Cassie’s Creepy Candy Store

Sheila Sauvageau-Smestad
A Better Be Write Publisher (2005)
ISBN 0976773228
Reviewed by Geri Edens for Reader Views (4/06)

This 40 page storybook is sure to please children with its wildly imaginative candy creations. The large print is easy to read and Sheila Sauvageau-Smestad has cleverly written her story in rhyming couplets. This gives the story rhythm and teaches children about poetry and what fun it can be. The story greets the reader at the front door of Cassie’s Creepy Candy Store and then leads you inside if you dare. The story is more silly than scary and will surely bring a smile to children’s faces as they read about sugary sweets like white chocolate cat whiskers, chocolate cake puppy dog paws and cotton candy spider webs.

Kelly Berg’s illustrations are colorfully creepy with every page accented by color coordinated squiggles and page numbers hidden in crawling vines and cobwebs. Kelly’s drawings are very detailed and lifelike and she gives the characters human characteristics like braces, pockets, zippers, freckles, different colored hair and eyes. She fills the background with other jars of goodies and uses bright colors throughout the book.

The final three pages are fun puzzles that challenge the reader to go on a treasure hunt to find the different items they’ ve read about in the story, a maze to get customers to the store and a puzzle that asks them to match two pictures from six almost identical ones. Cassie’s Creepy Candy Store is definitely a book that children will want to read over and over and not just for Halloween.

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