There are many books for each holiday season, but everyone likes the books that cause a fright or two. An anthology of poetry and a contemporary tale are new books for the Halloween season that add to the excitement but will also tickle the funny bone!
HE DANCING SKELETON, Cynthia C. DeFelice. Illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker. Macmillan, 1989, $13.95.Combine a storyteller's energy and rhythm of "story" with poignant watercolor pictures, and you have a tale for showing and telling.
When Aaron got out of his grave . . .
"I ain't goin' back to that coffin till I feel dead."
Just plain ornery, he was . . . Pretty soon he was nothing but a skeleton.
Every time he rocked, his old bones clicked and clacked.
What a rollicking story this is!
When the town fiddler comes to court Aaron's widow . . .
Ole Aaron sat right across from them, just a-creakin' and a-crackin' and a-grinnin'.
Not since Parker illustrated Edna Preston's "Pop Corn and Ma Goodness" have I enjoyed such language, humor and "story."
DeFelice, who is a professional storyteller, and Parker are a team worth remembering.