We’re currently enjoying a 4-day weekend for our college Midterm Break and WOW did we need the break! We’ll also be celebrating my husband’s 50th birthday (tomorrow) and enjoying this super nice weather we’ve been having. So this week I’ll be sharing just one novel and a few newer fall/Halloween books we read this week. Hopefully you’ll find something of interest to add to your reading list.
If this is your first visit to my blog, welcome! Today is Monday, and I regularly participate in a weekly #IMWAYR meme. Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers and Jen Vincent of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give Kathryn’s (at Book Date) “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” meme a kidlit focus, reviewing books in children’s literature (picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, or anything in the world of kidlit). If you enjoy this type of reading, join us every Monday to share what you’ve been reading!
I would love to hear what you’re reading in the comments section!
Anxious People
Fredrik Backman
Neil Smith, translator
April 25, 2019
Atria Books
This was another book on my #MustReadin2021 list. I enjoyed his A Man Called Ove a year or two ago and had to add this one to my list. One of Backman’s gifts is turning what seems to be an ordinary or mundane lives into works of art – to let us peer into several messy, private lives and see all the beauty hidden in the normal-ness. Among his variety of characters, ranging from quirky to downright frustrating, we witness joy, regret, love, and hopelessness. But it’s always a powerful thing to bear witness to the act of grace and forgiveness while growing my empathy for a character I didn’t know I even cared much about. That’s what his books have done for me.
AWARDS: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee (2020)
You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.
Halloween is Coming
Cal Everett
Lenny Wen, illustrator
August 1, 2021
Date
Publisher
In rhyming text, all the signs and symbols of Halloween are shared, from cooler temps, to Corn Mazes, to candy apples, to school parades, this book covers it all. My daughter enjoyed reading each set of lines and then saying the two rhyming words at the end (Mime/Frankenstein, want/haunt, etc.). The full-color art was created digitally in Photoshop with a Wacom Tablet and layered with scanned pencil textures.
You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.
If You Ever Meet a Skeleton
Rebecca Evans
Katrin Dreiling, illustrator
September 7, 2021
Page Street Kids
Skeletons may seem super spooky, but they’re missing some pretty important body parts to do us any harm. In humorous rhyming text, we discover they don’t have a lot! For example, they’re missing eyes, ears, muscle, brains, skin, guts, etc. They’re really just bones looking to make friends. The cute illustrations were done using mixed media and compiled digitally.
You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.
How to Haunt a House
Carolyn Crimi
Edward Miller, illustrator
September 15, 2021
Albert Whitman & Company
In this rhyming picture book, Madam Gray is teaching little ghosts how to haunt houses around town. But eventually, they’ll meet their match with a family who doesn’t scare quite so easily. Is there still a way to frighten them away? Colorful pictures make this “spooky” book, not quite so frightening.
You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.
Poultrygeist
Eric Geron
Pete Oswald, illustrator
August 17, 2021
Candlewick Press
In this hilarious picture book, we see a play on “Why did the chicken cross the road?” It takes just a bit for chicken to realize he’s dead and even longer for him to agree to being scary or haunting unlucky, innocent children. Lots of fun rhyming and use of language in this one. With a dark nighttime background, the bright and colorful artwork is so FUNNY! And just wait for the last page spread, showing what’s about to happen next. The illustrations were created digitally.
⭐ NOTE: This title is currently ONLY $2.99 ON KINDLE if you can’t get it in print!!
You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.
Frankenslime
Joy Keller
Ashley Belote, illustrator
July 13, 2021
Feiwel Friends
This one is perfect for the young slime maker in your life! Young Victoria Franken is the Queen of Slime in her community. One night while she’s mixing a new batch of slime, a lightening strike hits her lab and her glowing green slime comes to life. She runs for her life, but perhaps there’s nothing to be afraid of after all. The back matter includes a recipe for Cloud Slime, Intergalactic Space Slime, and Glow-in-the-Dark Zombie Slime.
You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.
