This story is about a refugee family experiencing Halloween for the first time. The children want to go trick-or-treating and their mother is afraid to take them, luckily their dad agrees. When it comes to Halloween night and the kids all have their costumes on waiting for their dad to come home, he arrives and is sick. In the end the mom ends up taking the kids trick-or-treating and they are all surprised by the evening and in amazement. The mom also ends the evening covered in scraps of the kids costumes and enjoys the sight of herself in the mirror.

This story was fun to read and could be used in the classroom in a couple different ways. One being, teaching to children in your classroom that not all cultures celebrate Halloween and then discuss its origins. Another topic could be to discuss refugees and what that means. ( )

An endearing tale of an immigrant families first Halloween. A great inside look on the struggles some might face while growing accustomed to a new culture. ( )

This story is of an immigrant family’s first celebration of Halloween. The children in the story are excited for the holiday but the mother is unsure about it.

Anya, Dasha, Irina, and Dimitrii - the children of recent Russian immigrants - are excited to experience their very first Halloween celebration in their new country, and to participate in this strange custom of 'trick-or-treating.' Their Mama, whose natural shyness has only been accentuated by her experiences as a foreigner in this new land, wants nothing to do with such a strange-sounding holiday, and insists that the children's father must be the one to take them trick-or-treating. But when Papa comes home from work sick, on the important evening, it looks as if the children will have to miss their first Halloween. Or will they...?

An engaging holiday tale from one of my favorite smaller presses - Maine-based Tilbury House - Shy Mama's Halloween addresses the experience of Halloween (my favorite holiday!) from a slightly different perspective: that of a recent immigrant. Equally valuable as a record of a family's first steps toward integration (at least partially) into mainstream American culture, and as a celebration of Halloween's power to unite people in a spirit of community, generosity, and a little bit of mischievous mayhem, it is a book I am glad to have finally had the chance to read! That said, I did have a few questions about the time-period depicted here, and a review over on amazon claims that some of the Russian words in the text have been used incorrectly, so I'm not sure how authentic it is, as a record of Russian-American experience (the author is definitely not Russian-American).

Leaving that aside, it is still a very engaging holiday tale, one that is beautifully illustrated, and it is as this - a Halloween story - that I would primarily recommend it. ( )