Two Treats -- No Tricks -- for Halloween!

The signs of Halloween have been hard to miss. Decorations on doorsteps. Thriving Halloween pop-up shops. Costume parades at many preschools and elementary schools this week. Tonight was finally the night for many of us to hover behind our doors, waiting for the bell to ring so we could be charmed by all those darling costumes and all those little voices reciting "Trick or Treat!"

Well, here are two treats of a different kind, delivered straight to your computer screens this Halloween evening...or perhaps a day or so later by the time some of you read this.

The first treat is a short, playful poem I wrote to capture the spirit of Halloween, at least from the perspective of young children, many of whom are all about dressing up and trick or treating with friends...

Ghosts and goblins. 

Wicked witches.

Frankensteins with

Monster stiches.

Friends with frightful

Faces meet…

Knock. Knock. 

Who’s there? 

Trick or treat!

The second treat is the new picture book Monster Boogie by Laurie Berkner and Ben Clanton. In addition to being an author, Laurie is a singer and songwriter with many a catchy tune for young children under her belt. Monster Boogie is actually one of her songs turned into a book!

The big purple monster you see on the cover of the book does the "monster boogie" and the "monster wiggle" with a young brother-and-sister duo all "round the room." As you'll see from the following YouTube video of Laurie singing the song for a group of children in monster masks, it is very infectious! This book is perfect for getting kids moving -- at home, during story time at the library, or in a dance class. And don't forget to play the song after reading the book to really get the kids moving around your room! 

Happy Halloween!

Doing the Halloween Hustle!

We’re settling into our new town, new neighborhood, and new school here in California, after moving here a few months ago. One of the highlights so far was the Walk-a-Thon at the school last night, when kindergartners through fifth graders spent up to four hours making laps around the school’s field to raise money for school activities and educational programs. There were also lots of treats at the event for both the parents and the children, including fun food, great music, and a silent auction.

I’ve decided that next year for the Walk-a-Thon, which is always in October, I’m going to buy a copy of the new picture book Halloween Hustle by Charlotte Gunnufson and Kevan J. Atteberry to donate to the silent action. It would be the perfect book to tie into the fall season and into the spirit of the Walk-a-Thon -- where so many kids are "hustling" around the field!

In the dark, a funky beat,

Something white with bony feet.

Skeleton dancing up the street,

Doing the Halloween Hustle.

I am madly in love with rhyming picture books, especially upbeat ones that incorporate movement, and Halloween Hustle certainly fits the bill. Skeleton, who has been invited to a “fa-boo-lous” midnight Halloween party at Ghost’s house, is the main character of the book. As he dances up the street, doing the Halloween Hustle, he picks up some friends along the way. Frankenstein, Mummy, Witch, and more join him as they all make their way to Ghost’s house for the party.

But a picture book wouldn’t be a good one without a few mishaps along the way, right? The problem in this book is that the skeleton is having so much fun dancing that he keeps tripping and falling apart!

Skeleton twists his skinny hips.

Shakes his shoulders, skates and skips.

On a crooked crack the trips…

Bones scatter!

What a clatter!

Spine is like a broken ladder!

Luckily Skeleton and his friends are quite resourceful and manage to find different ways to put him back together so he can keep on dancing. Eventually the group makes it to the Halloween bash…just in time for a dance contest!

I’ve read this book aloud to both of my daughters, and it’s a very fun read aloud. Once, when I was reading it to my 6-year-old alone, I asked her what her favorite part of the book was. “It kind of looks like they’re boogying, and I like to boogie!” she said. She’s always loved illustrations, so it didn’t surprise me that she was paying attention to the movement in the art. And there is a lot of it!

What did surprise me is what my daughter said was her favorite part of the Walk-a-Thon last night. After she walked 30 laps around the field with her sister and their friends, ate a huge slice of cheesy pizza, and licked a gigantic lollipop for hours, her favorite part of the night was the 20-minute dance party at the end of the evening!

If you or the kiddos in your life also like to boogie, you’ll want to check out the YouTube video that author Charlotte Gunnufson had made. It shows you how to do the “real” Halloween Hustle she choreographed (I think) to go along with the book. Plus, the song she made up to accompany the dance is super catchy!

