Tuesday Storytime: Halloween

Halloween is this weekend!  Yay!

I very much wanted to read the newest Ladybug Girl book from David Soman and Jacky Davis (Ladybug Girl and the Dress-up Dilemma) because Ladybug Girl!  Halloween!  Costumes!  But it was rainy and nasty out, so we had a room full of babies, and it was just too long to suit.  Maybe next year!

At the Old Haunted House
Helen Ketteman, illustrated by Nate Wragg
ISBN: 9781477847695
Takes the venerable "Over in the Meadow" rhyme and re-sets it in a spooky haunted mansion.

Sweet and slightly spooky, we have a house-full of beasties and haunts; everything from black cats to spiders to ghosts to werewolves, all doing various spooky things to the Over in the Meadow pattern of call and response.  The illustrations are cute, and the payoff at the end is quick and a little abrupt - a set of trick-or-treating kids gets invited into a monster party at the house (which is what all the scary actions from before were in preparation for).  Fun and the close relation to the nursery rhyme makes it less likely to give offense.

10 Trick-or-Treaters
Janet Schulman, illustrated by Linda Davick
ISBN: 9780385736145
Another variation of a nursery rhyme has a party of costumed trick-or-treaters slowly dwindling as the night wears on.

This one is adorable.  We have our line of trick-or-treaters, which gets whittled down rapidly as the participants are scared in turns by various animals or other costumed people (or dragged off to bed by their parents) and as the countdown winds to a close, we end with our last brave soul in bed, dreaming sugar-fueled dreams of Halloween.  Again, the very determinedly pastel and lighthearted artwork and the resemblance to the counting rhyme make this a most inoffensive option.

Happy Halloween, Emily!
Claire Masurel, illustrated by Susan Calitri
ISBN: 0448426919
Emily the bunny is a bit concerned about the Halloween Parade coming up.  Will it be too scary?

I like this one because it's very straightforward about the potential for scary things on Halloween, but emphasizes that they're not real, only pretend, and only people that you know already dressing up strangely.  Emily is a little hesitant about the potential for scares at the Halloween Parade, especially since her three friends are super excited about the "horrible monsters" "spooky ghosts" and "scary dinosaurs" that will be there.  Back at home Emily reassures herself and her baby brother (a good audience stand-in) that her witch costume isn't "too scary" before her mother in a very silly bunny-eared ghost costume tries to scare her, and her father does likewise in a scarecrow outfit.  Again, nothing even remotely scary about any of the appearances.  Family all together, they head for the Parade, where her friends are dressed as the scary things they were predicting, but they aren't scary at all.  Even the parade is shown in broad daylight, and all of the costumes are light-hearted and gentle.  I love that it puts attention on the worries of young children, while staying focused on the goal - to keep them from being actually scared of a mostly lighthearted child-centered holiday.