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It Happened At Halloween- Scary Books for the Middle Grades

There’s an awkward age between 10 and 14, where picture books don’t seem to be enough anymore, but some kids (or maybe their parents or teachers) aren’t quite ready for the intensity and content of YA fiction. There are some great books for kids this age, though, with pivotal scenes that take place at Halloween, so if you’re looking to mix it up a bit and add some books for this age group to your Halloween display, check the shelves for these titles.

 

Bunnicula by James Howe

This will fall at the lower end of the age range in terms of reading level, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed by older kids. Really, how can anyone resist a cute, cuddly vampire bunny? There are several sequels and another spinoff series, Tales from the House of Bunnicula, for younger readers.

 

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

This book starts with a major character, Turtle Wexler, taking a dare to enter a haunted house on Halloween. Of course, the dead body she finds inside is just the beginning of a complicated puzzle of a mystery. The Westing Game is an award winning book, and rightfully so. Kids who liked Chasing Vermeer will probably also like The Westing Game.

 

Horror at the Haunted House by Peg Kehret

When Ellen Streeter signs up to participate in the historical society’s haunted house fundraiser, she doesn’t expect to encounter a real ghost. Kids who like fast-paced horror and mystery will love this book. Peg Kehret is a fantastic writer who has written dozens of books with plenty of mystery and suspense, including a series called Frightmares, so once kids are hooked, they can keep going with her books for a long time!

 

The Ghost Witch by Betty Ren Wright

Jenny moves into a house haunted by the ghost of a local witch, who is delighted to have the opportunity to scare children again at Halloween.  This book falls in the lower end of the age range, as it is aimed at grades 3-5, but Betty Ren Wright has written some gems of ghost stories for kids who are slightly older as well, including The Dollhouse Murders and Crandall’s Castle.

 

Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck

There aren’t too many narrators in children’s literature that are as memorable as Blossom Culp. Blossom is from the other side of the tracks, too smart and outspoken for her own good, with a crazy mother who works as a psychic. Also, she can see ghosts. On the Titanic. Peck hits all the right buttons to grab kids this age with this book, and the outhouse scene that takes place on Halloween is hysterical. There’s a previous book, The Ghost Belonged To Me, where she plays a secondary role, and a sequel, The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp, which is terribly dated now (although still a fun read), but this is Blossom Culp at her best.

 

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keately Snyder

When April moves into Melanie’s apartment building the two girls form an unlikely friendship as both are swept away by April’s imagination. Together they find an abandoned yard where they can create their own world of ancient Egypt as authentically as possible. If that doesn’t sound scary, just imagine it at night, on Halloween, with a killer on the loose. The main characters here are mostly middle schoolers, so it’s probably best to hand it to kids reading at that level. The story does feel a little dated, but that answers the obvious question of why the kids aren’t carrying cell phones.

 

The Best Halloween Ever by Barbara Robinson

The six Herdman children are a constant source of chaos for their town. They’ve caused so much trouble on Halloween in the past that the mayor cancels trick-or-treating in favor of a Halloween celebration at the elementary school. Of course, nothing can slow down the terrible Herdmans…  can Halloween be saved after all? This is the third book starring the Herdmans, who first appeared in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, followed by the less well-known The Best School Year Ever. All three books are funny and suspenseful, and this one also has some scares. The Best Halloween Ever is a good choice for kids reading on a lower level, and older kids may enjoy it too.

The Grey King by Susan Cooper

Most of the books I’ve mentioned are solidly set in the “real world”, be it contemporary or historical. The Grey King is far removed from anything resembling that. This is the story of Will, a boy who is sent to convalesce with relatives in rural Wales after a serious illness. Except that Will is much more than a boy, and he’s in Wales to do much more than heal. The Grey King is the fourth book in Susan Cooper’s high fantasy series The Dark is Rising, but stands alone beautifully, and of all the books, I think this is the most readable and most memorable.  I was assigned it in sixth grade, and it has always stuck with me, maybe because of the riddle that begins it:

On the day of the dead when the year too dies

Must the youngest open the oldest hills…

It’s part of a long, cryptic, and graceful poem that foreshadows the entire plot of the book… if you can figure it out. The day of the dead part, though, should be obvious. This is not the easiest read, as there is a lot of Welsh in the text, and it’s impossible to identify or pronounce most words in Welsh, but it is completely worth it.

 

Set these out for your 10-14 year old readers, and give them a chance at a spooktacular Halloween read!

 

 

Posted on September 30, 2012 by , Reply

What Banned Books Week Really Means

It’s kind of interesting to look at the opinions, or lack thereof, of the authors of banned books on censorship. R.L Stine, author of the Goosebumps series and many, many other books both scary and funny, doesn’t seem to have much to say. The Goosebumps series was #15 on the list 100 Most Banned/Challenged Books,1990-1999, and was still in the top 100 for the list for 2000-2009, and just last year was challenged in Kirbyville, Texas. But in interviews, he’s rarely asked about censorship of his books, and the most I could find was a comment from him from a chat on CNN that attempting to ban the Harry Potter books was “silly”. Maybe when you’ve written as many books as he has, one person, or school, or library, taking one book from a series with 100+ titles seems pretty insignificant (I’d love to really know what he thinks).

Stephen King, whose book Cujo has been challenged and banned in the past, has made it clear that he opposes book banning, but he’s also said that he doesn’t see it as a major issue. A writer writes, and if he’s defending his books, then he’s not writing. I get that, but he also says he believes a defense should be mounted– but by whom? In a speech he gave titled ” I Want To Be Typhoid Stevie” in 1997 he said that when his books are challenged or banned, he tells kids this:

Don’t get mad, get even… Run, don’t walk, to the nearest nonschool library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that’s exactly what you need to know.

