Robert Munsch Celebrates Halloween Looting in BOO!

Robert Munsch is best known as the author of Love You Forever, a tender, tear-jerking classic picture book, so I was a little surprised when I read BOO!, his Halloween book that is illustrated by Michael Martchenko. It is not a warm and fuzzy story. In fact, the main character might be aptly described as a hooligan.  Then again, since Munsch also wrote Angela's Airplane, about a kid who semi-accidentally steals and wrecks an airplane, I probably shouldn't be too taken aback.

Lance is the child at the heart of the story, and the book is also dedicated to someone by that name. I don’t know if this tale was inspired by his personality or actions or if Munsch just decided to name the character after him; I’m a bit curious about that. Lance is a clever dark-skinned kid who looks to be at least ten. He seems to enjoy a very close relationship with his parents, who encourage his creativity. Lance’s goal is to make himself very scary, and he won’t go out trick-or-treating until he succeeds in making his parents topple over in fear at the sight of him.

This book is greatly exaggerated. Lance looks totally normal except for the ghostly pillowcase over his head. When he pulls it up and says “BOO!” he reveals a heavily painted face, and allegedly it is so horrific that it is capable of terrifying any adult into submission. When we finally get the full force of it, it’s scary, but certainly not enough to elicit that kind of reaction. Still, Lance’s insistence on giving people a fright might be excusable – it is Halloween, after all – if it weren’t for the behavior that follows.

At each stop, he takes more and more liberties in collecting goodies after the greeter has passed out. It’s a good thing for him that he apparently only stops at homes currently occupied by one person. There’s nobody else there to stop him from making off with all the Halloween candy in the bowl or emptying the refrigerator of all its tasty treats. What’s more, he has an encounter with a cop, who doesn’t seem in the least troubled when he brags about his looting and simply is interested in proving that he is too tough to be scared by some cocky kid.

The illustrations are amusing, albeit overblown. The reactions we see from those who look at Lance are absurd. The tone is comical, so I don’t think there’s much danger of young readers being frightened by all the open-mouthed expressions of terror, but a couple could be a little startling. The writing is fine, with the repetition heightening the tension but ultimately making the story even more predictable. In the end, Lance is a smart, artistic kid, but if this is the way that he channels his talents, it looks to me like he is headed for trouble, especially if all the authority figures in his life keep indulging his selfish whims.

BOO! may be rather entertaining, but the title pretty much describes my reaction to it.