What We Read This Week: Bruce and the Legend of Soggy Hollow 🐻 🎃

Do you have a favorite Halloween legend or spooky tale? Having lived in the Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow, NY area for many years while I was in school, my favorite is the Legend of the Headless Horseman, from Washington Irving’s famous tale, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” There has always been something for me in the mystery of that dark night, a chilly forest, and the gorgeous natural fall beauty of New York that make for the eeriest setting for the famous horseman. I can imagine him on his midnight black horse, cutting through the woods, his head nothing but a grinning pumpkin on his caped shoulders. Truly a perfect Halloween image.

When I came across this week’s book immediately wanted to read it, as it features a silly take on “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Bruce the Bear, and his animal friends in a spooky Halloween tale. And my kids also love anything with a Halloween theme. So this week we read “Bruce and the Legend of Soggy Hollow,” written and illustrated by Ryan T. Higgins and published by Disney-Hyperion. Bruce the Bear is a recurrent character in the author’s books, and there are other books featuring the grouchy but lovable bear.

The book starts out with a disgruntled Bruce resisting the idea of Halloween, and especially of trick or treating. His friends, trying to convince him to join in, stage a reenactment of the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” featuring Bruce as Ichabod Crane, in order to help their friend tap into his Halloween spirit. It goes about as well as you can imagine, with Bruce running away from his friends and a real Headless Horseman on the prowl.

I enjoyed introducing my kids to the Headless Horseman and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” through this cute reenactment, and I enjoyed as always reading about the grouchy Bruce. The illustrations I found to be a little less vibrant than I’m used to, but I think it could be due to the night/fall setting that author chose to use more muted colors in the illustrations. It adds a slightly vintage effect to the artwork, which was interesting and added some atmosphere to the tale.

I thought the ending was cute, and I liked the little Headless Horseman and his rocking horse. I appreciated that he wasn’t too scary, because I can see how this legend could terrify children if presented closer to the original (a man without a head riding through the woods looking for a new one…yes, kind of frightening, even for an adult.) In this version he was more interested in finding a horse, than a new head.

Overall we had fun reading this cute Halloween take on an old classic, and we’re excited to see what other books we find this season. Do you have any favorite children’s books that are based on classic Halloween tales? Let me know in the comments!

Wishing you a truly great day/rest of the week, with good books and lots of opportunities to read them 🧡🤎

-Colorful Swans Press