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Author
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Comment
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Blackwolf
Unregistered User
(10/28/03 6:50 am)
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Samhain/Halloween tales, anyone?
Since Samhain (or Halloween or All Hallow's Eve or All Souls') is around the corner, I thought that it would be great to come up with tales or myths that would go well with this celebration in mind.
So fire away!
Blackwolf
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Quinnlove
Registered User
(10/28/03 9:10 am)
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Persephone
I tend to reread Ray Bradbury's The October Country at Halloween, for sheer spookiness,and this year I'm also reading Rita Dove's book of poetry, Mother Love, which is her exploration of the Persephone myth.
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AlisonPegg
Registered User
(10/28/03 1:25 pm)
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Re: Samhain/Halloween tales, anyone?
Want to read a really scary story about the bogeyman?
Here's the link if you dare!!!
http://mysite.freeserve.com/snowpeacock/bogeyman1.htm
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RymRytr1
Registered User
(10/28/03 2:49 pm)
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Re: Samhain/Halloween tales, anyone?
Cute little story! I've bookmarked your page for further reading.
Do you plan to expand that story with any more detail? Just curious...
It made me want more.
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Meurglys
Registered User
(10/29/03 6:20 am)
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Re: Samhain/Halloween tales, anyone?
A little early (they couldn't get the room on the right night) but
I'll be going to this
tonight - it's a group of local writers who put on readings. Usually
very good and often creepy! (esp. at this time of the year!)
And, if you look around the site a little, I suggest you read the story about furniture! (click on 'exports' to reach it). It's short, but good!
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tlchang37
Registered User
(10/30/03 1:38 pm)
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Re: Samhain/Halloween tales, anyone?
We read or watch one of the versions of "Sleepy Hollow" - not strictly Halloween, but very autumnal.
Not tales, but traditions - books like Vivianne Crowley's "Celtic Wisdom: Seasonal Rituals and Festivals" give lots of (sometimes dubious) 'history' of the holiday and modern methods of celebrating. Can be fun.
On a related note - does anyone have favorite Halloween children's picture books? One of my fav is "The House that Drac Built" by Judy Sierra and delightfully illustrated by Will Hillenbrand. Eve Merriman's "Halloween ABC" illustrated by Lane Smith is creepy fun.
I was perusing Barnes and Noble's children's section a couple of weeks ago and am frustrated by the choices (or rather, lack of) in Halloween and autumn fare - at least from an illustrative viewpoint! Autumn is my favorite season - the colors and textures are so rich and complex. Bright, muted and darks all combined - and the time of year 'feels' the same way to me. None of the current offerings (in the last 5 years at least) have any of this same 'feeling'. They are all cartoony simplistic and bright. There's no complexity or darkness or delicious scariness that one can associate with Halloween.
One of my friends postulated that this could be a resort of Harry Potter-esque backlash...? Fearful of anything smacking of 'witchcraft' or Pagan or Satanic leanings - so all current picture books show bright, orange, cartoon pumpkins and daytime trick-or-treating.... Ok - so I may be overstating this a bit, but I seriously could find nothing that I was the least bit illustratively drawn to...
I'm hoping there are some yummy, fun-creepy, visually complex Halloween picture books out there somewhere!! Help! Anyone?
Tara
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(10/30/03 2:42 pm)
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Children's Books
Tara,
Hands down the most popular book with every Halloween storytime group I have ever presented has been:
In a Dark, Dark Wood: An Old Tale With a New Twist
by David Carter
www.amazon.com/exec/obido...lalufairyt
As for atmosphere, the problem isn't really Harry Potter. It's the fear level of the children. The above book worked well with my preschoolers who enjoyed the delicious shiver at the end, but even this one pushes their ability to not be scared to tears. The same problem exists with monster books which is one of my favorite storytime themes. The publishers are trying to avoid the nightmares that keep parents from buying the books. As popular and wonderful as it is, Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" terrifies a lot of children who won't touch it. Here are some more atmospheric and shivery picture books, relative to the cartoony schtick, that I have enjoyed using. There's many more, but these have proved popular.
Pumpkin Eye (just a few years old)
by Denise Fleming
www.amazon.com/exec/obido...lalufairyt
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
by Linda Williams
www.amazon.com/exec/obido...lalufairyt
When the Goblins Came Knocking (out-of-print unfortunately)
by Anna Grossnickle Hines
www.amazon.com/exec/obido...lalufairyt
Also, another storytime favorite has been various versions of the following song. I use flashcards with images for each day.
The Twelve Days of Hallowe'en
(Tune: "The Twelve Days of Christmas")
On the first day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
An owl in a rotten oak tree
On the second day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
Two trick or treaters
And an owl in a rotten oak tree
On the third day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
Three black cats
Two trick or treaters
And an owl in a rotten oak tree
On the fourth day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
Four skeletons
Three black cats
Two trick or treaters
And an owl in a rotten oak tree
On the fifth day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
Five haunted houses!
Four skeletons
Three black cats
Two trick or treaters
And an owl in a rotten oak tree
On the sixth day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
Six witches stirring
Five haunted houses!
Four skeletons
Three black cats
Two trick or treaters
And an owl in a rotten oak tree
On the seventh day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
Seven pumpkins glowing
Six witches stirring
Five haunted houses!
