Title: The Kit Kat Caper
Author: Susan Ross
Illustrator: Megan Stiver
Year published: 2008
Publisher: Susan Ross
Number of pages: 28
Recommended age: 4+
Son Rating: ★★★★★
Mom Rating: ★★★★½
Reviewed by: Renee and Dominic (Mother and Son)
Summary (Amazon): A mysterious little witch in a tall black hat is trick-or-treating with her bat and her cat. This little witch isn’t your ordinary trick-or-treater. She only wants Kit Kats! Everyone thinks she looks familiar but nobody guesses who she is. There are clues in the pictures and the story. Be a detective. Discover the little witch’s identity. Make a creepy, crawly spider. Instructions included.
SON SAYS
What it’s about: This book is about a girl who goes trick-or-treating and whenever someone gives her something other than Kit Kats, then she’ll say “Don’t you have any Kit Kats?”
What I liked and disliked: I liked the little song on each page that goes like “Trick or Treat, Chocolate is Sweet, I need Some to Eat, Right Now!” I liked that she only wants Kit Kats. If it was me, I would want Coffee Crisps and Aerobars. I love those. I liked how the cat and the bird were disguised – it made me laugh. It was funny that at the end of the book, when the doggie was doing puppy dog eyes at the Kit Kat on the ground.
I liked that there was a special surprise at the end of the book, but I can’t say what it is because it will give it away. I liked that there was a cat in the story because it was cute and I have two cats too. I liked that there is a craft to do at the back of the book. I want to do it with my Mom. I also liked the poem after the story.
I liked every single thing about this book and there’s nothing I didn’t like about it.
My bottom line: This book is one of my favorite Halloween ones. I would recommend it to all boys and some girls 3 years and older.
MOM SAYS
What it’s about: This book follows the shenanigans of a little witch who goes trick-or-treating on Halloween night and who really, really, really loves Kit Kats!
What I liked and disliked: This book has all of the elements to make it a delightful read for children and grown-ups alike. The illustrations are very detailed leaving plenty of opportunities to spot unusual elements that you wouldn’t notice at a glance such as the “bat” stealing a peanut or the cat rubbing up against Mrs. Bookner leaving smudges on her dress. I really enjoyed the illustrations and I notice something different every time I go back.
The story itself is very amusing and involves a mystery that I can’t divulge here. Suffice it to say that the ending, although not completely surprising, was still quite funny. You can’t tell what will happen in the first few pages, but then the mystery is slowly revealed. Once we knew the ending, the kids and I had a lot fun going back to piece together the clues.
As far as Halloween books go, there are no elements that would frighten a young child. More than anything, the book is silly and fun. We all especially enjoyed the trick-or-treating chant and had fun coming up with different ways to sing it:
Trick or treat,
Chocolate is sweet,
I need some to eat,
Right NOW!
I like that there are a couple of bonuses in the back of the book. There is a “how-to” project for making creepy crawly spiders using basic crafting supplies. We haven’t done it yet, but my son was begging me to make them. There are also photographs of the completed crafts so you can see how to make different and unique spiders. Following the instructions for making the spiders, there is a short poem called “Spiders”. I thought it was a really cute little poem.
One quick word about word density… When I first opened the book and flipped through it, I was struck by the word density on some of the pages – in some cases 130 + words per page. At first, I thought that was quite lengthy, but then I realized that the illustrations are so detailed that a child could easily be looking at the pictures while the book is being read, without their attention suffering. Of course, that would only be true with children that have a decent attention span. I’m not sure a typical 3 year-old could pay attention that long, but each parent would have to judge that for themselves.
My bottom line: I thought this was a delightful, non-frightening, and entertaining Halloween picture book and I would recommend it to families with children 4 years and older.
The Kit Kat Caper was provided to us by the author free-of-charge in exchange for our honest review.
We shared this link at the Reading List’s Cozy Book Hop Thursdays.
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