¡Vamos!: Let’s Celebrate Halloween and Día de los Muertos [World of ¡Vamos!]
by Raúl the Third; illus. by the author; color by Elaine Bay
Preschool, Primary    Versify/HarperCollins    48 pp.
7/24    9780063277137    $16.99

Little Lobo, Bernabé, and friends, some dressed as other characters from the series, go trick-or-treating on ­Halloween night, a time when “neighborhood streets creep and crawl with extravagant weirdness—a who’s who of wonderment.” Eventually, and with their candy ­conveyances filled-to-overflowing, the group shifts gears, helping elders prepare for the next day’s start of Día de los Muertos. With Kooky Dooky, whose corn-palace home is adjacent to the cemetery, acting as host for the next two nights, the entire community comes together to pay tribute, through offerings and memories, to those they have lost. Tears are shed, but “happiness fills the air as la comunidad celebrates the lives of those who lived.” As usual in this vibrant fictional world, there are near-infinite details, references, and jokes to notice on every bursting-with-life spread; every Halloween costume, every altar and ofrenda. Spanish is naturally incorporated into the main text, ­illustrations, dialogue, sound effects, and labels. A glossary and a Día de los Muertos activity (unseen) are appended.

From the "September/October 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.