The Perfectly Horrible Halloween

The Perfectly Horrible Halloween by Nancy Poydar was a book I read to a first grade classroom on the day of Halloween. The kids absolutely loved it and were excited to see the pictures and make their own predictions! This book is about a boy named Arnold who is determined to have the the "Scariest of All" prize at the Room Thirteen Halloween Party. Arnold has his costume in his bag and talks and acts like a pirate. He is bold, mean, and scary. Mr. Jack, the bus driver, jokes "Have a horrible day" and Arnold gets off the bus.
Mr. Roche announces that it will be business as usual until the end of the day. Arnold thinks about his costume all day. "I'm going to be a pirate," boasts Arnold. He has chocolate gold coins for everybody. He thinks about his gold coins; then he thinks about his costume. Arnold heads to his cubby to look at them. He pushes aside his jacket and sees everything BUT the costume! He starts to look for it everywhere and then remembers just where is chocolate gold coins were. He knew just where his beard and eyebrows were, and his bandana, and his sword, his earring, his eyepatch, his parrot, and the tattoo. He had left them on the bus! Arnold was going to have a horrible day. Mr. Roche continues his spelling lesson, until he scolds Arnold for not listening. Arnold was feeling horrible.
Finally, Mr. Roche said it was costume time. Arnold wanted to change too. Arnold puts his jacket on backwards and his sweater too. He lets the arms dangle, and sticks pencils in his hair. He was a bug! A scary bug! The kids joke about his costume, and Arnold feels horrible. He puts his clothes back on and tries to stuff himself into his cubby. Arnold wants to get away from everybody and hide. He then spots a sheet and hides under. Arnold curls up tight and feels unnoticed.
Arnold hears the other kids having a great time at the party and thinks about how much better his Pirate costume and gold chocolate coins would have been. Arnold, the invisible, he thought to himself. "Arnold?" shouted Mr. Roche's voice. The class is puzzled and starts looking for Arnold, who has disappeared. A ghost, thought Arnold. That's what I am, a ghost! I'm eerie, spooky, and SCARY! He rose to his full height and scared the whole classroom. He howled and he whooped. It frightened everybody, and he won the "scariest of all" award.
The kids get back on the bus at the end of the day, and ask what happened to the pirate. "All aboard mates," Jack snickered. "And anyone who is too noisy will walk the plank!" Jack, the bus driver, is seen wearing Arnold's costume.
I loved this book! It was too cute. I think this would be a great read aloud to share on Halloween with your own classroom. It excites the kids, and has a hidden message as well. It teaches how to turn any bad day around!