Dav Pilkey: a Man for All (Picture Book) Seasons

Categories: Children's Books

Whether it be Halloween, Christmas, etc., I love a good seasonal picture book.  They’re perfect for when you feel like you’ve read the child in your life every one of their books, a million times.  It’s great to share a fresh, topical story: although sometimes with all the picture book choices out there, it’s hard to single out the best ones.  Lucky for you, that’s what I get paid to do. I have a great author/illustrator to recommend, for all of your holiday picture book needs.  Dav Pilkey has sweet, funny books about Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, so you will be all set, at least until the Fourth of July.  In the meantime, here’s a few suggestions for you and your family, so, enjoy!

The other day, I read my favorite Halloween picture book, The Hallo-wiener, for the first time this year.    The Hallo-wiener is one of those perfect picture books, the child in your life will really like it, but there’s enough little inside jokes that an adult, too, will get a kick out of the story.  The book is about Oscar, a dachshund who has big plans for his Halloween costume.  The only problem is that his mother has some plans of her own; she purchases a giant hotdog bun costume for him.  When the other dogs see this, they laugh themselves silly.  How Oscar manages to turn things around (c’mon, you really didn’t think he wasn’t going to turn things around, did you?!) is not to be missed.  What is also not to be missed is the silly little asides throughout the book, my favorite being when Oscar’s mom is at the front door, waving goodbye to him, and calling out, “farewell my little Vienna sausage!”  I don’t want to say that if you don’t like this book that there is something wrong with you, but, really, that pretty much is the case.

Once Halloween is passed, you really must move on to Dav Pilkey’s next seasonal masterpiece,  ‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving.  Told in the style of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, this book is about a group of school kids who visit a turkey farm just before Thanksgiving.  The kids are having a great time with their turkey friends; "now Ollie, now Stanley, now Larry and Moe, on Wally, on Beaver, on Shemp and Groucho!"  Things take a turn, though, once the class realizes what Farmer Mack Nugget really has in store for their fine-feathered friends.  The children attempt a rescue, but I won’t give the ending away here; let me just say, it’s clever and satisfying.

What’s also clever and satisfying is the Christmas book Dav Pilkey has illustrated (Sue Denim wrote the text), The Dumb Bunnies’ Easter.  I know what you’re thinking, and no, you didn’t miss anything, I said Easter.  The Dumb Bunnies live up to their name by celebrating Easter on December 25.  This book involves a convergence of various holiday traditions, so at our house, we treat it as a holiday two-fer; we read it both at Christmas and Easter time.  The Dumb Bunnies hang their stockings (while Baby Bunny is still wearing his), and color their eggs (after they fry them, of course), all on the same day.  The high point of the celebration is when Santa arrives in a minivan, pulled by eight flying pilgrims.