Review: Very Basic Book, the Character on the Front Cover is Just Reprinted Wearing Different Outfits
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 25, 2013
Halloween Costumes is a very basic book of the one character reprinted (the guy on the cover) wearing a different workplace uniform each time.  Doesn't really have anything specific to do with Halloween, could easily be titled what do different people do to earn a living or something like this.  I disagree with a reviewer who states there are no female careers in here so it's a boys only book.  Other than an English gentlemen (all the characters are British versions of police, judges etc), all the careers can be aspired to or a when I grow up dream for either gender.  I think the book would be a bit controversial if it used male and female characters for each job as it would imply boys should be this, girls should be that.  There is one where the character is called a male nurse, the author probably should have just used nurse but I guess they were trying to differentiate it from surgeon as I would have said the image was.There are a few occasions where the author has used the older terminology like fireman or postman, rather than the PC versions like postal deliverer or something, but I think most people accept the term man in a word as being applicable to either gender, and kids are going to hear the traditional names used probably more often than the PC correct ones all the time anyway.  Anyway I can't see a girl child reading this and going it's only for boys, I mean they don't read something like Spot Goes to School and think the message of the story only applies to dogs.The illustrations are very basic, unlike the cover there are no backgrounds, having equipment in the background would have enhanced each occupation.  There's also no image for a DJ.  The book needs to be read in portrait mode on your device since it isn't formatted properly, in landscape the text and images appear on different pages.