cover image TRICK-OR-TREAT ON MILTON STREET

TRICK-OR-TREAT ON MILTON STREET

Lisa Bullard, , illus. by Joni Oeltjenbruns. . Lerner/Carolrhoda, $15.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-1-57505-158-1

In this story from the creators of Not Enough Beds!, a boy moves to a neighborhood of adults and trick-or-treats with his dorky "new stepdad." Charley figures grown-ups can't carve pumpkins or bob for apples ("Wouldn't their false teeth fall out?"). He stands corrected when they hold a wacky masquerade, depicted in awkward but energetic colored-pencil images: "I think I'm going to like... Milton Street," he declares. Bullard gets Charley's grouchiness and the penultimate party scene just right, but the gee-whiz conversation with the stepdad that provides the resolution is as hard to swallow as a gooey caramel apple. Ages 3-8. (Aug.)