A spooky holiday delight that brings Halloween and Christmas together…
Santa’s arrival on Halloween night triggers a perfect holiday mix-up in Howell’s fun latest. It’s Halloween night. Spiders, skeletons, vampires, and ghosts are lurking in dark, moon-lit corners. But when Santa arrives, the trick-or-treaters get confused. What’s happening? Howell’s wry, rhyming narration puts readers in the holiday spirit, and her richly rendered Halloween decor scenes and the characters’ appropriately scary costumes conjure the “dark, spooky atmosphere of Halloween night.” Two-page spreads, alternating between simple text against white background and scary illustrations predominately in grayscale and black with orange highlights add to the claustrophobic Halloween mood. Cast in dark palettes, Savannah Horton’s digital illustrations represent a succession of busy, Halloween-ish appropriate scenes, featuring a spider, a bat, a dog, a cat, a vampire, a crow, a haunting skull, a nibbling ghost, and Santa among others, bringing both the characters and the settings to life. An entertaining story that trundles spookily along.
Santa’s Slip Up
Raven Howell (Author), Savannah Horton (Illustrator)
Pen It Publications
Pub date July 12, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-63984-463-0
Price $14.99 (USD) Paperback
