Halloween in Christmas Hills by Karen Tayleur
Ill. By Heath McKenzie. Black Dog books, 2009.
ISBN 9781742030302.
(Ages 5-8) Recommended. What will happen when Miles goes
trick or treating to Stingy Jack's house? Miles Cameron is number 5
child in the
Johnson family, and the whole family loves to dress up and celebrate
festivals.
Dad loves Australia Day, Easter is Mrs Johnson's favourite, and
everyone dresses up as leprechauns on St
Patrick's Day. When Halloween comes around Miles is determined to be
part of
the fun and even though he is warned not to go to Stingy Jack's house,
he rings
the doorbell and gets a big surprise.
This is a fun book that marks the different festivals that
are celebrated in Australia and explains that Halloween didn't
originate in
America. As Miles tells everyone it 'began as a Celtic fire festival.'
It will
find many fans for its humour and sly illustrations.
Heath McKenzie's drawings of the wide eyed Johnson family
are a delight and every page brought a chuckle as I followed their
exploits as
they put up Christmas lights, handed out Easter eggs and trouped around
the
neighbourhood on Halloween in their zany costumes. Working out just
what the tricky ending meant was fun too!
Halloween in Christmas Hills is just sheer fun to read - and
it could be a useful and very entertaining picture book to
supplement a
unit of work on festivals.
Pat Pledger