By Linda Williams
A brave old lady walks home through the dark woods while a pair of clomping shoes and a spooky pumpkin head chase after her.
A little old lady stays out too late gathering herbs and has to walk home through the woods in the dark. Along the way she meets two shoes that go CLOMP, CLOMP, a pair of pants that go WIGGLE, WIGGLE, a shirt, two gloves, a hat, and finally a big scary pumpkin head, and each one falls into step behind her. She marches on and tells every last one of them she is not afraid. When they try to spook her at her own front door, she gives them a job instead: be a scarecrow.
It looks spooky and sounds spooky, and then it hands your child the opposite of a scare: a heroine who simply decides not to be afraid, and outsmarts the whole haunted parade. That makes it a perfect gift when your child wants a little Halloween shiver but not a real fright. The repeating sounds turn every reading into a call-and-response, so a group of children can perform it together.