Spookier Than a Ghost: A Harry & Emily Adventure (A Holiday House Reader, Level 2) (Holiday House Readers Level 2) - Hardcover

Karen Gray Ruelle's books for children include "75 Fun Things to Make and Do by Yourself," several board books, and six more Holiday House Readers. She lives in New York City.

Gr. 1-2. As the family prepares for Halloween, Harry deliberates about what to be and how to construct his costume. Little sister Emily plans to outdo her previous triumphs by making a costume "spookier than a ghost, more beautiful than a butterfly, and bigger than a tree." But on Halloween night, Emily wears a hodgepodge of wings, leaves and paper pumpkins, announces that her costume is dumb, and dissolves into tears. Harry reassures Emily, takes her trick-or-treating, and explains her mysterious costume on every doorstep. Although more contentious children may find Harry and Emily's relationship a bit idealized, one could also say that Ruelle concentrates on the best in children's natures: their high hopes, their love of holiday traditions, and their impulses toward kindness. There's something quite likable and purely childlike about these two kitten children in both the story and the naive ink-and-watercolor wash illustrations. Other volumes in the Holiday House Reader series about Harry and Emily include Snow Valentines (2000) and The Thanksgiving Beast Feast (1999). Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved