Not So Creepy Halloween Stories

"Mitzi liked creepy things.

Creepy bedroom slippers

Creepy breakfast cereal.

Creepy relatives.

So, naturally, when she

decided to get a pet,

she wanted the creepiest

pet possible."

Despite Mitzi being a witch and loving all things creepy, the book Hoodwinked, by Arthur Howard, is a wonderfully non-creepy book for those of us just getting into spooky things. After several attempts at finding the perfect creepy pet at the Cackle & Company pet shop, Mitzi discovers her perfect pet is an adorable orange cat she names Hoodwink.

"And strange as it seems, she didn't mind one bit

that he was adorable. After all, she said,

looks aren't everything."

I have read this book to Emmy every day for weeks, but the best reader of this creepy book is Emmy herself. So listen in as she reads aloud Hoodwinked.

(By the way, anytime Emmy starts to read a book to me, she will say..."I'm going to read it differently." I find this so cute. She usually has the character's names and the plot down pat, but will add her own lines and voices which makes listening to her read a complete joy.)

If you have a beginner reader at your house, you may be familiar with Arthur Howard's illustrations as he draws the pictures for the Mr. Putty and Tabby books written by Cynthia Rylant.

If you are looking for another Halloween book that is a bit scary, but not too much, try There Was An Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams. Emmy LOVES this one especially when the the pumpkin head says "BOO, BOO!" The assorted items of clothing found in the story have a calling to scare something, but when the old lady bravely says, "I'm not afraid of you." the unhappy look on the pumpkin head gives the the old lady an idea. I won't give away the ending, but here is a hint in the form of a song:

Scarecrow

(tune: I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little scarecrow

Stuffed with hay,

Standing watch in my field all day.

When I see a crow

I like to shout:

"Hey, Mr. Crow, you'd better get out!"

Oh, and one more sweet book that is a bit of a creepy Halloween story and a

great book for bedtime - Who Wants a Dragon? by James Mayhew. An adorable pink dragon is lost in the night looking for his home and his adventures take him around the kingdom where he ends up frightening most everyone until his Mommy flies by... "She'll cuddle him, and kiss him, and help him sleep tight."

Emmy and I really enjoy books by James Mayhew. You may remember our post on Katie in London. Mr. Mayhew writes a wonderful blog where I just found out his struggle in creating another series of books based on his son during the boy's younger years. The first book is titled

Boy and is set to be republished next summer. It looks so

endearing! If you are interested in finding out about the struggle to get this series going and published check out this post on Mayhew's blog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Happy Halloween!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Little Bunny's Sleepless Night

I've mentioned in a previous post that reading right before bedtime is a ritual that we cherish in our household. Emmy takes such care in choosing two books that she wants me to read to her. This choice has gone through some changes from the number of books and types of books to who is doing the reading. We now stick to the - two books that Mommy reads to Emmy - rule which, to be perfectly honest, is all that I can handle at the end of the day.

Emmy's favorite bedtime book right now is Little Bunny's Sleepless Night by Carol Roth with illustrations by Valeri Gorbachev. It is an endearing story of a bunny who gets lonely when falling asleep and decides one night that it would be nice to have "the company of a good friend." So off Little Bunny hops to the homes of his friends: squirrel, skunk, porcupine, bear and owl only to find out that his bed is the absolute best place for him.

This book gives a gentle reminder to those children, who often migrate from their room to the room of their parents, that there really is nothing as nice as one's very own bed. As a Mommy to one of these "nocturnal creatures," I very much appreciated Roth's humor and Gorbachev's cozy sketches as I talked with Emmy about how her very special bed is the best place for her. Though I must say that what I love best about these nighttime visits, is the tenderness in her voice as she asks me to accompany her back to bed and give her a gentle back rub. Who wouldn't love that!

The Moon

Emmy is fascinated by the moon. She loves to look up into the night sky and find out what phase it is in or in her words "What shape is the moon today?" She laughs and laughs when the moon can be seen in the morning. "Mommy, the moon is supposed to be sleeping right now. Silly moon. Time for night-night!"

One of our favorite books about the moon is Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle. It is an absolutely delightful story about a little girl and her daddy. I am always drawn to a father/daughter book as there aren't many of them out there. As a long time follower of Eric Carle's work, I am always very excited to share his books with Emmy. With fold out pages and a pop out moon, Emmy just loves reading "Papa get the moon." Using tissue paper to create collages which are then glued to paper board, Eric Carle's illustrations seem to jump off the pages. Having tissue paper in your child's art area at home is a must. Given many oppotunities to cut and paste, your child will soon be creating wonderful creatures that he or she can write about just like Eric Carle. If you haven't included Eric Carle books in your child's book collection, please do so as they will be treasured for years and years to come. For more information on Eric Carle and his books check out his official website and if picture book art is something you'd like to see more of, plan a trip to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Massachusetts. Click here to find out more.

