Halloween is a wonderful holiday for reading. There are so many spooky stories to share for a good scare, or simply a little spine tingle for wee ghosties. Author and illustrator Cambria Evans provides a fun choice for little goblins to enjoy with Bone Soup, a Halloween version of the classic tale Stone Soup.
Finnegan is a skeletal traveler who’s always looking forward to a yummy Halloween feast. But he’s known far and wide for his huge appetite. A witch flying high in the sky spots him and warns everyone in town, so they all hurry to hide their Halloween ingredients. When he arrives, no one will share with him.
So Finnegan begins to brew his own special, spooky soup with his own unique ingredient: a magic bone. Soon, all the zombies, mummies, witches, and beasties in town come out to sneak a peek at Finnegan’s bone soup. He cleverly invites each one to add their own special ingredient to share, and suddenly out come the eyeballs, spider eggs, dried mouse droppings, and other kooky ingredients.
Evans’ clever take on an old folk tale about sharing is enhanced by her colorful, humorous watercolors, each resembling comic book illustrations with the text in balloons. Little readers will have fun spotting silly details and “eew-ing” over Finnegan’s weird concoction as each gross ingredient is added.
This is a perfect book to share on Halloween night while gobbling up a bowl of homemade “bone soup” with your little trick-or-treaters.
“What Kids Are Reading” is a regular feature in the Sun, highlighting children’s books available for young readers in Santa Maria. This week’s recommendation was made by weird writer, eerie educator, and ghoulish grandmother Ariel Waterman.
This article appears in Oct 20-27, 2011.