Coelho (U.K. Children’s Laureate 2022-2024) has written twenty-five original poems celebrating all things scary and spooky, covering topics such as ghosts, monsters, and graveyards. There is a sentence at the beginning of most poems describing its type, which includes limericks, tankas, poems with a repeating line, whispered poems, and more. Teachers could use this to inspire students to write some of these types of poems. Overall, the spooky theme and monster characters will attract readers, even if a few of the poems do not have solid rhymes (such as creak and creep). The full color cartoon illustrations feature children of various races and add to the fun, and keep the collection from being too scary.

This was such a creative read! I loved the concept of spooky poetry, but I didn’t expect it to be interactive, let alone educational! I read it as an adult, but I think this book appears targeted to kids when it was still enjoyable for a college educated woman in her 30s. I would get this book for my child while also gifting it to someone during spooky season, or anyone who enjoys Halloween vibes year round :)

I can’t wait to see this on shelves :)

What a cute idea to explain to children the rules and forms of poetry. What I obviously adored was the spooky vibes!!

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book. These opinions are completely my own.

I love poetry and love anything that may inspire kids to show an interest in it. This book is a great tool for that. I will be using the prompts to write my examples tonight.

This is a super cute book for kids who love a spooky read! The poems are enjoyable to read and many of them will make you laugh out loud. It is definitely a great addition to a fall reading list.

This wasn't quite what I had expected. I thought it would be geared a bit younger. The cover gives the impression that the poems might be greared toward K-3. Kind of like Shel Silverstein but spooky.

Where it does best is poems that are kept simple and rhyming, with clear examples of the form or technique explained. Some of the poems are definitely for an older audience - upper middle grade.

I'm not sure writing for children is Joseph Coelho's strength. Children who have a lot of experience with poetry might find this enjoyable, but I'm not sure it's accessible enough to younger kids who might be exploring, and they are likely the ones to be pulled in by the appeal of the cover.

Okay book, but disappointing.

I must admit I did not expect myself to be so bored by a spooky book. I love all things Halloween and monsters and creepy, but this little poems book for kids was not it. Some poems were nice and fun, but overall I felt like this book did not quite deliver.

Also, the poems instructions and notes were not needed - I know this could work as a nice activity for kids, but maybe it was a little bit too much and it did not fit the book.

This book is perfect to introduce Children and even Adults to poetry and the illustrations are great.

This is such a fun little book for introducing poetry to children, and I’m sure little fans of creepy things will absolutely adore it.

Not only is the poetry excellent and perfect for reading aloud, but there’s also an educational element with information about different poetry styles, I even learned something new from reading it myself. Even the illustrations are adorable.

Highly recommended for learning to read aloud, and especially for children with love of scary things!

Big thanks to Netgalley, Quarto Publishing group – Wide eyed Editions and the author Joseph Coelho for allowing me to read an E-Arc of this book.

I love these simple spooky poems. Before each poem it give you advice on how to create new spooky poems, such as using onomatopoeia or using different spooky adjectives.

This would be a great gift for kids! Though, for the little ones, there should be parental assistance. I mean the zombie was a bit intense! I love that there’s a short intro about the kind of poem and some short exercises before the poem starts.

A book with poetry, illustrations and prompts/ideas for reading with children to create their own poems. Four stars for the illustrations and ideas, leading to other work. To be honest I found much of the actual poetry average to good at best, in terms of writing, engagement and 'spookiness'. But the Aloud books in general are well-used and I'm sure the additional work involved will make this of value from that perspective.

I read this book to with my favorite 8 year old and she absolutely loved it. The rhymes were her favorite part. My favorite was that there’s information about different kinds of poems. The illustrations were adorable and spooky. I’m definitely going to pick up a copy of this book once it’s released.

I really enjoyed this book. It let me introduce poems to my 6 year old. Not only are the spooky poems fun to read, but the book is very informative about poem writing, giving lots of hints and tips so children can try their own hand at poem writing. There are other activities to do too, my 6 year old really enjoyed it and it was nice to read something different.

I read this book with my 7 year old daughter, she enjoyed it. I liked how it explained types of poems and gave examples for each. The poems were cute and fun and it was beautiful to look at.

The artwork was beautiful and anyone who is a fan of spooky children's books would enjoy this.

This cute poetry collection for kids was accessible and entertaining. I liked that the author included a description of poetry types as well as a guide for what the reader should think about for some of the poems and suggestions for writing their own. This book would work well as summer enrichment or for a home schooling lesson on poetry. I was provided a free copy of this book by the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

A fun book with spooky and silly poems. I really enjoyed that they type of poem was listen. It was educational and fun.

Silly spooky and witty poems. Very entertaining and would make a great gift. Easy to read and fast to get through.

Such fun artwork and spooky but fun poems! As a teacher, I enjoyed the prompts for students to write their own versions of the poems and the introduction of literary devices without prattling on and on about them. Very user-friendly, both for teachers and students!

I had high expectations going into this, but I have to admit that the poems were, for the most part, underwhelming. And overall the book seemed to be in lack of a target audience. The poems are written more for a younger reader, along with illustration to match, but the actual instructions and some of the language chosen, speaks to a more mature reader, someone who is looking to experiment in poetry and more advanced poetry concepts.

As a result, I think that the book fell short of the mark. A younger reader or their parent may pick it up looking for cool poems with pictures to read aloud and maybe learn a few things about poetry writing to kick start them on this path, and I just feel like they would be struggling and confused. And this would be totally bypassed by someone older in the middle and high school years who are perhaps better candidates for the teaching portion of this book. But they would find the poems probably childish and simple, and they would not really embrace the picture book style.

So, while it's a great effort, it does need a better sense of direction.