naphtalia's Full Review: Judith Ross Enderle and Stephanie Gordon Tessler -...
The magic store where I work also sells costumes throughout the year. Of course, Halloween becomes our biggest season. All the regular employees of the shops are big at pushing kids to read books and magazines. Our motto is that Reading is Maagic. I know, therefore, that the guys are going to love this book as much as I do.
Six Creepy Sheep is fun, sweet, humorour and clever. Judith Ross Enderle and Stephanie Gordon Tessler begin their story with:
Six creepy sheep said, "Let’s trick or treat,"one spooky Halloween night. SO…they wrapped up in sheets. Then, on little sheep feet, six creepy sheep went a-haunting.
and then bring in language skills involving alliteration, rhyme and repetition. They also use the math skill of counting backwards. Reading aloud can be a tongue twister which is great fun.
The six sheep of the story go out dressed like ghosts to trick-or-treat and collect their confectionary loot. As the sheep encounter other trick-or-treaters such as the pirates, fairies, hobos, goblins and witches, they begin to disappear. Those other characters, by the way, are other animals - pigs, donkeys, turkeys, etc. After their encounter with pirates, only five sheep remain. After the fairies pass by only four sheep remain....and so it goes.
The last ghostly sheep is walking alone in the woods when he meets a farmer who takes him to a barn where all his friends and the other trick-or-treaters they encountered are having a party.
I've read this one aloud to a four and five year old. They both found it hysterically funny especially when I had difficulty reading some of the tongue twister bits. It wasn't scary. It was just a joy for them. I am buying another copy for our shop so the men with whom I work will enjoy it. (They're all children's literature fans, too.)
Like most counting books, you can get through this one in just a couple of minutes. The illustructions have enough detail, however, that you could really take your time with this one looking for things, or pointing out things to your little one.
The illustrations are watercolor washes with pen and ink drawings. The colors here are softened which takes a bit of the edge off the spooky. Black isn't really black...it's more gray.
I like this book a lot. I wish there were ten sheep. I have actually wondered why the author chose that particular number. It seems rather arbitrary.
Six Creepy Sheep has the advantage of being short. Sometimes when you say "Just one more book", having something you can plow through so quickly is an asset. Yes, we'll be adding this book to the reading suggestions we give at the shop. It's a magic store, and we all know that Reading is Magic.
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