When he was alive, Mr. Wilkerson was an ill-tempered, disagreeable, sour, and impatient old man. Once he died, he got better. But not much. Now he is back and very, very hungry. When Jack and his grandma move into the old Wilkerson house, they find out just how hungry, and why. At least they think they know. It has something to do with pie. A perfect pie. Kindergarten-Grade 3–The talented and prolific Cazet scores again. It's Halloween night, and when Mrs. Wilkerson tells her grouchy husband that there won't be any pie in the afterlife, he declares, Then I ain't goin'! Then he keels over face down in the pie pan, dead with a fork in his hand. His wife buries him in the pumpkin patch, moves away, and that's that. Or is it? Of course not. A boy and his grandmother move into the house and are visited on the next Halloween by a wonderfully earthy ghost (with a fork sticking out of his brain and a removable eyeball) who is in search of the perfect pumpkin pie. This tale makes a great read-aloud, complete with the catchy refrain: Pumpkins, pumpkins,/pumpkin pie!/I must have one/before I die./It must be round/and brown as toast,/or I'll haunt this house/a hungry ghost. The watercolor cartoons are dynamic and funny, bursting with details that kids will love (the ghost makes his exits in a swirl of chaotic lines filled with baking utensils). Even if your holiday shelves are crowded, make room for this one. –Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. PreS-Gr. 2. Just in time for Halloween story hours comes this tingly yarn about a cantankerous ghost in search of the perfect pie. On Halloween night, mean Old Man Wilkerson collapses into his plate while taking a bite of pumpkin pie. His wife buries him in the pumpkin patch and moves away, and young Jack and his grandmother move into the house. Their Halloween baking raises Wilkerson's ghost, which appears with "an icy wind" and demands the perfect pie: "It must be round and brown as toast, or I'll haunt this house a hungry ghost." On their third attempt, Jack and Grandmother finally appease their finicky specter. Swirling, chaotic, splattered watercolors, reminiscent of Stephen Gammel's work, create a humorous and also abhorrent ghost in Wilkerson, complete with grisly details (a detached eyeball coolly appraises finished pies), all nicely balanced with images of bossy, unflappable Grandma. A few sensitive kids may find Wilkerson's abrupt death upsetting, but most will delight in this rollicking, sometimes gruesome Halloween ghost story. For readers wanting a book about another haunted kitchen, suggest Jacqueline Ogburn's The Bake Shop Ghost (2005). Gillian Engberg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Denys Cazet is the author and illustrator of more than forty books for children. Among these are such favorites as Never Spit on Your Shoes, I’m Not Sleepy, and fourteen titles in the Minnie and Moo series for beginning readers. He lives with his wife and sons in Pope Valley, California.