Four skeletons
Three black cats
Two trick or treaters
And an owl in a rotten oak tree
On the eighth day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
Eight monsters marching
Seven pumpkins glowing
Six witches stirring
Five haunted houses!
Four skeletons
Three black cats
Two trick or treaters
And an owl in a rotten oak tree
On the ninth day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
Nine ghosts a-booing
Eight monsters marching
Seven pumpkins glowing
Six witches stirring
Five haunted houses!
Four skeletons
Three black cats
Two trick or treaters
And an owl in a rotten oak tree
On the tenth day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
Ten mummies groaning
Nine ghosts a-booing
Eight monsters marching
Seven pumpkins glowing
Six witches stirring
Five haunted houses!
Four skeletons
Three black cats
Two trick or treaters
And an owl in a rotten oak tree
On the eleventh day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
Eleven caskets leaning
Ten mummies groaning
Nine ghosts a-booing
Eight monsters marching
Seven pumpkins glowing
Six witches stirring
Five haunted houses!
Four skeletons
Three black cats
Two trick or treaters
And an owl in a rotten oak tree
On the twelfth day of Hallowe'en
My true love gave to me
Twelve bats a-flying
Eleven caskets leaning
Ten mummies groaning
Nine ghosts a-booing
Eight monsters marching
Seven pumpkins glowing
Six witches stirring
Five haunted houses!
Four skeletons
Three black cats
Two trick or treaters
And an owl in a rotten oak tree
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tlchang37
Registered User
(10/31/03 12:56 pm)
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children's books
Thanks for the book suggestions Heidi. I will see if they fit what I am looking for.
I understand what you are saying about scaring younger children... Maybe what I am wanting is not so much picture books, as illustrated 'story books' (you know - those not-really-geared-to-young-kids beautiful books?) And since I am illustratively-centric, I'm mostly looking for gorgeous, atmospheric, visually complex pictures - over the relative merits of the story. :-) A good story helps, but I *look* at my books more than I read them.
I did some related searching around the links you provided, and there are some possibilities, if you can judge by the covers. But if anyone has other recommendations, that'd be great!
Happy Hallow's Eve all!
Tara
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(10/31/03 1:08 pm)
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Re: children's books
I understand, Tara. My favorite this year is one I know you already discovered, Tony DiTerlizzi's "The Spider and the Fly." It is a wonderful book, but pretty much sat on the new picture book shelf at my library because it was too scary for the younger set. I had to handsell it to older kids who then had fun with it. I, too, love so many of the fairy tale picture books because they tend to be more lush than the usual picture book offerings. You might also look at many of the seasonal books by Eve Bunting. The illustrators chosen for her text are sometimes more visually complex. And I do miss David Wisniewski's work. He was a wonder with paper.
Also, if you haven't seen it, check out Robert Sabuda's new pop-up, Alice in Wonderland. Oh, he is marvelous, isn't he? I can't wait to pull out his Christmas pop-ups in a few weeks. Here's its link:
www.amazon.com/exec/obido...lalufairyt
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tlchang37
Registered User
(11/1/03 11:27 pm)
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re:children's books
Yup! Love Tony DiTerlizzi! (My daughter is eating up those Spiderwick Chronicles as well. Holly - if you're out there - keep writing! We sure love you at our house!)
Thanks for the additional suggestions. Eve Bunting (I don't usually look up illustrated books by the author. :-) ) - BOY is she prolific! I know a lot of those those books, and may of the illustrators are terrific. Love David Wisniewski - though I practically get carpel tunnel just looking at his books. And I hadn't been aware of R.Sabuda's "Alice". I know his Christmas books in particular and will have to look up more of his titles. Maybe he'll do an autumn/Halloween one for me sometime.
Thanks a bunch, resident librarian!
Tara
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Yukihada
Registered User
(11/4/03 12:41 am)
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Re: Samhain/Halloween tales, anyone?
I actually work at the local B&N in our town and I realize..yep corporate bookseller but I'm pretty lucky to work with some people who of course really love books.. I found some fantastic books on our Halloween table that were not perhaps all Halloween themed I was also happy to see Tony diTerlizzi creepy fun little illustrations to the Spider and the Fly front and center on the children's octagon. Another beautiful autumn book I found that I loved just for the illustrations is Wild Child by Lynn Plourde with illustrations by Greg Couch. I've been happy to see Neil Gaiman's The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish also up on the octagon for Father's Day..However up by the register the table with mainly Halloween board books was not as impressive. But I think that table is perhaps more corporate and less employee recs.
BTW for Holly she actually has a lovely little blog..does she write here..that would be nice. But I like to stop by..wade in and see what she's up to since I also have been lapping up the Spiderwick books along with Tithe.
www.blackholly.com/
Edited by: Yukihada at: 11/4/03 12:46 am
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Niniane
Sunyata
Registered User
(11/4/03 2:42 pm)
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Re: Samhain/Halloween tales, anyone?
Well, something that's not really "scary" but to me exemplifies Samhain/ All Hallow's Eve is my favourite ballad, "Tam Lin", and Raymond E Feist's "Faerie Tale" - which *is* kind of chilling, but not in the "gross me out" kind of way.
Anita Harris.
Terra Mythogene
www.mythopoetica.com
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