Book Review: Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Halloween, Mélanie Watt's Scaredy Squirrel Series Title 7

The preface describes Scaredy as: 

• disliking danger, germs, and unpredictability; 
• liking hard hats, lists, plans, rubber gloves, safety goggles and kits; and 
• quizzing readers Reacting In Panic to fruit bats, haunted houses, pumpkins, and spiderwebs. 

Chapters #1 and #4 exteriorize caution tape-cordoned Halloween obstacle courses of: 

• carnivorous plants; 
• cauldrons; 
• ghost- and goblin-busting high speed-run blenders; 
• ladders; 
• sea monster-filled ponds;
• UFOs;
• vampire-busting garlic;
• werewolf-busting doghouses; and
• witch-busting scarecrows. 

Chapter #2 focuses upon: 

• carving friendly-faced jack-o'-lanterns; 
• covering furniture with sheets; 
• creating spooky sounds with chalkboard-writing, chewing gum-smacking, laundry loads, and television static; 
• decorating with black bowties, hats, and umbrellas; 
• propping with orange balls, hard hats, life jackets, and safety cones; and 
• serving black cakes and orange carrots and popsicles. 

Chapters #3 and #6 give information on: 

• fear-gauging scary, terrifying, unscary themed costumes (action, classic, fairytail, hero, humor, science fiction, and villain); 
• making ping-pong ball-eyed, vacuum hose-limbed spider, safety cone-covered sea urchin, and toilet-papered mummy costumes; and 
• outsmarting Dracula, Frankenstein, mummies, and witches with brooms, countdowns, mirrors, and twirls. 

Chapter #5 has convenience ratings on chocolate, gum, hard and soft candies, and jellybeans and warnings against expired or half-eaten treats. Chapters #7 and #8 include: 

• apple-bobbing and trick-or-treating darkened, isolated houses with untamed lawns cautions; 
• caution tape-outlined playing-dead floor shapes; 
• costume contests, snakes and ladders board games, tongue twisters, and zombie brain-teasers; 
• pipe organ gloom-tunes; and 
• snack tables with devilish eggs, misfortune cookies, monster-mashed potatoes, and sandwitches. 

North America's northern and southern flying squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus, G. volans) juxtapose spacious bio-geographies with security-oriented, socializing, stay-at-home, thermo-regulating life cycles and natural histories. They know no hibernation even though they venture more cautiously and infrequently away from communal tree-trunk cavities in fall and winter. They live in sylvan predator/prey niches where they prioritize eluding natural enemies and gathering for downtime, forages, mealtimes, and sleep. 

Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Halloween provides -- for pre-kindergarteners to third-graders aged 4 to 8 years -- culturally enriching, educationally entertaining adventures with: 

• Kids Can Press Ltd.'s Mélanie Watt Productions; 
• Paramount Printing Co.Ltd.'s smyth sewn casebound product; and 
• Mélanie Watt, author, Potato Cut-set text's acrylic and charcoal-penciled artwork designer and jacket illustrator. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Southern Flying Squirrels (Glaucomys volans) are one of only two species of New World flying squirrels.
Distribution of Glaucomys volans species and subspecies (G. chontali, G. goldmani, G. herreranus, G. madrensis, G. oaxacensis, G. querceti, G. saturatus, G. texensis, G. underwoodi)
distribution based upon Dolan & Carter, Glaucomys volans (1978) and Kerhoulas & Arbogast, Mesoamerican Flying Squirrels (2010): derivative work by Toter Alter Mann, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glaucomys_volans_distribution.svg

Southern Flying Squirrel young'un
Lac Notre-Dame, Montfort, Wentworth-Nord, Québec, eastern Canada: Laurent Bélanger, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Petit_polatouche_(Écureuil_volant)_(Glaucomys_volans)_(1).jpg

Baby Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus)
Carolina Northern Flying Squirrels are a subspecies of Northern Flying Squirrels found only in the Southern Appalachians where northern hardwood forests give way to spruce-fir forests
Asheville, Buncombe County, western North Carolina: G. Peeples/USFWS www.fws.gov/asheville, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carolina_northern_flying_squirrel_(7651413424).jpg

Southern Flying Squirrels (Glaucomys volans) test their gliding abilities anywhere, anytime.
Southern Flying Squirrel in characteristic square-shaped glide: Michael Hays (Bluedustmite at English Wikipedia), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jill_Flying_1.jpg

a Southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) in the branches of a Red Maple (Acer rubrum) tree
Caldwell County, northwestern North Carolina: Ken Thomas, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Southern_Flying_Squirrel-27527-2.jpg

Watt, Mélanie. 2013. Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Halloween. Scaredy Squirrel Series Title #7. Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and Tonawanda, NY, USA: Kids Can Press.