2010, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
HC $16.99
TPPL 811.54
32 pages
Goodreads rating: 3.82
My rating: 3.5
Endpapers: Red thick-lined drawings for spooky faces on yellow and orange.
Title page: A great green spectacled Frankenstein with the title and author across a space that the head has become detached from the body. Completely in color, with the facing page a deep velvety purplish-black. Cool.
Illustrations: Colorful acrylics, no white, really fun.
14 poems relating to Halloween (Jack, Lone Star Witches, Hallowilloween, The Oopmachupa Loompacabra, the Vumpire, Cat Battle, Grim Supper, Duncan, Old Napoleon, The Poltergeyser, Not Frankenstein, Scarecrows Epitaph, Mummy Unhappy, The Portrait of Gory Rene - great titles!)
LONE STAR WITCHES
The Witches of Texas
are practicing hexes
in comical conical ten-gallon hats.
They live under bridges
with thousands of bats.
Slobbering bloodhounds
are chasing their cats.
The Witches of Texas,
with cackles and hoots,
are doing a two-step
in lizard-skin boots
while filling a cauldron
with truffles and newts.
A sinister potion
is brewing in Austin
to fire up the feud
with the Witches of Boston.
OLD NAPOLEON
An ancient tree
with one dead branch
standing alone
on a tarantula ranch.
This is the home
and humble haven
of Old Napoleon
the hungry raven
who gorges on spiders
each day at lunchtime.
Munch munch munch.
He calls it "crunch time."
SCARECROW'S EPITAPH
A word of advice
to my replacement,
now standing guard
in the pumpkin patch:
Never scratch an itch
with a kitchen match.
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