What a great party song, right? I can totally see kids, especially the slightly older ones, really get into the moves! If you are really thinking about having a Halloween party -- or even a Halloween-themed story time -- you can find the lyrics to the song, a free MP3 download, and Halloween Hustle coloring pages, crafts, and puzzles here on Charlotte Gunnufson's website. You can also send some Halloween Hustle e-cards here. If you incorporate reading into your party, some other rhyming Halloween picture books you could incorporate are Shake Dem Halloween Bones and both Rattlebone Rock and Boogie Knights.  

The Halloween Hustle has been popular on book blogs this week. If you want to learn even more about the book, see the book trailer, and hear from author Charlotte Gunnufson herself, you can check out these posts on Susanna Leonard Hill's blog, Cynsations, and Watch.Connect.Read. Also, thanks to Amazon Publishing for sending me a review copy of the book!

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This post is also part of Poetry Friday, so I thought I'd include a poem my 8-year-old wrote this week. It was inspired by this book for sure!

The Halloween Hurry

I was paying some money

When I saw something yummy

And then I saw a mummy

And I ran away...

Doing the Halloween Hurry!

You can read some more "spook-tacular" poetry over at Writing the World for Kids, where Laura Purdie Salas is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup!

It's a Halloween Poetry Party!

Thank goodness for libraries! I discovered two fabulous Halloween books at our local library a few weeks ago. Both are written in rhyme and each involves a nighttime party that lasts until dawn. I know lots of little boys and girls are looking forward to Halloween parties in their neighborhoods, preschools, and elementary schools over the next couple of weeks, and these two books would be perfect for extending that party spirit into reading time at home.

Rattlebone Rock is a delightful book written by Sylvia Andrews and illustrated by Jennifer Plecas. My copy is due back to the library tomorrow, and when I tried to renew it, the library wouldn't let me because other people are waiting to check it out. It must be a popular book, and I can certainly see why...

Folks in the town

Still talk of the night

When the moon on the graveyard

Shone so bright

That the spirits there

Made the tombstones knock

And the beat began 

For the Rattlebone Rock.

BOOMA-BOOM! BOOMA-BOOM!

The party in this book takes place in a graveyard, which might normally be a scary place for young children. But the text of the book is so festive, and the illustrations so far from scary, that I doubt anyone would be afraid of it. At the beginning of the party, skeletons prance around the graveyard with a CLACKA-CLACK! Then ghosts sway to the beat of the drums. OOOOA-OOO! Witches, ghouls, and goblins galore join in until the graveyard party can be heard all over town.

Before long, the children of the town (many of them dressed in their Halloween costumes) and their families make their way to the graveyard, too. The playful illustrations show a girl dancing hand-in-hand with a skeleton, a ghost swinging in a tree, and a woman happily pulling a little boy and a goblin in a toy wagon. Even the town's mayor is boogying to the beat. It is definitely a night that the whole town will remember for a long time!

The second book I want to mention is Boogie Knights, written by Lisa Wheeler and illustrated by Mark Siegel. I didn't find it in the holiday section of the library (where I found Rattlebone Rock), but I still think it's a great book for Halloween. It's the story of seven knights, standing guard in the upstairs of an old castle, who one by one venture downstairs and away from their post to join a midnight monster ball. The names of the knights are all puns, like Sir Cumference and Sir Vivor, which adds a nice layer of humor. And there are gremlins, ghostlings, vampires, and a ton of other characters appropriate for Halloween.

Monsters mashing! Bogeys bashing!

Jesters jive and jump. 

Go-go gobblins--bouncin', bobbin'--

teach that knight to... Bump!

Mark Siegel uses a lot of grays and browns in the illustrations, giving an illusion of spookiness. But it really is just an illusion because, like Rattlebone Rock, this book is not very scary. The vampires look a little goofy, a hunchback is swinging from a chandelier on one of the pages, and many of the monsters are smiling and laughing as they dance.

