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juushikaYeah, it's official, I had a strong start to my spoopy picture book season but the rest have been pretty average. Sad, but an average spoopy picture book still has a great aesthetic! The Lost Kitten's black, grey, white, orange, and copper cover has been sitting in a stack of picture books between a "birch trees via ink washes and splotches" cover and a "watercolor and colored pencil detailing hundreds of fallen autumn leaves" cover, and the combination has been immensely pleasing to look at despite that all those particular books are Just Okay.
Title: Gustavo, The Shy Ghost
Author: Flavia Z. Drago
Published: Candlewick Press, 2020
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 35
Total Page Count: 379,480
Text Number: 1416
Read Because: this list of best Halloween picture books 2020, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: The illustrations and tone are a delight—adorable little monsters, so much detail and color, but gentle and engaging rather than hectic. (The invisible love interest is a particularly charming detail.) But I'm less enamored thematically. It's sweet and well-intended but, as a was-a-shy-kid, the advice "literally just stop being shy, and then you won't be lonely" is hilariously useless.
Title: The Midnight Library
Author: Kazuno Kohara
Published: Roaring Brook Press, 2014
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 25
Total Page Count: 379,545
Text Number: 1418
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Kohara's linocuts are so good, with effective uses of simple color palettes and pleasing round lines contrasted by the texture of printing. This is a polished, indulgent, silly, twee, highkey spoopy-cute aesthetic package ... and an instructive introduction to library amenities and etiquette. It's missing something when compared to Ghosts in the House, which is smarter and more contained. But it sure is cute.
Title: The Lost Kitten
Author: Nicola Killen
Published: Simon & Schuster, 2020
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 25
Total Page Count: 379,570
Text Number: 1419
Read Because: this list of Halloween picture books, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: "How sad and endangered is this kitten that I found outdoors; oops, I forget that I left my own cat unsupervised outside" unintentionally and ironically summarizes my issues with cats in picture books, so I would reiterate them. The grey and orange art touched by copper foil is a great choice—I don't know if I've ever seen foil on interior pages of a picture book?—that enlivens otherwise mediocre art. This on the sweet, spoopy, oh so gently atmospheric, cozy side of Halloween picture books. It's cute to browse, but not memorable.
Title: Gustavo, The Shy Ghost
Author: Flavia Z. Drago
Published: Candlewick Press, 2020
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 35
Total Page Count: 379,480
Text Number: 1416
Read Because: this list of best Halloween picture books 2020, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: The illustrations and tone are a delight—adorable little monsters, so much detail and color, but gentle and engaging rather than hectic. (The invisible love interest is a particularly charming detail.) But I'm less enamored thematically. It's sweet and well-intended but, as a was-a-shy-kid, the advice "literally just stop being shy, and then you won't be lonely" is hilariously useless.
Title: The Midnight Library
Author: Kazuno Kohara
Published: Roaring Brook Press, 2014
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 25
Total Page Count: 379,545
Text Number: 1418
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Kohara's linocuts are so good, with effective uses of simple color palettes and pleasing round lines contrasted by the texture of printing. This is a polished, indulgent, silly, twee, highkey spoopy-cute aesthetic package ... and an instructive introduction to library amenities and etiquette. It's missing something when compared to Ghosts in the House, which is smarter and more contained. But it sure is cute.
Title: The Lost Kitten
Author: Nicola Killen
Published: Simon & Schuster, 2020
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 25
Total Page Count: 379,570
Text Number: 1419
Read Because: this list of Halloween picture books, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: "How sad and endangered is this kitten that I found outdoors; oops, I forget that I left my own cat unsupervised outside" unintentionally and ironically summarizes my issues with cats in picture books, so I would reiterate them. The grey and orange art touched by copper foil is a great choice—I don't know if I've ever seen foil on interior pages of a picture book?—that enlivens otherwise mediocre art. This on the sweet, spoopy, oh so gently atmospheric, cozy side of Halloween picture books. It's cute to browse, but not memorable.
