Hubknuckles

November 1, 1985
K-Gr 3 -Every Halloween, a ghost called Hubknuckles comes and peers in the window and then dances outside in the trees while the children watch from inside. This Halloween, Lee tells her sisters it's just Ma or Pa using a sheet and a flashlight, and she'll creep out and dance with it tonight. After the party she goes out, sees him waiting and gathers her courage; he dances with her willingly before herding her to the house. There she sees Ma and Pa waiting with her brother and sisters. This is an interesting story, and just scary enough, especially when Lee goes out to meet the ghostthe best written part of the book. But there are portions of the text which are confusing as to who's who and of which sex, and the pictures do not always clarify this. It is also unclear in the illustrations which is Boo and which is Weezy. The illustrations themselves are in soft, black-and-white pencil. The outside scenes are pleasingly nebulous, as if gazed at through a mist. The family is comfortably ordinary looking, and the inside scenes cozy. There is an atmospheric two-page spread as Lee dances with the ghost. A story worth reading for the delicious shiver of discovery at the end, despite some of the confusion in the text and the illustrations. Annette Curtis Klause, Montgomery County Libraries, Md.