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Title: Halloween ABC
ISBN: 068980198X
Author:
Eve Merriam
Publicate Date: 1995-09-01
Publish: 1995-09-01
List Price: $5.99
Average Customer Rating: 3.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest Used Price: $98.49
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Do Your Children a Service by Choosing Something Else
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.
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2: Just O.K.
Neither the poetry or the artwork is very compelling. I agree with other reviewers that the letter D (demons) is a little 'over the top' for children.
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3: Frighteningly Good!!
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!
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4: Not appropriate for preschoolers
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!
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5: Oldsters Only?
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!
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