His philosophy hasn’t really changed too much. I don’t totally agree with him– I think it’s important for kids to stand up for their right to read, and while you certainly can find at least some of his books there (he’s written so many), not everyone has easy access to a library or bookstore where they can easily acquire a challenged or banned book, or owns an ereader (you can now buy his books online, and some of them are only available as ebooks). Maybe if you tear the house apart you’ll find that your dad has a secret stash (which is how I first tripped over King’s books). Or maybe not. If he doesn’t protest challenges to his books, and kids don’t, who in a divided community will provide that defense? A school librarian may be an amazing advocate who carries the day… but it scares me just to think about doing it myself.

But, he points out, and I think this is a point well taken, in the United States, we all have the right to protest a challenge to a book, or a book banning, to give copies of a banned book away openly (as the Kurt Vonnegut Library did in a recent controversy over Slaughterhouse-Five), or to acquire a banned book without persecution. There are parts of the world where that isn’t possible, and times in history when it has been vigorously enforced. Even though we aren’t living in one of those places, or through one of those times, and even though banning books is a serious issue here, he notes in a 1992 essay:

There are places in the world where the powers that be ban the author as well as the author’s works when the subject matter or mode of expression displeases said powers. Look at Salman Rushdie, now living under a death sentence, or Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who spent eight years in a prison camp for calling Josef Stalin “the boss” and had to run for the west to avoid another stay after he won the Nobel Prize for “The Gulag Archipelago.”

I discovered that Banned Books Week inspires defenders of human rights, who fight for freedom of speech and freedom of expression for writers and journalists who are witnesses to oppression and who live in or write about these places. In America, our right to stand up for the freedom to read resonates throughout the world. In the world of school librarianship, connectedness, collaboration, and social justice are essential concepts to share. Something for all of us to think about is the way Banned Books Week affects not just individual challenges here, but human rights around the world, and the courage to fight for freedom of expression in the face of danger. If you visit our Pinterest board on Banned Books, I shared links there to some organizations that contribute to continuing that fight, and I hope that you’ll check them out. And many thanks to Mr. King to providing quite a bit of food for thought.

 

Posted on September 30, 2012 by , Reply

The Not-Halloween Book List for Kids

It drives me bananas that my kids’ school doesn’t even recognize the existence of Halloween. Their preschools encouraged costumes, had Halloween parties, and even invited parents to a Halloween parade. The school I taught at, a public elementary school in a rural area (where you might think there would be objections) encouraged costumes, had Halloween parties, and held a costume parade. The day of Halloween, my cadet teacher showed up in a bloodstained cafeteria worker’s uniform with a dismembered arm in her pocket and a beatific smile on her face (which was the scariest part, really). But at the school my children now attend, there’s no such holiday. It’s sad, really. But I understand– public schools are under siege from all directions for the way holidays are celebrated (or not celebrated, for that matter). And there are lots of other schools in the same situation, as well as parents who are looking for slightly spooky but not too scary picture books for their little ones. So here are a few to try out.  Not all of them have been reviewed on the site, but you can click on the titles of the ones we’ve reviewed to find out a little more about them. Enjoy!

 

The Not-Halloween Book List for Kids from MonsterLibrarian.com

 

Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson and Shmuel Thayer

This is a great book that traces the growth of a pumpkin’s life cycle. It’s got beautiful photographs and is a perfect complement to the trip to the pumpkin field that kids will probably make either with their class or their parents.

 

Bat Jamboree by Kathi Appelt and Melissa Sweet

Bats definitely have their place in the Halloween season, but it is possible to go batty without ever mentioning the holiday. Bat Jamboree is a very silly concept book that preschoolers and kindergarteners will love. There’s a second book as well, called Bats Around The Clock.

 

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert

Lois Ehlert’s wonderful illustrations and simple language are a perfect way to introduce the colors of the season.

 

Spooky Hayride by Brian James (Level 1 Scholastic Reader)

This is a wonderful easy reader that will satisfy any kid who has ever been tricked by their big brother. Or wanted to trick him.

 

Little Goblins Ten by Pamela Jane and Jane Manning

This is a fun counting book based on the rhyme “Over in the Meadow”.

 

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Okay, this one can be scary for some kids, but others find it exhilirating, especially when they get to “roll their terrible eyes, and gnash their terrible teeth”.

 

A Beasty Story by Bill Martin, Jr. and Steven Kellogg

Perhaps you are familiar with the story that begins “There was a dark, dark, wood…” Imagine that made into a cartoony concept book that reinforces kids’ knowledge of colors, and you have one of my favorite kindergarten reads. You can’t go wrong with an author/illustration combination like Bill Martin, Jr. and Steven Kellogg!

 

Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler and S.D. Schindler

Skeleton has the hiccups, and desperately wants a cure. It doesn’t get much sillier than watching a skeleton attempt to drink a glass of water in an attempt to get rid of them.

 

The Gobble-uns’ll Git You Ef You Don’t Watch Out! James Whitcomb Riley’s “Little Orphant Annie” by James Whitcomb Riley and Joel Schick

Sadly, this book has been out of print for years and years, and it’s doubtful that it ever will be reprinted. But you just can’t have October here without mentioning the great Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley. Even if you can’t get your hands on this wonderfully illustrated book, with its menacing cartoon gobble-uns, find yourself a copy of “Little Orphant Annie” to share with your kids. It’s a fantastic read-aloud. I loved Riley when I was a kid– what an amazing imagination the man had!

Posted on September 16, 2012 by , Reply
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