How to Talk Monster
Lynn Plourde
Mike Lowery, illustrator
June 8, 2021
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
In very simple text with graphic novel-like pages, we meet a young boy who is struggling to sleep because he’s sure there’s a monster outside his window. His parents keep returning to his room only to tell him he’s just imagining things. However, can having a monster friend be all that bad?
You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.
Currently Reading/To Be Read:
I am nearing the end of Dragon Hoops (so good!) and will be reading a few more fun Halloween picture books with my youngest, this week. Otherwise, I think I’ll be starting Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson today.
Reading Challenge Updates:
Goodreads Challenge: 206/365
#MustReadIn2021: 30/49
The Miller Memo 
Except for Poultrygeist these are all new to me. Will have to check some of them out. I thought Anxious People was really great. Backman is so clever.
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I’m waiting for my next batch of picture books from our college system and so it was exciting to see our public library just had a bunch of new Halloween-ish books this time! And I totally agree on Backman. I mean, I’ve only read two of his books so far, but both have been delightful. Thanks for visiting, Lisa!
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I love what you wrote about Bachman, Shaye, & still need to read Anxious People – hopefully someday! Thanks for sharing the Halloween books. I have Poultrygeist & may not get many more. I have a few old ones that the granddaughters & I enjoy. Have a lovely celebration for your husband!
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I’m often so behind on getting seasonal books around each holiday, but this week I kinda lucked out with new books at our library. I went back to the public library again today and found a few more, so it’s my daughter’s lucky week! Thanks for visiting, Linda!
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Great picks for Halloween! I really enjoy all the images and illustration tidbits you include—like the pencil mark overlay. Procreate is my go-to, but my son is taking a graphic design class this year and learning to use a Wacom tablet. He’ll be interested to see the artwork in “Halloween is Coming.”
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Oh I’m so glad, K.A. Half the story is found in the artwork, so I’m always looking for details on how the illustrations were created. I actually get a tad frustrated when a book doesn’t share any info on that front. LOL Thanks for swinging by and I hope you have a wonderful reading week!
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I agree with you completely about Fredrik Backman’s work. His characters are full of “beauty hidden in the normal-ness” of them. I adore the kindness shown for each other in this one.
What a lot of fun Halloween books! Aside from digging out our outside decoration and purchasing some Hawkins Cheezies to hand out, I have forgotten all about all the fun literature available. I don’t do scary for adults, but love the picture books.
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Of the only two Backman books I’ve read, this is my favorite. I don’t know how you can read his stuff without having empathy. I was so touched (although I still am not sure which characters are on the cover art). For a number of Halloweens, we’ve gone to a huge indoor water park in a nearby city since it’s almost empty on that night each year AND it’s just three days before one of our kiddo’s birthdays (so we often celebrate that evening). The kids have so much fun going on more rides and we end up enjoying more family time. But we’re not sure on what we’ll do this year since one of our kids have three games on that afternoon, plus our youth group is in charge of church services that Sunday. We’ll have to stay in-town for sure and we should probably be busy figuring out costumes right about now. LOL Thanks for swinging by, Cheriee!
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Enjoy your break and your husband’s birthday, Shaye! These books look like a lot of fun—I’ve heard great things about Anxious People and the other Fredrik Backman books, and I really need to get to some of them. And all the picture books look like a ton of fun, especially for Halloween—Halloween is Coming and Poultrygeist sound like a lot of fun! And I notice you’re reading a couple books Laura Mossa reviewed this week too—somehow I didn’t register either Vampenguin or Hardly Haunted as Halloween books, even though it’s obvious now. Thanks so much for the great post!
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We had a great birthday celebration and now we just need to figure out what we’re going on Halloween night. As I was telling Cheriee, we usually go to a huge indoor water park since it’s nearly empty on Halloween. But there’s too much going on that day for us to leave our little town. Guess we’ll need to whip up some fun costumes and plan for trick-or-treating (as long as it’s not too snowy – we already woke up to snow this morning!!). Thanks for stopping by!
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