Halloween Goodnight

Monsters, ghouls, and other creatures say goodnight to their parents in this Halloween-themed bedtime story. A skeleton child offers a "Clickity-clackity-clack-clack!" while a witch giggles "Hee! Hee! Hee!" Given Cushman's cartoony illustrations, readers might be surprised by how poetic his verse is: "If you were a skeleton in a graveyard of stones,/ Clacking and rattling all your dry, bleached-out bones,/ Yawning a yawn in the ivory moonlight,/ How would you tell your bony daddy good night?" On the final spread, the monster's goodnights join those in various world languages—a fun if somewhat incongruous detail. Ages 4–7. (July)