Old Devil Wind

A brightly illustrated, cumulative tale tells the story of the night a great wind blows and blows, shaking a house and all its inhabitants, as ghosts wail, owls hoot, candles flicker, and still the wind keeps blowing.

A nicely spooky cumulative Halloween tale that begins: ``One dark and stormy night Ghost floated out of the wall and he began to WAIL. Stool said, `Ghost, why do you wail?' Ghost said, `It is a dark and stormy night and so I wail.' Stool said, `Then I shall thump.' '' By the time the wind comes to ask the witch why she's flying around the house, the cumulation--including ``Candle flickers/Fire smokes/Window rattles [and] Owl hoots''--has mounted to ten for the wind to blow away (``and the WIIIINDOOOOWWW and the FLOOOOOOOR and the DOOOOOOOR...and they didn't come back till HALLOWEEN NIGHT!'' The mounting cadence will be splendid aloud; kids will begin to chime in on the first reading. Root's dark, swirling paintings of the thoroughly haunted house, lit with a ghostly glow, are right in the proper spirit. (Picture book. 3-8) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 5-8. A good cumulative tale for Halloween, this picture book concerning events at a haunted house actually begins, "One dark and stormy night. . .ÿ20." First, Ghost begins to wail, then Stool begins to thump, Broom begins to Swish, and so on until the place is really jumping with spooky effects. The text, which evidently was first published in another form in 1971, is simple enough for a novice storyteller to learn, but in telling the story alone one would miss the visual atmosphere provided by Root's effective artwork. In the deep-toned paintings, shadowy lights illuminate the scenes of usually inanimate objects come to life. For those who like their scary stories spooky rather than silly or sugar-coated, here's a picture book to share. Carolyn Phelan