his sister. Believe me, it's not nearly as dark as my description sounds. Michelson's story is a lot of fun to read with your 2-4 year old. The art, by Adam McCauley, blends a graphic block printing style with dynamic cartoon layouts. Dig this wicked awesome page-
Both of these books are available from Amazon or BN.com or any of the other usual sites. If you like them I also recommend you get Pilkeys' Dogzilla and Cat Kong books. Adam McCauley's art takes a brighter streamlined turn in the fun picture book Mom And Dad Are Palindromes.

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