by Moe Zilla

Created on: May 30, 2010

"Once upon a time there was a little old lady who was not afraid of anything!"

Of course, with a beginning like that, the book has to lead her into a scary situation. She leaves her cottage for a walk in the forest, and soon the sun sets, and a sliver of moon lights the path. Suddenly she stops, and in the middle of her path home are two big shoes with nobody inside  them, going CLOMP, CLOMP!  "Get out of my way, you two big shoes!" the old lady says.

"I'm not afraid of you..."

It's a fun story, partly because the strange things which appear in the scary parts really aren't particularly scary. (I mean, who's really afraid of a pair of shoes?) The next thing the lady encounters is a pair of pants with nobody inside them. ("And the pants went WIGGLE, WIGGLE.") The old lady still isn't afraid, but as she continued down the pathway, behind her she still heard "CLOMP CLOMP" and "WIGGLE WIGGLE"...

Next it's a shirt which goes SHAKE, SHAKE, which the old lady calls "silly," though she still hears it sneaking along with the others. She meets a pair of white opera gloves and a tall black hat (going CLAP, CLAP and NOD, NOD), though she still isn't afraid, but further down the pathway, it's "a very huge, very orange, very scary pumpkin head." And honestly, it does look a little scary.

Though Linda Williams wrote the story, much of its personality comes from illustrator Megan Lloyd. They're simple but realistic drawings, showing the dark-haired lady with thoughtful dots for eyes, and the bright red dress she wears contrasts nicely with the dark black tree trunks along the path through the woods. The shirt's arms actually fold themselves with impatience as the lady stops to talk to the disembodied opera gloves, and the whole procession seems delightfully grand with the gloves floating at the front of the line, clapping. But the jagged smile of the orange pumpkin in the dark black trees really does look a little frightening. And unlike all the articles of clothing, the pumpkin head actually has something scary to say.

"BOO, BOO!"

It turns out the little old lady can be scared - at least, judging by the frightened expression on her face (and the way that she runs all the way back to her lonely cottage). It's a surprisingly original Halloween story, and despite it's repetitive pattern, it arrives at a surprisingly happy ending. She locks the door and sits by her fire, but then she hears a knock on her door. ("What do you think she saw?" the narrator asks ominously.)  All the clothes have assembled themselves into scary pumpkin-headed ghost on her doorstep - and it's very unhappy that it's been unable to frighten the little old lady!

But by the book's last page, the two of them have become friends. And she even gives the ghost a job...as her scarecrow!

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