Spooky Reads

I love dressing up and planning costumes (I almost put making costumes... but right now I'm feeling very unmotivated to sew my blue plaid jumper.)  But, aside from costumes and a little pumpkin carving, I've never been a big 'Halloween' fan.  I've never liked scary things (I wasn't allowed to watch Road Runner as a kid because I cried every time the coyote got hurt), trick-or-treating was always felt a little awkward, and orange and black just don't excite me.  But this year, Jonah's enthusiasm for ghosts and everything spooky has pulled me along and I'm enjoying some Halloween fun.  

Halloween, thought its roots are from the UK, isn't a big holiday here.  Trick-or-Treating isn't done much  though there is some 'fancy dress'.   We are hosting a halloween gathering Saturday (thus why I need to finish four costumes: two of which are started) so Jonah can wear his Wizard of Oz costume.  And in the mean time we are enjoying some favorite Halloween books.

 Okay, so a couple of these books aren't actually about halloween, but Pumpkins.  Helen Cooper's Pumpkin Soup remains my favorite book for the season (post here from last year).  I love her art work and layout.  I'm planning on doing a British Picture Book post on her, so I won't say to much other than, this book is a must read, along with the sequels: A Pipkin of Pepper and Delicious!

 I also love Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington.  Few words, soft images, and a lovely story of a boy planting a seed, watching it grow, making a jack-o-lantern, and then saving seeds to have another go next year make this book glow with good feelings.   It is great for a younger audience.

 I wrote a whole post on Julia Donaldson here, so I won't say much about Room on the Broom.  It is fun, light hearted, has a dragon and a lot of animals - all attractive elements in our home.

 Again, this book isn't about Halloween proper, but about Almonzo's prize winning pumpkin he takes to the fair.  I think of the fair being in late summer (ours always was), but many are in autumn as that is when the harvest is finished and this book has an autumnal feel.

Scary, Scary Halloween by Eve Bunting arrived in the mail today (thank you Gammy!) The illustrations are by Jan Brett, who is a favorite of mine.  This is one of her earlier works, so it doesn't have the same developed style her later books share, but it is well done.  This is our spookiest Halloween book by far (not that that is saying to much) as it includes all the traditional characters: werewolf, mummy, ghost, goblins, vampire...  But, I think it is Jonah's new favorite.  

Jonah chose the Magic Tree House research guide on Ghosts this month (thanks Grandma!) and goes ghost hunting outside most nights with Daddy before bed.  It is fascinating to watch him scare himself and then work through his fear over and over.  It is obvious that there is some emotional development going on, and while I want to hide scary things, right now he wants to be scared so that he can learn to deal with fear.   While I'm careful about what he reads and extremely selective on what he watches (images are very different than words) I do think this kind of controlled scary is healthy... so long as I don't get too scared.