- Wonderfully spooky Halloween illustrations
- Increasingly scary Halloween poem with a suprising, and funny, ending
- Not a good Halloween book for young children or kids who get scared easily
- Not for those who don't like books about ghouls, ghosts, and similar creatures
- Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
- Copyright: 2006
- ISBN: 9780805074291
- Format: Picture Book
- Author: Marisa Montes, who also wrote Juan Bobo Goes to Work, A Pura Belpre Honor Book
- Ilustrator: Yuyi Morales, the author and illustrator of Just a Minute, which won the Pura Belpre Award
The Story
In addition to the black cats (los gatos), all of the creatures of the night come out on Halloween, including witches, skeletons, ghosts, phantoms, ghouls, and more. Tension mounts as midnight strikes, and werewolves and corpses appear. The creatures all go to a haunted hall for a monstrous ball, only to be frightened at the end by the children who come to the door yelling, "trick or treat! After all the scary images, this surprise ending is a laugh-out-loud mood brightener.Montes incorporates about two dozen Spanish words in the poem, being careful to make their meanings obvious through context clues or repeating the word in English in the next line. There is also a glossary at the end of the book. Los Gatos on Halloween is a scary, but fun, addition to the many children's picture books for Halloween.





