Product Description

Presents with illustrations the celebrated author's poem of scary, ghostly things.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2317768 in Books
• Published on: 1994-08-09
• Released on: 1994-08-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback

From Publishers Weekly
Ray's haunting illustrations of cummings's Halloween poem is both trick and treat. "Little ghostthings / tip-toe / twinkle-toe" and "hob-a-nob" through the shadowy night. They "rustle and run" and "hide hide hide" on pages filled with darkling forms. "Hist whist" the reader is warned; "look out for the old woman / with the wart on her nose . . . for she knows the devil." But all is not just what it seems. The warty witch and sharp-clawed devils grow increasingly scary, but children's fears will be allayed by the unmasking on the last page of costumed tricksters who wave devilish masks and grin like cherubs. Ray's eerie illustrations startle: witches and goblins scuttle through midnight blue and huddle round red-gold autumn bonfires with such vividness one can almost smell the burning leaves. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

e. e. cummings for children
In the Halloween thriller hist whist, e. e. cummings' poem is beautifully illustrated into a timeless children's picture book. Amazingly, a single poem comprises this book. While some that are unfamiliar with cummings' style may be confused by his nonsense vocabulary, syntax stretches, and other irregularities, the veteran reader will acknowledge this as yet another wonderful free verse accomplishment of cummings. The alliteration in this poem superiorly extends itself to young audiences. The excited mood created by such phrases as "tip-toe/twinkle-toe" and "eyes rustle and run and/hidehidehide" transport the rushing, dancing reader to through the scary lines.

However, this would likely not make the children's book list without the expert watercolor and colored pencil drawings of Deborah Kogan Ray. Her illustrations wonderfully enhance cummings' already vibrant poem. The autumnal drawings are dark, but still somehow glow with life and vivacity. Ray well understands the concept of positive and negative space, and her artwork demonstrates this. The frightening creatures described are accurately and creatively drawn, and just when one is beginning to fear, the cheerful, grinning faces of the costumed children relieve the reader.

This amazing and beautiful book is a wonderful addition to children's literature; e. e. cummings and Deborah Kogan Ray together created a terrific Halloween story, hist whist.