Freak369's Full Review: Mary Jane Auch - Poultrygeist
Being a huge fan of all things Halloween, it was inevitable that I receive this book as a gift. Be it for my birthday, Halloween or some other gift giving time of the year, my friends have turned to the kids book section to shop for me. I guess they got tired of me saying, “I really like this [insert item name] but I already have one” type of comment when they would get me cookie cutters, lawn ornaments or other spooky things. “Poultrygeist” was the latest addition to my ever growing library of creepy, haunted, spooky and Halloween themed books; when I saw the cover of it I was hoping it would be something about a possessed chicken or possibly some kind of after life experience. The story is cute enough but for some reason the ending just didn’t feel right to me. That’s not to say that there is anything wrong with this, not in the least, it’s just I would have expected / hoped for it to have turned out a little different than it did. You’ll never hear me say that I am some grand connoisseur of children’s picture books or literature but surely the author could have come up with something a tad bit more creative.
The Poultrygeist
Rudy and Ralph are best friends, best friends would also happen to be roosters. Very loud roosters that fight over who gets the best place to sleep, who gets to wake everyone up in the morning and eventually who was or was not afraid of the ominous Poultrygeist. The first part of the book gives you some good detail on the animals that live on the farm including Clarissa the cow and Sophie the pig; two key figures in the whole tale of the Poultrygeist. No one really complained about the amount of noise that Ralph and Rudy made but it did tend to get one the nerves of a certain pig and a certain cow. Things only got worse for the bovine and swine when everyone started making a racket about the big Halloween Poultry Parade.
Gathered in the barn, all the animals were chirping, squawking and clamoring about what they were going to be for Halloween as well as finishing up their costumes. There, in the corner sudden rose a huge monster. Clad in white with beady little eyes, it scared every single animal out of the barn – so much so that none of them dare return to it. It wasn’t until all the animals were gathered outside trying to make heads and tails of what happened that Clarissa and Sophie started telling then what the monster was.
The evening of the Poultry Parade finally arrived and the animals had a grand time playing and showing off their costumes. As the night got colder they all went back into the barn with Rudy and Ralph being the last two in. They started fighting over who got to sleep where and then, just as Clarissa said the day before, their noise work up the Poultrygeist! Both of them thought they were dead, d-e-a-d, dead. Trying to run out of the barn, Rudy ran right into the belly of the beast, but it felt more like feed sacks and a ghostly monster. There, under the sheets, stood the swine and the bovine. Surprise … surprise.
My Take
Well, the real ending of the story is when Sophie has more than enough of their fighting over who was scared and who wasn’t and she sits on them to teach them a lesson. To me that just isn’t a suitable ending. I mean, if I were a kid and I were reading that I would have wanted all the animals to have a good laugh then go to sleep or something “nice”. Having a pig sit on two chickens to teach them a lesson and “shut them up” just doesn’t do it for me. The story itself is cute but the ending, in my opinion, was lame. It was sort of like the author just slapped that in at the end and said “It’s just a kids book, who really cares?”. As far as the illustrations go, for the most part they are really cool but there are some that are just a little too out there for even my taste. Like the pigs snout – it’s elongated and looks pretty grotesque. I’d say that this is a good book for kids but I’d be lying. Maybe for a quick read a few days before Halloween but even then, younger kids might get scared by some of the drawings and older kids will more than likely say the same thing about the ending. I really hate saying that the ending ruined the book, but in all honesty, it did for me.
The Bottom Line
I am not the kind of person that expects a happy ending all the time. If that were the case then every book would end with “and they lived happily ever after” – or something to that effect. Maybe I am being too obsessive about the ending, maybe I am being too harsh because of some of the drawings – but to me this is an “average” book; something that you check out of the library or read to a group of kids once or twice but it’s not something that I’d sink $16.95 [the suggested retail price] into if I were looking for a Halloween book. Like I said, to me the book just seemed like it was rushed at the end. If everyone had a good laugh or Rudy and Ralph agreed to try and tame things down it for Clarissa and Sophie, it would have been a much better ending. This makes for a nice quick read but you might want to check it out in advance before you take this into a classroom or read it to the younger kids.
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