Spooky ABC
Poet Eve Merriam and Caldecott Honor artist Lane Smith have mastered  creepy. In 1987, they first created the award-winningHalloween ABC, and  this deliciously sinister collection of poems and paintings has been redesigned  by Molly Leach, digitally corrected, "spooked up," and rereleased asSpooky  ABC. Smith first completed the project as a wordless picture book, depicting  the 26 letters of the alphabet and their Halloweenish symbols... C for cat, for  example. When Macmillan decided the book needed powerful words to accompany the  dramatic paintings, they signed on poet Eve Merriam. In the bookmaking process,  some of Merriam's choices for poem subjects trumped Smith's original  illustrations--"vampire" became "viper," "yeti" became "yeast," "tree" became  "trap," and "cat" became "crawler." "Invisible" disappeared into "icicle." At  the end of this 2002 edition is a fascinating recap of "the awful truth behind  the making ofSpooky ABC" as well as a glimpse at Smith's wonderful  "lost" paintings."A is for apple" sounds friendly enough, until you see the creepy claw that  holds the fruit above the flames and the words, "Delicious, / malicious; / one  bite and / you're dead." B is for bat, as you might suspect, C is for crawler, D  for demon... X for xylophone ("bones to clang / bones to bang"), Y for yeast  ("rise rise / seethe spread / fuss fume / foam spume"), Z is for zero ("Nothing  but hollow / holes for eyes"). The poems, from A to Z, are often chilling, and  do not shy away from the darkest corners of human fears. They are also brilliant  and rhythmic, as shown in "Mask:" "Guises, disguises, / all kinds of surprises:  / A peasant's a king, / a king's a knave, / a knave's a donkey, / a donkey's a  slave" or in "Nightmare:" "Nay nay nay / never get away / writhing writhing / in  woe woe woe / too late to tell/ friend from foe." Smith's paintings are  gorgeous, moody, dark, but not without whimsy. Together, this creative team has  produced a macabre masterpiece to be treasured every Halloween or full moon.  (Ages 8 and older, not for the faint of heart!)--Karin Snelson