- The Haunted Hamburger and Other Ghostly Stories, by David LaRochelle (Dutton, unpaged) $19.50.
THE witching season approaches and small wannabe ghosts and zombies will be looking for stories to put them in the mood by giving them the (not too) scarifying heebeejeebies.
There is something wonderfully exciting about vicarious fear and The Haunted Hamburger is a picture book that delivers in spades. The book contains three tales told by Father Ghost to his two ghost children who refuse to go to sleep without a bedtime story and the scarier the better.
Father ghost complies and tells about their Uncle Ned who decided to scare somebody. After two failed attempts he encounters a baby and assumes that scaring the tot will be a piece of cake. He is sadly mistaken as the baby "boos" right back at him and then makes such an awful noise he hides in an open drawer.
Mom comes in to see what the trouble is and the story ends with a truly dreadful thing happening to Uncle Ned as the mom mistakes him for a diaper. The ghost children are absolutely horrified and the story is such a success they instantly demand another.
Father Ghost is easily inveigled into telling yet another terrifying tale and this time it is about the Haunted Hamburger who lives in the Dark Forest. Father Ghost's cousin has been dared by her friend to go and see him as a test of bravery.
After various challenges it turns out that the Haunted Hamburger indeed has the power to scare the daylights out of Cousin Nell who is forever cured of boasting.
The final tale about the Big Bad Granny proves to be the scariest of all as it deals with an event in Father Ghost's childhood. The kids then go to bed only to have a final frightening experience.
According to the dust jacket's promotional comments, "You'll laugh, you'll scream, you'll love these hauntingly hilarious ghost stories." This is a pretty accurate summary of this reviewer's reading experience and likely will be that of younger readers.
The illustrations with chubby childlike ghosts and human characters with exaggerated actions and gestures carry out the goofy humour of the tongue-incheek tales.
The expressive faces of the ghost children in particular make it clear how much they relish Father Ghost's storytelling skills. A perfect Halloween offering.
Other Halloween picture book titles with a scary (but not very) theme are as follows:
- Dear Vampa by Rose Collins
- The Experiments of Doctor Vermin by Tim Egan
- The House that Jack Built by Judy Sierra
- The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
- Minnie and Moo and the night of the living bed by Denys Cazet
- On a windy night by Nancy Raines Day
- Scary, scary Halloween by Denys Cazet
- Velcome by Kevin O'Malley
- We're going on a ghost hunt by Marcia Vaughan
- The Witches' supermarket by Susan Meddaugh
Fran Ashdown is the children's librarian at the Capilano branch of the North Vancouver District Public Library. She is thinking of giving up hamburgers and becoming a vegetarian! For more library information check out www. nvdpl.ca.
