Halloween

 

Halloween book

 

Halloween candy

 They used to sell bags that had only one type of candy in it.  

This year I wanted to buy a bag of Butterfingers, which I used to be able to get, and all I see at stores are bags of LOOK HERE WE HAVE SAMPLES OF 4 to 8 DIFFERENT CANDIES. Don't want that -- too much in them that I don't want to eat. 　 Besides, the kids on my circle are growing up and either don't trick or treat any more, or else they take everything in the bucket out front that I set out for the kids, leaving nothing for other kids.  

I bet nobody comes this year which is why I only want to put out candy that I like to eat. 　

Thinking about Halloween

Nonfiction Monday - Halloween

It seems that I forgot to post this Halloween book.
Everything you wanted to know about Halloween but didn't know that you didn't know.  Stories, Facts about the holiday, Crafts, and Party Plans.  (Available at your local library or at online bookstores.)

One week to go.
Are you ready?

Usually the teen has her costume planned by August.  Changes her mind several times, then either creates one or we buy one.  (then she uses that bought one the next year to base her next costume creation.)

What do your kids do?

It's Halloween Day!

Halloween is coming

It's getting closer.  That time of year when you can pretend to be somebody/ something else and get rewarded by candy.  And have parties.  (Can't forget the parties.)

 

(picture courtesy of I am invited to a party!  by Mo Willems)

What will be your costume this year?

Whatever it is -- Have fun!

Nonfiction Monday -- The Halloween Book of Facts and Fun

Despite the weather not feeling like autumn yet, (we're in the midst of Indian Summer and will reach the 80s here in Maryland today), thousands of people took advantage of the great weekend to get to their local pumpkin place (Weber's Farm) to walk the hay or corn maze, make scarecrows and buy pumpkins, apple cider, and fall decorations.

Hundreds of thousands attended Renaissance Festivals, watched shows, rode the elephant, cheered for England or Scotland at the Joust, ate food on a stick, paid to have experts put henna designs on their hands and arms (the 11-year-old wanted a dragon, again), and bought beautiful Halloween costumes. (People were still lined up for miles to get in as we left the place at 3:30 pm on Saturday.)

Although some were there just for the food and the fun, many were planning ahead to October 31 -- Halloween.

If you've been to your local library or bookstore, you'll notice displays of Halloween books set out for you to pick up. One of those books is The Halloween Book of Facts and Fun by Wendie Old (me), illustrated by Paige Billin=Frye.  Park Ridge: Illinois: Albert Whitman & Company, 2007. (available in paperback as well as hardback, and soon to be an e-book!)

Here you'll find a history of the holiday, fun facts, some halloween stories, and plans for a children's Halloween party. I LOVE the cat on the cover, don't you? Especially the way his tail curves around the moon.  (later I might tell you the story behind this wonderful cover.) And the illustrations inside are not scary at all -- not even the one where Frankenstein and Dracula are sitting side by side near a cozy fire, reading each other's book.  (Fun Fact -- did you know that there actually is a Count Dracula?  And that he runs the Red Cross blood bank in his country?)

Have fun this month. Go to your local pumpkin patch, take a hay ride. Attend the Renaissance Festival closest to you.  Enjoy these lovely autumn days.

The Nonfiction Monday list of links is located at Practically Paradise today. -wo

Halloween

Today is Halloween.
(History, fun facts, and plans for a Halloween party can be found in this book.)
But I degress.

You wouldn't know Halloween had finally arrived if you had been watching the 10-year-old the past few weeks. She's been wearing her costume to various Halloween events for some time now.
A Girl Scout troop Halloween party.
A Halloween party at our UU Meeting House.
Halloween parade at school.
Halloween parade (and fun events) at her friend's community party last evening.
And NOW -- the big event -- going Trick-or-Treating with friends.

What costume did she choose?
She created her own SITH costume. (not Jedi. nope. She's going as young Darth Vader.)

She found her mother's dress riding boots, (those that go up to the knees and have lacing at the ankle)
Her legs either are covered with brown tights or dark jeans, depending on the event. (indoor or out)
Her chest has three layers.
The part that shows is a white longish garment with full sleeves, covered by a brown (her mother's old Air Force) tshirt.
Her face only has a little of the red Sith stripes -- it is, after all, the younger Darth Vader of early Star Wars 3.
And her hair? covered with her red Arial wig.
Why red?
Beats me.

