Reviews for Halloween A B C

The average rating for Halloween A B C based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-11-26 00:00:00 Mary Lauer I usually do reviews from the Epinions website, but since everyone in the Banned Books Club were discussing this book, I just had to review this book! "Halloween ABC" is an ABC book by Eve Merriam along with illustrations by Lane Smith and this book is about various symbols and creatures of Halloween being described through the letters of the alphabet. "Halloween ABC" may be extremely controversial for its macabre content, but it is still a truly worthy book to read around Halloween time! There are a total of twenty-six poems in this book, but since I will be here all day if I post all twenty-six poems, I will just recite two of my favorite poems in this book: "Pet A pet to pat, a pal of a pet, A pet the family won't forget, A pet that pants and drools and yaps And leaves a little spot in laps, A pet that's not the least bit vicious, Yet finds the neighbors quite nutritious." "Viper Viper, Viper, Spiteful sniper, Snake in the grass, lowdown, base, Smiling, smiling to your face, Virulent villain, venomous, vile, Darting poison with a snaky smile." If you think that you have read a Halloween ABC book that is filled with creepy creatures, then you will definitely be shocked and surprised at what this book has in store for you! Eve Merriam has definitely made this book one of the most intense and creepiest Halloween ABC books ever created as it is full of poems that is not only about skeletons and jack o-lanterns, but also has poems about demons, murderous icicles, crawlers and fiends! Now you know you have definitely stumbled upon a Halloween ABC book that is like no other! Eve Merriam's poetic writing is truly effective and haunting at the same time as each letter of the alphabet describes a certain creature representing Halloween in an extremely creepy way. Lane Smith's illustrations are truly more haunting in this book than in his other books as there are many images of monsters looking at the audience in a way that makes you just tingle with fright. One of the scariest images in this book is an image of a boy wearing a huge yellow scary looking mask underneath the "mask" poem where the mask seems to have devil horns on its head and is huge and intimidating. Now let me tell you about why this book is one of the most banned books in the history of children's history. There are many reasons why this book was being continually banned in many schools and one of the reasons why this book was banned was because of one poem called "Icicle," which I will now recite: "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." In other words, this poem is implying that an icicle can be used as a murder weapon. Pretty intense for a children's book, right? Another reason why this book was banned was because of the fact that this book mentions devils; Satan and Lucifer in the poem "Demon" and that might offend some of the religious audience. Overall, "Halloween ABC" is a terrific book about exploring Halloween, but it all depends if you enjoy Halloween or not. If you do not like Halloween, mark A) for not worth reading or, If you do like Halloween and you love reading about banned books, then mark B) for worth reading! I would recommend this book to children ages seven and up since there are many mature themes in this book that younger children might not understand. Review is also on:Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Review # 2 was written on 2018-09-29 00:00:00 Angela McConville While I have definitely enjoyed reading (visiting) Halloween ABC and Eve Merriam's spooky, generally humorously quirky, but sometimes also perhaps more than a bit potentially violently creepy, occasionally even seemingly promoting murder and mayhem poetry (and have indeed also found Lane Smith's accompanying illustrations the absolute perfect visual mirror to and of the author's lyrical texts, darkly hued, imaginative but also always delightfully fun in a perfectly ghoulish sort of way), I nevertheless have not been totally and utterly wowed with and by Merriam's Halloween themed verses as a collective, as an entire entity in and of itself. For although MOST of the letter sections, while MOST of the presented verses of Halloween ABC have absolutely and certainly been both fun and engagingly uncannily creepy in both content and form, and some of them even rather informationally enlightening, such as for example the fact that Merriam's poem on Masks for the letter M section of Halloween ABC rather spectacularly alludes to and points out carnivalesque inversions, with the higher ups becoming the lower downs and vice versa, or that according to to the author, according to Eve Merriam, elves usually only turn potentially nasty or evil if/when they have been tormented and/or not adequately appreciated by the humans they are generally trying to help and succour, I did and do have some personal issues with the fact that in many of the sections on Halloween types of animals, and in particular bats and vipers (snakes), Merriam certainly and unfortunately portrays them as much much too inherently and potentially nasty, uncanny and yes almost terrible and horrid by nature (and to the point that I for one would be afraid of certain readers being tempted to not only avoid but to actually attack and torture these animal species simply due to suspicion and personal fear). However, even with my mild personal issues regarding SOME of the presented verses, I am still and indeed rebelliously granting a full and glowing five stars to Halloween ABC, as for one, I have indeed massively enjoyed and appreciated my reading experience (and find the spooky poems for the most part just so totally and utterly right for Halloween) and for two, considering that this book has repeatedly been both challenged and banned in especially the Bible Belt areas of the United States, of course, I am going to be granting five stars for Halloween ABC (and to once again let the ignoramuses who have banned and or censored Halloween ABC know in no uncertain terms that they are with their attitudes and actions not only akin and alike to the Nazis, to the Stalinists, to any dictatorial states that ban and censors books, but that really, with their striving to have Halloween ABC banned because it contains poems depicting violence, demons, witchcraft and the like, well, sorry, but it is THEY who are the evil ones here, it is THEY who are demonic, uncanny and frighteningly dangerously undemocratic). Highly recommended (and while I do think that some of the poems featured in Halloween ABC might perhaps be a bit too creepy for very intensely sensitive children, actually, and I say that as someone who frightens and startles quite easily at times, NONE of the poems were really all that overly freaky or creepy, and in almost all of them, there is also such a sense of fun and games, of laughing at the uncanny that the potential for Eve Merriam's printed verses in any way frightening children or actually inducing nightmares is greatly mitigated and reduced).