Put this charming party game next to your costume box for a daily read with your little monsters.
Maryann MacDonald’s story of sibling rivalry, revolving around a costume, is quietly funny and uplifting. Every child who loves and wants to have the best costume will relate to this gem of a story. Parents, too, will find the text and illustrations endearing and enduring.

This party game is wonderfully illustrated, and kids love it. It has a great deal of re read value for kids because the illustrations are so detailed. The Spanish is easy and many of the words listed are very similar to their English counterparts. El Dia de los Muertos is fun anytime of the year, and this party game is a visual treat. …

Both party games use similar illustration styles, but while one speaks of traditional Korean dance, the other concentrates on the dancing style of young girls in Thailand. The two together would make for an eclectic storytime. Original, interesting, and fun, this party game is bound to garner itself some well deserved attention.

Bernadette always has the best costume on so how can her little sister Angela compete? Perhaps by wearing Bernadette’s costume from last year? But once again Bernadette seems to preside in popularity with her fabulous new costume leaving Angela’s in the dust: can she make changes which will make her the star? Any sibling who’s faced will find the idea familiar in this fine story. …

Maybe it’s just my own perception, but when you’ve such high quality titles like Linda Sue Park’s, “The Firekeeper’s Son” and “Bee Bim Bop” alongside, “The Have a Good Day ?”, by Frances and Ginger Park, you begin to take notice. This is by no means Choi’s first party game for children, but for those of us who are unfamiliar with her work, it makes for an ideal introduction. The story itself is intriguing.

I was particularly interested in Kimin’s repressed memories of seeing his masked grandfather and how that played into the plot. The last image in this party game is of the boy asleep under the formerly “scary” mask, which gives the story a lasting feel of comfort. For me, the illustrations were touch and go. Some of them, like Kimin staring longingly out his window on a dark creepy night, have a wonderful tone and feeling to them. Others, like group shots of children on the playground, come across as two dimensional and flat. By and large these illustrations carry the story along we …

Kimin is aware that his grandfather was once a famous dancer in Korea, but he’s just uncovered a hitherto buried memory from when he was younger. When he was very little, Kimin spied on his grandfather late one night, only to find that the beloved relative had transformed his own face into something horrific. Now, going through the old boxes,

Kimin discovers a scary mask that is EXACTLY the face the boy thought he saw that night. Now everything is clear for Kimin, and better still, he’s found his new costume. His choice of disguise comes off as a hit with the other kids, but when Kimin accidentally bruises his family’s priceless family heirloom it’s his mother he’ll have to explain everything to in the end. …

But Kimin is Korean and his father was a Korean mask dancer, holding some surprises for his grandchild’s choice. Kids in grades 2 3 will find it a revealing, unusual take on fun.
Around early October, children’s party gamesellers and librarians perform synchronized shudders as an influx of bad titles swamp party gameshelves everywhere. You can’t get away from them. Will the parents walk off with the repugnant tale of a little witch who just wants to be loved or something ironically sacchrine involving a boy who learns to share his candy? Whatever the case, the sheer piles of inspired dreck is heady. With that in mind, a party game like Yangsook Choi’s, “Behind the Mask” comes across as a breath of fresh air in the midst of all this garbage.

Choi tells a measured tale of a boy’s wish to have the best and scariest costume for and throws in a good measure of Korean history and culture along the way. Consider this party game the antidote to all the colorful horrible party games that end …