A Brief History
On September 10, 2019, we have the pleasure of reviewing a children’s book for our readers, one themed toward our favorite holiday, Halloween! Written by TJ Ski and titled The Spook Skelly Crew, you can preview the story by checking out their YouTube trailer.
Digging Deeper
Lavishly illustrated by the author (in black and white ink drawings), the book gives you moderately rhymed lines and visual back up for the story. While not what we would call a little kids’ book, the story includes a certain amount of (mild) violence toward the monsters contained within, so the extremely young or extremely sensitive children might wait until they are several years old before reading or being read the story. If you have toddlers that enjoy a scary story, this particular book might be just fine, even for them.
Typical Halloween denizens populate the story, including the title character, a skeleton, who seeks to amass a “crew” of fellow scary things so as not to be lonely on this special night. Along the way he encounters The Mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, Count Dracula, and The Wolf Man. The book assures us on the inside information page that “No monsters were harmed in the making of this book, as it is impossible to kill the undead.” So, technically, Skelly does not kill any of the monsters! Prior to the main text, an excerpt from Ecclesiastes 4-9-12 explains why a person alone is better off with companions rather than remaining alone. After all, ‘A three ply cord is not easily broken.”
The Spook Skelly Crew reads easily and smoothly and is written to keep the youngster’s attention. The writer achieves this goal rather well. No particularly long or hard words are included, although neither is the book written in baby-talk. Adults should have no problems reading and enjoying the book themselves! We give this book our heartiest Halloween endorsement! Enjoy it if you dare…
Question for students (and subscribers): What is your favorite children’s Halloween book or story? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Ski, TJ. The Spook Skelly Crew. Three Ply Chord, 2019. (For those interested in the Library of Congress information, the book’s ID number is ISBN: 978-1-07-695230-1, and is available through Amazon Books.)
The featured image in this article, a self-photograph of Dr. Zar holding the book under review in this article, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. The book’s cover art is used in this article with the permission of its author via a Facebook message.
You can also watch a video version of this article on YouTube:
