Happy Haunting, Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish is a fun Halloween book for Amelia fans. Happy Haunting has all sorts of the kinds of silly puns that we expect from an Amelia Bedelia book. Young readers love these books. It’s fun to read about a grownup who gets things so wrong and in such silly ways.
In this book, Halloween has Amelia Bedelia very confused. She comes home to find Mr. and Mrs. Rogers decorating their house for a Halloween party. You would think that by now Mr. Rogers would know better than to tell Amelia Bedelia to crack a window right after telling her to hand him a hammer! But he hasn’t, which will thrill the young reader.
The illustrations are fun, and not too spooky. The fake graveyard in the front of the house has tombstones that read “I said I was sick”, “Still Coffin”, “It’s Dark in Here”, and “I’ll be right back.” While I laughed out loud at these jokes, young listeners may find them confusing and frightening.
In the story Mr. Rogers accidentally hurts Amelia Bedelia’s feelings when he calls her daily clothes a “costume”. She has the last laugh when she dresses as one of their scarecrow decorations. Not only does she scare Mr. Rogers, but she even wins the costume contest. Along the way we are treated to silly jokes and puns about “which”, “witch”, and “bat”.
This is a “I Can Read” Level 2 book for developing readers. It does contain some large and possibly unfamiliar words like belfry, untangled, shabby, embarrassed, and gruesome. Don’t let that deter you from the book, it’s a great chance to expand your child’s vocabulary. This book also provides good opportunities for talking about expression like “in a pickle” or “I’m all ears”.
This isn’t my favorite Amelia Bedelia book, but it is a fun book for the days leading up to Halloween.
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