What kind of concoction calls for imported eyeballs, toenail clippings, wilted dandelions, and spider eggs? Why Bone Soup, of course!

Bone Soup (September 2008; Houghton Mifflin), by the former Martha Stewart Omnimedia art director and product freelancer Cambria Evans, is a charming new picture book guaranteed to make you smile.

Finnigin, our voracious protagonist, is always on the lookout for a yummy meal to fill his rather skeletal frame. But all the local witches, werewolves, and other sundry goblins know that Finnigin will eat them out of house and home if they invite him over.

Finnigin finds himself alone, but undaunted, and sets out to entice the town into taking part in the creation of a truly ghoulish goulash. After all, Bone Soup, like so much else, is better when you have friends to share it with . . . Parents and kids alike will delight in this new take on the stone soup folktale, tailored specifically for ghosts and goblins, and coming out just in time for Halloween!