Budding entrepreneur Wednesday Wilson is back in her fourth chapter-book adventure! This time, Wednesday faces a Halloween dilemma: Her house has been placed on her peers’ “Do-Not-Knock” list because her two moms don’t give out candy, just things like bookmarks and colored pencils. Her solution: create and give away slime, a sure-fire hit with kids that could also become a marketing promotion for a new business venture. Perhaps she’ll even win a spot on Eagle Eye, her favorite TV show (an analogy to Shark Tank).
Wednesday encounters an obstacle, however, when the popular but annoying Emmas point out that everyone is going to be at their Halloween party. But a local Realtor enlists Wednesday, her younger brother, and her friends Ruby and Amina to clean up the yard of an abandoned house in the neighborhood—a house that is reportedly haunted. Its yard is the perfect place for a great Halloween party, but Wednesday will need all of her ingenuity to get it ready, deal with a giant mechanical spider, and make the party a success. No one will notice if she’s a little lax when it comes to getting permission, right?
Wednesday’s spirit and creativity shine through the entertaining story, while the book weaves in various business terms and their definitions. It also includes a recipe for fluffy slime. (Parents be warned.)
The story is also seamlessly diverse across several aspects of identity. Wednesday is biracial and has one Black and one White mom. Amina comes from another country (and one paragraph explains how the class helped her feel welcome by sharing information about Halloween, which she hadn’t previously celebrated). The Realtor uses a wheelchair, and a two-dad family (with one dad who also uses a wheelchair) figures in the story towards the end. All told, it’s a recommended tale and a fitting addition to the series.
