books – Page 18 – Triple Take

J’s Take on Fiction “Halloween” Children’s Books – I

For October, we’re doing books with ‘Halloween’ in the title. I’ve grabbed a bunch from the children’s room. Here are reviews of a slew of fiction books. Mostly picturebooks or easy readers. Can we spot any trends or common themes? (Did that question sound too much like English class?)

My “Halloween” introductory post
My nonfiction children’s “Halloween” post

The Dragon Halloween Party: A Story and Activity Book by Loreen Leedy (1986)

A mother and her dragons plan a Halloween party. The tale is told in verse, and while you’re reading there are a lot of instructions. How to make various costumes, decorations, how to carve a pumpkin. There’s even some recipes. I didn’t like at first that all the dragons were blue. But when the guests arrived, they were different colors. So it started making a little sense to me that all the related ones would be the same color. At the end is instructions for how to make a dragon costume. It’s cute. It’s short. There are things to do if you’re motivated to do them. And, well, dragons are always a bonus.
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A Newbery Halloween

The Plot
This book is a collection (anthology?) of (loosely) Halloween related short stories by authors who won the Newbery Medal. Some of the stories are actually chapters excerpted from longer works, while others are stand-alone stories republished here. I did not do extensive research, but I don’t believe anything original beyond the introduction was created for this book.
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J’s Take on Nonfiction “Halloween” Children’s Books

What follows are short reviews of nonfiction children’s books with ‘Halloween’ in their title. Let’s see if we spot any trends.

Halloween: Why We Celebrate It The Way We Do by Martin Hintz & Kate Hintz (1996)

A plain, old boring pumpkin on the cover of this. It might as well be a pumpkin book. Or an autumn book. Or, heck, Thanksgiving. Seriously, they couldn’t even be bothered to carve the thing?

Page 8 starts ‘wear for Halloween’. What happened to the first part of the sentence? I scan back. The previous two pages are pictures of two kids in costume. The line before that on the previous page is apparently a caption for another photo. Or something. Continue reading “J’s Take on Nonfiction “Halloween” Children’s Books”

J’s Take on Halloween

So for October, we decided to read a book with ‘Halloween’ in the title. “How hard can that be?” we thought. There must be thousands and thousands of books. We’ll have our pick of length and genre and author. We could read practically anything we wanted! Oh, how wrong we were!

The only science fiction and fantasy book in my library with ‘Halloween’ in the title was in the teen room. An Isaac Asimov anthology of sf/f Halloween stories. “So what?” you say. “Sounds perfect for you!” Yes, well, so perfect that I read it already!

The next closest things were R. L. Stine books. Which, not so much with the adult-ness. Or sf/f really either. More horror. For adult books, apart from perhaps one mystery, I’m left pretty much with some nonfiction titles. Such as a history of Halloween, or Halloween crafts. (And I was told if I reviewed a craft or cooking book, I’d have to actually craft or cook something from it. Sounds like work!)
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J’s Take on The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

We all hit on the scheme of each suggesting a book that the other two had to read. My suggestion was The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages. Little did I realize they’d want me to write a review of it too!

In the end, I decided not to reread the book. Not that I don’t have an interest in rereading it at some point. But I have too many books on my plate at the moment. Including a way-overdue review of my Alan Turing book. (Wait, was that really due in May?! Oops!)

So I’ll tell you why I suggested The Green Glass Sea and how I came to read it in the first place.

I first attended Wiscon in 2008. Although I had been thinking about it for a couple of years before that, when I’d see con reports and panel descriptions on my Livejournal friendslist. I even voted on panel suggestions in.. I think it was 2007. Though I didn’t attend that year. (I was unemployed and dead broke that year! So I took 6 weeks and went to California instead. ;) )
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