I have to admit I had a little trouble catching the rhythm of the text sometimes, because it changes a few times throughout the book, and there is a lot going on in both the text and the illustrations. However, once you get used to it all, the book is really a lot of fun.

I think Lisa Wheeler and Mark Siegel also had a ton of fun making the book, which is evident in the following video from YouTube. The video also provides more insight into the book's subtle humor and into a couple of characters that were added into the story through the illustrations alone. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

If you are in the mood for some more rhythm or rhyme, head on over to Fomagrams, where Poetry Friday is being hosted today. It's a great day for reading and writing poetry, don't you think?

This post is also part of Book Talk Tuesday, which is held each week at the Lemme Library to share reviews of good books for school-age kids.

Poetry Friday: Shake Dem Halloween Bones!

With Halloween quickly approaching, I wanted to highlight at least one picture book related both to Halloween and to dance. But how was I going to get my hands on one of those? Well, thank goodness for Scholastic Book Clubs!

Shake Dem Halloween Bones, written by W. Nikola-Lisa and illustrated by Mike Reed, miraculously showed up in the book club flyer my three-year-old brought home from preschool last month, so I of course snatched up a copy for my blog...I mean, ummm, for my daughter.

The text of the book is incredibly rhythmic. When my three-year-old was a little younger, we used to read Babybug magazine together, and she'd almost always ask me to "sing" the poems to her. I found it difficult, but I would make up my own little rhythms and do the best I could. Well, Shake Dem Halloween Bones is just dying to be sung. I haven't read it to my daughter yet, but I won't be surprised if she asks me to sing it to her again and again.

It's Halloween night, and the city is quiet...for a little while. Then a rockin' DJ with a jack-o-lantern head pulls out a mike and starts singing at the local Halloween ball. Many of the guests are sporting sunglasses and funky sneakers, and there are even some skateboards in the mix. A fun twist is that all the guests appear to be huge fans of traditional fairy tales. Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, and Rumpelstiltskin are all there. And they're all incredible dancers. I wish I could go to the Halloween ball and learn some of their hip-hop!

Now, look at Goldilocks

a-twirling those bears. 

No wonder she busted their rockin-chairs.

Come on, Li'l Goldie,

won't you dance with me

at the hip-hop Halloween ball?

Shake Dem Halloween Bones was published more than a decade ago, but here are four other Halloween books--all written in verse--that were published in the last few months:

Title: On a Windy Night

Author: Nancy Raines Day

Illustrator: George Bates

Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers

More info: This spooky book has lots of neat cross-hatchings in its illustrations. Children's author Tina Nichols Coury blogs about it at Tales from the Rushmore Kid. 

Title: Quackenstein Hatches a Family

Author: Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen

Illustrator: Brian T. Jones

Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers

More info: Virginia S. Grenier, editor of Stories for Children (SFC) Magazine, reviews this clever adoption story on the SFC Blog: Family Matters. As a side note, my three-year-old asks to read this book quite often. She really really likes it.

Title: Hallowilloween: Nefarious Silliness from Calef Brown

Author: Calef Brown

Illustrator: Calef Brown

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

More info: This book has starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and the School Library Journal. Andromeda Jazmon reviews it on her blog a wrung sponge.

Title: The Ghouls Come Haunting One by One

Author: Tom McDermott

Illustrator: Liz McGrath

Publisher: Pelican Publishing

More info: This counting book, set to the rhythm of the children's song The Ants Go Marching One by One, is reviewed at Bookin' Las Vegas. 

This is getting to be a really long post, but before I go I wanted to mention one more book that is appropriate for Halloween. It's called I'm Looking for a Monster, written and illustrated by Timothy Young. Tim has a diverse background, including extensive experience in graphic design, so he created all aspects of this fun pop-up book on his own. As a young boy searches for the perfect monster to play with, readers can lift flaps, turn wheels, and pull tabs to interact with all the different monsters in the book. 

Today Tim visited my three-year-old's preschool, where he read the book and drew some monsters for the kids. He also had volunteers scribble on a big piece of paper, and he magically transformed the scribbles into animals, dinosaurs, and even a jack-o-lantern. So much fun!