Growing up one of my favorite books was a Charlie Brown story about happiness called, Happiness is a Warm Puppy. Every page started, "Happiness is..." and finished with a metaphor. "Happiness is a thumb and a blanket," and Linus would appear cuddling his blanket on the facing page. I must have read that simple book a thousand times, and then would think, "What's my happiness?" The summer breeze coming in my window, or a perfect winter snow angel?

Well, today my happiness came in the form of an email from my editor at Atheneum Books! The amazingly wonderful (and wonderfully amazing) Reka Simonsen shared a link to my FIRST EVER REVIEW! And it held no rotten tomatoes, only praise. And even better, it was...

A Starred Review from Publishers' Weekly!

Seriously?!? A starred review! PW was the first - back in the 1970s - to use starred reviews to "indicate books of exceptional merit" (so says Wikipedia), and my first book, Halloween Good Night, now has one! The review itself has warm-fuzzy-making phrases like, 

Grabill makes an oft-adapted rhyme feel utterly fresh, thanks to some excellent vocabulary choices and the funny exchanges between monsters young and old.

And of course praise for Ella's "cuddle worthy" artwork, closing with, "the book captures the mischievous fun of Halloween, without the accompanying terror."

Read the entire Publishers' Weekly review for Halloween Good Night here.