[cf2]Funtime[cf1] contains riddles about sports, [cf2]Recess[cf1] about school activities. Some riddles are old hat ("Why are fish such good students?" "Because they like to hang around in schools"); others rely on painfully labored puns, such as referring to friendly school authorities as "princi-pals." Each riddle is presented on a single page and accompanied by an energetic color image. From HORN BOOK Spring 2004, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

K-Gr. 2. This entry in the Kids Can Read series is a clever alternative to traditional Halloween books. Helmer has collected (or adapted) 30 riddles to fit the silly, scary atmosphere of the holiday. Each conundrum gets its own page, mostly taken up with artwork that's brighter and better executed than pictures usually found in children's joke books. Full of action and populated by witches, monsters, and such well-known frighteners as Frankenstein, they draw kids right in. Some of the riddles are forced, but others are pretty funny: What does Godzilla eat for breakfast? Bacon and legs. Expect to hear these repeated back to you more than once. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2003 Booklist