Marisa Montes has created a fun and original Halloween-themed text, blending English with select Spanish vocabulary words such as las brujas, los esqueletos, and los monstruous. A variety of Halloween creatures appear throughout this rhyming tale, including black cats, pumpkins, ghosts, and even a werewolf. The creatures make their way to a haunted house to begin their monstrous ball, only to be frightened away by a group of young trick-or-treaters.
This would be a fun book to share with elementary students around Halloween. The rhyming text makes it a wonderful shared reading experience; students can predict what word will come next in the story. In addition, the introduction of Spanish vocabulary makes the story appealing to young children interested in learning a new language. Yuyi Morales’s illustrations are spooky, yet child-friendly. I liked the addition of the Spanish glossary at the back.
