• Asked and Answered

Asked and Answered | October 7, 2016

What children’s literature character would you like to dress up as for Halloween?

“I would dress up as Eloise from the Eloise series, because she was my favorite character growing up. And you never grow out of wanting to be Eloise!”

—Sara Dayton, Digital Product Manager, Penguin Young Readers

“For the perpetual Halloween inside my heart, I would like to dress as Mitzi from Tell Me a Mitzi, by Lore Segal and illustrated by Harriet Pingus. It’s a childhood favorite I read until it fell apart, and it is so strange and urban and Jewish and wonderful and strange (and out of print), I feel the need to evangelize for it at any opportunity. If I can do that while wearing purple star-print onesie pajamas and a pointy hat, all the better.”

—Rachel Fershleiser, Executive Director of Audience Development, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

“I’m still deciding what to dress up as this year, but last year I was Wolfie the Bunny, based on the book by Ame Dyckman and Zachoriah Ohora. The book’s designer was Dot the Bunny, and Ame and Zach’s new editor was a giant carrot! In past years I’ve dressed up as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Madrigal from Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor, and Shark from Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld.”

—Alvina Ling, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

“I feel like a cliché but the answer is and always has been Alice from Alice in Wonderland. I’ve been obsessed with Alice and her adventures most of my life. In fact, as President (and benevolent dictator) of the Spanish National Honor Society club in high school, I gently forced the club to have an Alice theme for the Homecoming Parade. JUST so I could dress up as Alicia En El Pais de Las Maravillas. It was a dream come true. Or un sueño hecho realidad.”

—Jody Mosley, Associate Publisher of ABRAMS Books for Young Readers