Ed Masessa (The Windmaker's Guidebook) and Matt Myers (Battle Bunny) imagine a double life for a straw man in this rollicking, goose-pimply picture book.
A full moon in autumn gets a scarecrow moving. "The magic is building. The ground comes alive./ Troublesome creatures begin to arrive." Myers portrays the scarecrow wearing a red-and-white plaid shirt with a matching patch on his jeans, button eyes (one brown, one blue), white gloves, a dilapidated straw hat and red hightops. When he loosens the ropes that bind him to his post, "he slips out of his skin," revealing a skeleton in polka-dotted boxers, diving into a pond. He's a happy fellow, belting out a tune as "ghoulies and ghosties dance under the moon." The spot-on rhyme scheme and haunting artwork nicely walk the line between creepy and funny: the looks of the goblins range from one that resembles a fir tree with a tail and glasses to another that looks like a bunny with an overbite. The nighttime denizens jump double-Dutch by the light of the moon and roll "round, knobby pumpkins" on a makeshift bowling lane with "long lumpy gourds" as their pins. There's just enough "ew" to please young readers ("A ghoul's favorite snack has the odor of feet"), and as the sun rises, the nighttime denizens begin to take cover, hiding evidence of their amusements as they go. "Back on this post, Scarecrow zips up his skin./ Fun time has ended Soon work must begin."
Author and artist suggest there's a time and place for work and play, and the fixtures we take for granted may well have a secret existence. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness