Mona the Vampire

Just as kids have a seemingly endless fascination with matters ghoulish, Holleyman's impressionable heroine decides to do a ``vampire makeover'' after hearing a particularly bloodcurdling bedtime story. The next day Mona, dressed as Dracula's daughter, and her cat, Fang (who ``loved his new batwings''), enjoy ``a special monstrous lunch. They had . . . clammy hammy sandwiches with tomato sauce, and squashed fly pie.'' Practicing their antics at school and ballet class, the gruesome twosome make themselves personae non gratae with the grownups. When Mona takes a shortcut home through the cemetery one afternoon, the clouds lower and ``the wind shrieked like a witch on a broomstick''--and the youngster decides to reconsider the notion of being a full-time fiend. This droll debut features vivid, cartoony art replete with outlandish images that will tickle kids' funnybones--and maybe other bones as well. Ages 4-9. (Oct.)