From My Reading Chair…
“I’m Simon Lester Henry Strauss, and I’m not afraid of this haunted house!”
Oh, Simon. REALLY?! Not even a little bit?!
Well, pull up a chair, Pumpkins! It seems we’re being served a banquet of beastly, gory and gloriously gross encounters, with a side helping of personal fear.
“I’m Simon Lester Henry Strauss, and I’m not afraid of this haunted house!”
With that sentence, Simon enters the creepy old house wearing a massive napkin of confidence. Frights? Yes, all of them, please. There’s apparently nothing this boy can’t stomach!
And he keeps saying it. Again and again and AGAIN!
Laurie Friedman keeps wheeling out that wonderfully snappy *Strauss/house* rhyme. Our Pavlovian dinner bell! The rhyming couplets carry us from one ghastly course of frights to the next. It practically ladles out opportunities for voice-play and performances. Who’s feeling brave enough to join in?! I definitely was!
Teresa Murfin gives that bravado a gloriously rotten landscape to march through. Jagged contours, crooked architecture and angular characters. All those sharp edges! Are we here for dinner, or ARE we dinner?! The dark, muted palette reminds me of Halloween fruit left fermenting in a cellar. Murky, mouldering and tantalisingly mischievous. YUM!
He swallows each dark, beastly encounter with another enormous helping of confidence. Until, eventually, something DOES frighten him…
You thought I was really going to spoil it for you?! Oh no, no. “I’m October Jones, and I’ll keep you guessing with all of your bones!” (Sorry, I just had to try it! Blame Simon!)
What I really LOVE is how this book nods to our befuddling fears. A phobia is such a personal, illogical little beastie. You can march through an entire nightmare buffet without blinking, only to be undone by one tiny a-mouse-bouche! We all have that little secret something capable of turning our heroic speech into an undignified squeak. What’s mine, I hear you ask… Well.
Heights, clowns and octopuses… Now, for the ultimate meltdown, imagine an octopus on top of a building wearing a clown mask?! THE TERROR!!!
For children who like their Halloween stories rhymed, repetitive and really, really gross, but also quietly reassuring, this is a literary feast built for sharing. Simon Lester Henry Strauss may not be afraid of this haunted house… but he might want to send that last course back to the kitchen!
Creep on Reading, Pumpkins!