Today she's going to Trick-or-Treat with boys. Every one of them is a geek and will be dressed as some sort of computer game warrior, so she fits right in with them. (yes, several parents will be going along with them.)

What are you -- or your kids -- going to do for Halloween?

Halloween messages

If you wonder why I linked to the flu website this week -- it's because the nine-year-old has the flu. She says she's better. She's soooo much better that of course she can go trick or treating tonight -- right? Wrong dear.

Now I have two girls in the house mad at me.
the nine-year-old -- for not letting her go trick or treating.
and the black persian cat -- for not letting her go outside on Halloween night. (bad things happen to black cats tonight. I've lost one black cat already on Halloween, and I don't want to lose another.)

So, to complete your Halloween entertainment, I invite you to click on over to A Fuse #8 Production for her annual Halloween fest. Ah, she has a second Halloween post for you to click on as well.-wendieOOOOOOOOOO

Nonfiction Monday -- Halloween

It's only 5 more days until Halloween!
Everyone have their costume picked out?
Have your children tried theirs on umteen times already? Mine has. The 9-year-old is going GOTH this year and the 7-year-old is going to wear the 9-year-old's old Cinderella costume -- provided her adopted dad picks it up tomorrow.

I thought I'd list some of my favorite Halloween books today. I say 'some' because, unfortunately, most of them are checked out of the library, so I'm sure I'll miss a lot of them.



Naturally, first on my list is The Halloween Book of Facts and Fun, written by me, with child-friendly, not-scary illustrations by Paige Billin-Frye.

Everything you ever thought you'd want to know about the holiday is in there, plus jokes and party plans.


Next up -- Haunting on a Halloween, Frightful Activities for Kids by Linda White, illustrated by Fran Lee. Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2002.

Designs for pumpkins.
Face Painting ideas.
Halloween food ideas that kids can prepare.
All highlighted by cartoon like illlustrations.


Halloween Treats, Recipes and Crafts for the Whole Family, by Donata Maggipinto. Illustrated by photographs. Chronicle Books, 1998.
Each double page spread has a full page photograph on one side and instructions for the craft and food pictured on the other. yummy.


All New Crafts for Halloween by Kathy Ross. Illustrated by Sharon Lane Holm. Millbrook Press, 2003.

Everyone knows that, if you want crafts that are child-tested and safe, ones that adults can easily prepare for large groups, you turn to Kathy Ross's books. Her books have inspired crafts for many of my library programs.

Nonfiction Monday is being hosted by scientist and blogger, Roberta Gibson, over at Wrapped In Foil. Click on the link and enjoy all the different selections.

There are tons more great Halloween books out there. What are your favorites? -wendie old

Who is Dracula?

Here is the next Halloween quiz question. The correct answer gets a copy of The Halloween Book of Facts and Fun.--

- Is Dracula alive, today?
Does he like Blood?
(extra points for those who know his name and what he does.)

-wendieO

Watch this Space

Sometime soon
-- maybe even the middle of this week
-- the first Halloween question will appear.

Watch
Thisssss
Space

-wendieO

The Day of the Dead is a Coming

Good Lord. Here I was hesitant to mention my Halloween book in August for fear it would be too early to do so, and over at La Bloga they're discussing Day of the Dead books. One is a really neat craft book.

The 8-year old and I saw a whole aisle of Halloween stuff on the shelves at our local grocery store.

Maybe Halloween has become like Christmas -- On second thought, no. We plan for the Christmas season for 6 months ahead and then recover from it for 6 months after. I can't see us doing that for Halloween. (I probably shouldn't mention that stash of leftover Halloween candy I finally tossed out with the Spring Cleaning.)

Anywho -- somebody's looking forward to Halloween 'cause Amazon.com shows a goodly lot of sales for the Halloween Book of Facts and Fun. Which means that next May I might see some royalties from it. Hooray!
-wendieO

And heeeerrrrrrrr's who?

Take a look to the right there. My Illustrator, Paige Billin-Frye is holding our latest book -- THE HALLOWEEN BOOK OF FACTS AND FUN. One of the chapters in it discusses other festivals celebrated around the time of Halloween. And one of those festivals is the Day of the Dead.

Where is this leading to?
The picture at the beginning of this blog message today is that of the person who gave me a lot of information about how the Day of the Dead is celebrated in California. He and his wife dressed as Day of the Dead figures for last year's Halloween party. Talk about mixing two cultures.

-WendieO

Baltimore Book Festival report

For various family reasons -- mainly events the seven year old wanted to attend, like gymnastics class and the Greek Festival (Greek pastries and lamb -- yumm!), we missed most of the Baltimore Book Festival. I simply drove down on Sunday afternoon for my presentation.

The Children's Bookstore Tent was packed. The crowd laughed and had a great time.
And then the speaker (Kevin O'Malley) stopped talking and moved to a table at the side to sign books. And the whole crowd got up and lined up there.

When I came to the front of the tent to speak -- the seats were empty.
"Just begin talking," the bookstore owner ordered -- so I did.
I ended up with eight people -- four kids and four adults. But still, we had a great conversation about non-fiction, about book publishing, and about illustrators and illustrations.

I quized them about Halloween and other stuff, giving out Halloween Book of Facts and Fun pencils as rewards for correct answers. (and ended up giving pencils to all of them for being such a good audience.)

I signed a few books for people, and then I signed stock for the Children's Bookstore. They said that TO FLY had sold 20 copies before I came to talk. And that they'll be bringing my Halloween book to various book fairs during October. nice.

Went home to enjoy more Greek pastries. There's nothing like a sugar buzz from too much honey.

-wendieO
(waving "hi" to my sister, who finally found my blog)

packages

Two packages came within days of each other.

One contained my author's copies of THE HALLOWEEN BOOK OF FACTS AND FUN. The other came from a novelty shop -- pencils. Orange pencils with Jack-o-Lanterns on them, inscribed with the title of my new book.

Great! Now I'm all set for the various places I'm scheduled to do an author presentation this year.

-wendie0

Saturday, ALA

The first thing I did at ALA was to run to the Scholastic Booth to see what they'd be handing out for Harry Potter this time. hmmm. nothing. However, they did promise me they'd be serving Butter Beer in the afternoon. (Not a big draw for this non-beer drinking person, however.) They did give me copies of Mike Thaler's Teacher from the Black Lagoon series -- signing to be held that afternoon. I can give these to the grandchildren and use the extra copies for prizes for programs at the library.

And so I visited a few other publisher's booths before checking out the Albert Whitman booth. Not only do they have some bound copies of my new book, The Halloween Book of Facts and Fun, but they're featuring it on the backdrop with a large poster. Yea!

And then on to the program -- Spreading the word with a Children's Poetry Jam. Amazing to hear Jack Prelutsky, Betsy Franco, Marlyn Singer and others read their own poems. I'm sure it was planned before hand, but they jumped from poems about food to animals, from longer poems to "who can show off the shortest poem." fun. Then they talked about using poetry with children to encourage them to appreciate playing with words.

I missed getting cake at Baker and Taylor's celebration of their new children's imprint, Paw Prints. (Isn't that cute?) But they promise more on Sunday.

Did I see Judy Blume? yes. Did I get a book signed by her? no. As I approached the end of the line, a booth staff member stood there telling everyone that the line was closed.

Then on to Trit Trot to Washington, the whys and hows of using rhymes, songs, books, and games in early literacy programs for babies and toddlers. The handouts included the songs they were using. Since there were leftovers after the program, I picked up some for every library branch. Some of the speakers go out to public health Clinics and other places where mothers gather, to reach those moms who have no idea that libraries would have books and programs that could help them cope with motherhood. Learned more uses of music in storytime and discovered that the Two Little Dickybirds fingerplay can also be used with LOUD and soft & fast and sloooooow. neat! Also scarfed up Betsy Diamant-Cohen's Mother Goose on the Loose CD that is just the songs. (the CDs I already have include the instructions for using the songs, but does not have just plain songs that I could actually use in my baby storytime.)

After the program, a group of us gathered around the speakers and demonstrated fingerplays and action games we have found sucessful in our own programs. Can't wait to use the popcorn one.

After more book signings and booth browsing, I had a wonderful idea. The Scholastic bash was to be at another hotel. Why not simply take the free bus now to that hotel, have dinner, and then I'll already be there for the concert.

The evening concert this year (to support scholarships to library school) was actually two performances. The first one by Mark Russel and the second one was the Capitol Steps. A great evening of political satire, perfect for this ALA in Wasington, DC. I'll share the CDs I bought of the Capitol Steps with everyone in my library branch. (after my husband gets them first to put on his I-Pod.)

Got back to the room before midnight -- yawn.