Waking up one Halloween morning quite hungry, Naggy, Craggy and Scraggy Witch decide to make bone soup in this deliciously spooky picture-book. Soon off to their monstrous neighbor's house, they request some water to boil their bone. What follows is an unusual trick-or-treating experience, as the three witches, as well as a growing assortment of creepy companions, slowly add ingredient after ingredient to their tasty brew. Finishing off with a little magic, their bone soup is ready to feed everyone...

Offering an entertaining Halloween take on the classic folktale of Stone Soup, Bone Soup: A Spooky, Tasty Tale pairs an engagingly eery tale from American author Alyssa Satin Capucilli with creepy but cute artwork from British illustrator Tom Knight. An amazing array of creature - monsters, ghosts, ghouls, bats, skeletons, mummies, werewolves, vampires - contribute to the witches' soup, and each one is depicted in a charming way. I really enjoyed the visuals here, which bumped this one up from a three to a four-star book in my estimation. The inclusion of a recipe for bone soup at the rear was also a nice touch. Recommended to anyone seeking Halloween picture-books. ( )

I think this book was adorable for Halloween. I like how they use the trick or treat method to get ingredients for the soup. It reminds me of going trick or treating myself. Another thing I enjoy is that at the end of the book there is a recipe for the soup they made in the book. I this is a fun activity for children.

Capucilli, author of Biscuit and many other titles, turns out a cheerful, if rather gross, Halloween book. In a play on the classic "Stone Soup" story, Naggy, Craggy, and Scraggy Witch have nothing to eat but a bone - so they decide to make bone soup! They carry their cauldron and bone to a town and begin knocking on doors. With cheerful exclamations, "Piff-poof! It's no trick." they request help from the various monsters, ghosts, and ghouls they meet and add to their bone water, eyeballs, crunchy lizard tails, dead leaves, and more.

Just when the monsters are getting restless, a little monster supplies the final, magic ingredient and they all settle in to enjoy a bewitching and "bone-chillingly delicious" treat.

The final page includes a recipe for Naggy Witch's Bone Soup (it can be made with a turnip or ham bone and a variety of vegetables) and a note from the author on the origins of the story and how she chose to reinterpret it.

This isn't the first reimagining of Stone Soup for Halloween; Cambria Evan's 2008 title, Bone Soup was a more straight-forward reimagining of the tale with a wandering, round-faced monster interesting a variety of monstrous villagers in whipping up a batch of "bone soup" after they refuse to feed him or bring out their delicacies. This title is more text-heavy but lighter in feeling, with no hints of a trick, just sharing amongst monsters. While both are reviewed as not scary, I still wouldn't use them with a toddler or preschool audience, especially where there are concerns about Halloween celebrations. Save this one for elementary students who can sit through a longer story, are comparing folktale versions, or want to try out a little cookery on their own.

Verdict: A fun addition with activities to your Halloween collections; purchase where Evan's Bone Soup and other ghoulish treats are popular.

ISBN: 978148148608; Published July 2018 by Simon and Schuster; Review copy provided by the publisher; Donated to the library