Vampire vs. the Beach: A Summer Halloween Story

by Todd Tarpley, Giovanni Abeille (Illustrator)

Overview

Get ready for the fight of the season in Festive Feuds, a rollicking picture book series featuring beloved and iconic characters competing to see who will come out on top. In this sun-soaked showdown, a crew of Halloween monsters crashes summer vacation with spooky beach antics, serving up a “Summerween” to remember—perfect for fans of Leprechaun vs. Easter Bunny and Turkey vs. Santa!

A vampire and his monster friends are excited to have some fun in the sun—but they're thwarted by beachgoers who insist that Halloween belongs in the fall! The spooky friends do their best to turn everyone’s summer festivities into a monster mash, but the feuding between fans of Halloween and fans of summertime soon reaches a boiling point. Can the groups find a way to have double the fun? A Summerween party might be the perfect solution!

Read all the books in the Festive Feuds series:
Leprechaun vs. Easter Bunny
Turkey vs. Santa
​Vampire vs. the Beach
Groundhog vs. Cupid

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316590556
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	06/03/2025
Series:	Festive Feuds , #3
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Todd Tarpley is the author of numerous children's books including Turkey vs. Santa, Leprechaun vs. Easter Bunny, Three Grumpy Trucks, Ten Tiny Toes, Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep! (an ALA Notable Book), and Naughty Ninja Takes a Bath, which spent several days as the #1 children's book on Amazon. His books have been featured in the New York Times; included on Best Books of the Year lists by Huffington Post, Chicago Public Library, and Bank Street College; and translated into Chinese, German, Italian, and Danish. Todd invites you to visit him online at toddtarpley.com.

Giovanni Abeille was born and raised in Naples, Italy. He has been an upholsterer, salesman, banker, toolmaker, set dresser, and even a fireman—but drawing has always been his passion. He studied at the Naples Academy of Fine Arts and has worked as an artist for more than 20 years, illustrating books such as Turkey vs. Santa by Todd Tarpley, Rose Spoke Out: The Story of Rose Schneiderman by Emma Carlson Berne, and Too Many Stinkbugs by Debbie Urbanski, among others. When not illustrating, he loves spending time with his family. He invites you to visit him on Instagram @illustrations_gio.

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a treat. A charming cadence makes it a fun read-aloud, and kids will delight in the cartoony pictures.... Spooky summertime fun—especially satisfying for those who wish every day could be Halloween."—Kirkus Reviews

"Saturated in bright colors evoking warm memories of summer.... The rhyming text of the story gives the book a happy singsong feel, making it easy to enjoy. This book is recommended for all collections."—School Library Journal

Praise for Leprechaun vs. Easter Bunny:

* "Hilarious brinkmanship that will have audiences rolling.... This laugh-out-loud picture book should be a staple for all children’s libraries holiday sections."—School Library Journal, starred review

"Riotously funny...will have readers giggling all year long. Skilled storytellers will enjoy hamming up the action as the characters attempt to assert their dominance over their hillside home. Slapstick fun for any season."—Kirkus

"Tarpley’s rigorously rhyming text sustains high levels of animation-style one-upmanship throughout, and Laberis’s digital artwork gets all the seasonal imagery right, with eggs, baskets, gold coins, tulips, and hearts strewn across the green grass, and four-leaf clovers under a rainbow’s glow."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2025-04-19
Grown-ups are the real monsters in this beachy picture book.

Several families are taking in the sun and waves when a youngster spies a vampire incongruously grilling mummy-shaped weenies with some monster pals. The creatures are friendly and inviting, but the adults behave frightfully, instructing the monsters to “get off of our beach” and threatening them (“Don’t come back till it’s autumn! / Or we’ll give you sandal-shaped marks on your bottom!”). Drac is unfazed, delighting the children with candy, carving watermelons into jack-o’-lanterns, and building haunted sand castles. This Halloween whimsy riles the adults, who by now are actively harassing the monsters—burying Frankenstein’s monster in the sand and hurling sticks at the others. As the sun goes down, the monsters, who’ve mostly ignored the attacks, crank some tunes that even the grown-ups can’t resist, and all agree that they should “celebrate Halloween twice every year!” A last-minute visit from Santa is a bridge too far for monsters and humans alike, but they allow the Christmas crew to enjoy the beach. Setting aside the obvious violation of vampire lore (doesn’t sunlight turn Dracula to dust?) and the unkind behavior from the adults, this book is a treat. A charming cadence makes it a fun read-aloud, and kids will delight in the cartoony pictures depicting such silliness as Frankenstein’s monster clad in a Hawaiian shirt. The human beachgoers are diverse.

Spooky summertime fun—especially satisfying for those who wish every day could be Halloween.(Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews