Yes, it is nearing Halloween, the time of year when we celebrate giving scary books to friends in the tradition of All Hallow’s Read (established by Neil Gaiman). But for those of you who prefer to keep your collections intact, or have your books returned in a timely fashion, I bring you Bookplates of Doom– blog posts from a bookplate collector, of bookplates with dire warnings and threats to book thieves and belated borrowers. Click here and here for some inspiration, or just to admire them!
All Hallow’s Read: Give a Book This Halloween
All Hallow’s Read is a “new” Halloween tradition established by author Neil Gaiman, who suggested on Twitter a few years ago that we all give someone we love a great scary read on October 31st. After all, why should gifts wait for birthdays or Christmas? I love this idea.
I’m not the only one, by far. But in particular, a number of authors have decided that All Hallow’s Read is a great opportunity to not only give the gift of fear to the ones you love, but also to share it with other people who might not be so lucky. Ten authors have banded together for a blog tour– Fiction Frolic for All Hallow’s Read— to encourage people to donate books to the nonprofit literacy organization Books for America, based in Washington, D.C., between now and October 19. Donating books will enter you in a giveaway, but who needs a reason to share their love of reading? Here are the details about the giveaway and about donating books, sent to me by the authors participating in the Fiction Frolic. I hope you’ll decide to donate!
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Help Raise 1,000 books for charity and enter to win $200, signed books and swag!
We are excited to share about an ambitious blog tour—Fiction Frolic for All Hallow’s Read—where ten authors from several genres are working hard to raise 1,000 books in three weeks for Books for America.
From October 1st to 19th, donate a new book (or books!) and earn extra bonus points in a huge giveaway that these authors are hosting.
Two winners will each receive the following PRIZES! a Rafflecopter giveaway
$100 Amazon G.C.
5 signed books from the authors hosting the event
A swag bag
Plus—in honor of All Hallow’s read, gift a signed copy of one of our books to a friend!
With a total of $200, 12 signed books (including the gifted books) and major swag, what better way is there to raise books for charity and celebrate All Hallow’s Read?
Each author participating is also donating signed copies of their books to Books for America, an awesome charity that is officially sponsoring their event and excited to be involved with All Hallow’s Read. In 2011, Books for America donated more than $800,000 worth of books and materials to DC area schools, shelters and dozens of other educational programs and organizations.
The authors are blogging throughout the event at The Fiction Frolic Blog.
• 10/1-5 Read about how books shaped their love for reading and writing.
• 10/8-12 Read their scariest, funniest or craziest Halloween experiences, or learn about their favorite Halloween themed book or movie, or favorite work of “dark” literature.
• 10/15-19 Enjoy some flash fiction, short stories and novel excerpts.
So donate, share, and look for daily ways to enter to win. Donate to charity for bonus points!.
This event is sponsored by:
Eleanor T Beaty, author of the YA paranormal Veiled Mist
Brewin’ author of the supernatural horror, The Dark Horde
Andy Gavin, author of the fantasy horror, The Darkening Dream
Laxmi Hariharan, author of the YA fantasy, The Destiny of Shaitan
Kimberly Kinrade, author of the YA paranormal thriller/romances, Forbidden Mind & Forbidden Fire
Richard Long, author of the supernatural thriller/horror, The Book of Paul
M.C. Mars, author of the mind-bending novel, Burner
Melissa McPhail, author of epic fantasy Cephrael’s Hand
Sheryl Steines, author of She Wulf & Days of First Sun
Pavarti K Tyler., author of the Lit Fic Shadow on the Wall and the erotic horror Consumed by Love
Girls Gone Missing? Halloween and Monster Movies for Kids
Margot Magowan runs the blog Reel Girl , which focuses on gender equality in the media (mostly on the representation, or lack thereof, of girls) does a regular feature called “Girls Gone Missing”. With Halloween just around the corner, she did a Halloween edition of this feature and shared her impressions of the three Halloween/monster movies for children out this fall, ParaNorman, Hotel Transylvania, and Frankenweenie. noting that in all three movies there is a major skew toward male leads and secondary characters, with almost no female characters in any of them. Margot and the Reel Girl community see this as a major problem, not just for these movies but for children’s movies in general, because there’s no reason that some of these male characters couldn’t be girls without the story changing at all. To paraphrase one of her commenters, does the story in ParaNorman change that much if Norman becomes Norma?
There are so many girls who love Halloween and monsters and movies about them, who grow up to be women who love Halloween and monsters and movies about them. So why should they be left out of the story, or a token character? But it’s one thing to identify the movies girls are missing from and another to offer options that show strong girls taking the lead. So, I asked Margot:
What do you recommend as far as monster movies intended for kids, then? As the editor for MonsterLibrarian.com and the mother of a monster-loving boy with a sister willing to go along for the ride I’d be interested in what you DO think are good choices. We held Monster Movie Month in July, which, while mostly at choices for adults, was inspired by my son’s love of the classic movies, and the three of us picked some movie choices parents could share with their kids, but I’d love to know what you think. Halloween is our busiest month of the year and our children’s section is one of the most popular parts of our site and that’s something I would love to share there.
Margot asked the Reel Girl community for suggestions, and here are some of the titles they came up with.
Coraline
Scooby Doo (the animated series)
The Corpse Bride
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Hocus Pocus
Kiki’s Delivery Service
My Neighbor Totoro
Monsters vs Aliens
The Addams Family
As a Halloween title, I’ll toss in the Charlie Brown Halloween special.
The general portrayal of women in horror movies also came up in the discussion, but that’s kind of irrelevant to my question (although it’s something I would be happy to start an individual post for if you want). For those of you reading this, do you agree with their choices for Halloween and monster movies that have gender equality (or at least strong female characters who haven’t been sexualized)? Do you have additional suggestions? I would love to hear what you think!
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