I was at a bookstore browsing Halloween books and spotted A Halloween Scare in Chicago. I was instantly drawn to it since my kids really enjoy books that feature the city. (Our favorite is Larry Gets Lost in Chicago, which I highly recommend.) Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed with A Halloween Scare in Chicago although I was amused by a couple of details including a rather big mistake.
A Halloween Scare in Chicago is a cute enough book. I was disappointed because although Chicago locations and landmarks were mentioned and shown in pictures the story did not feel like it had much to do with Chicago. In fact, Eric James and Marina La Ray have an entire series of A Halloween Scare in books for a variety of cities and states. I’m guessing that if I read more of the books the stories would be basically the same with different place names inserted Mad Libs style.
Still, there were a couple of details that are scary to people in Chicago (although the first one may be true of many cities).
The book reinforces the idea that city people are scared of creatures from the suburbs.
But the scariest thing in this book is that it dares to refer to the Sears Tower by the name-that-shall-not-be-named. Plus, the picture shows the Hancock Building not the Sears Tower.
That’s enough to make any Chicagoan scream.
This book wasn’t for me, but feel free to read it IF YOU DARE!
If you are looking for a better Halloween story, I suggest ‘Twas the Night Before Halloween, but I may be a bit biased.
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Kim Z. Dale 