Another wonderful book about the moon is I Took the Moon for a Walk by Carolyn Curtis with illustrations by Allison Jay. With poetic charm, Curtis allows the reader to step into a boy's imaginative outing with the moon. "I took the Moon for a walk last night/It followed behind like a still summer kite,/Though there wasn't a string or a tail in sight/when I took the Moon for a walk."

Allison Jay is an artist who truly understands the fun that can be had in a book for children. Jay's trademark oil paintings with their crackled finish reveal charming details not mentioned in the verse. For instance, the illustration for "I warned the Moon to rise a bit higher/ so it wouldn't get hooked on a church's tall spire." shows the moon losing one of its red slippers, when it bumps into the church's steeple, which the boy recovers in the next spread. Each verse ends dependably with the same eight words "When I took the moon for a walk." Adding to the appeal of this book are the notes at the end of the story containing facts about the moon's phases as well as nocturnal animals. Children truly are fanciful and imaginative beings and it is important to honor that, but just as important is to honor their 'here and now' personality by immersing them in what they can see, hear, smell, taste and feel in the world around them. When choosing books for your child, be sure to include pieces of non-fiction that display what your child can find in his or her own backyard.

An additional plug for Allison Jay! ABC: A Child's First Alphabet Book and Picture This are two of Emmy's earliest books and are still favorites today. I just love the way Jay's illustrations tell a complete story. Each time we reread these books, we discover something new and exciting to talk about. Another one of Jay's books, If Kisses Were Colors, I bought awhile ago and need to take off of the shelf and share with Emmy. I also keep meaning to add 1,2,3: A Child's First Counting Book to Emmy's collection. If I haven't mentioned before, I am a collector of children's books and love to collect many books by a single author or illustrator and Allison Jay is a definite must for me!

Black and White

The colors black and white create such visual delights when presented on paper. As someone who enjoys art, but don't ask me any questions, I am drawn to black and white photography and will often play with the many digital photographs I have of Emmy changing them from color to black and white and back to color again. Research tells us that babies prefer to look at high-contrast edges and patterns which explains the many baby mobiles made in those two colors. When Emmy was a baby she didn't have a mobile like that, but she did have three books by Tana Hoban which she really enjoyed: Black on White, White on Black and Black & White. In board book form with one picture on a page, these books are so visually appealing and great conversation starters.


Now that Emmy is older we've discovered a few more black and white books that we love to read. Published in 1980, the book Goodnight, Goodnight by Eve Rice is a favorite choice at bedtime. As night settles over a town, we watch as all of the people go about their nighttime activities including a kitten on the rooftop who is looking for someone to play with until he is found by his mother. "But all over town, Goodnight was creeping slowly with the dark."



Another favorite at bedtime is a book published by Peter Pauper Press titled Whoo's There A Bedtime Shadow Book. Grab your flashlight and get ready! Emmy loves to shine the images on her bedroom wall. Her favorite image is the little girl holding the kitty cat. It's amazing what adding a flashlight can do to your bedtime routine. Don't forget to try out some hand images on the wall! "I sat and I waited, and then I could see, all the nighttime creatures waiting for me."


The most recent addition to our night-night books is The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson. The story follows a cumulative pattern (think Hush, Little Baby and This is the House That Jack Built) based on the nursery rhyme This is the Key of the Kingdom which dates back to 1897. Maybe you remember it:

This is the key of the kingdom.
In that kingdom there is a city.
In that city there is a town.
In that town there is a street.
In that street there is a lane.
In that lane there is a yard.
In that yard there is a house.

In that house there is a room.
In that room there is a bed.
On that bed there is a basket.
In that basket there are some flowers.

Flowers in a basket,
Basket on the bed,
Bed in the room,
Room in the house,
House in the yard,
Yard in the lane,
Lane in the street,
Street in the town,
Town in the city,
City in the kingdom.
Of that kingdom this is the key.

With her own twist on this classic rhyme, Swanson succeeds in giving it a modern update that enables our imaginations to soar along with the girl as she travels into the world of a book. The illustrations in this book are stunning! Using scratchboard and watercolor, Beth Krommes creates a nighttime world of wonder. "Here is the key to the house, the house in the night, a home full of light."



While researching the beginnings of the original rhyme, I came across this fingerplay found in the book What'll I Do With the Baby-O by Jane Cobb that I think, with a bit of practice, I could successfully do with Emmy. In case you'd like to give it a try, here it is:

This is the Key to the Kingdom

This is the key to the kingdom.
(key—thumb/ kingdom—arms wide)
And in the kingdom there is a town,
(hands a foot apart)
And in the town there is a hill,
(hands curled over)
And on the hill there is a street,
(arms out parallel)
And on the street there is a house,
(hands peaked)
And in the house there is a room.
(Room—palms turned outward, thumbs touching)
And in the room there is a bed,
(one hand with the palm out flat flat, one hand up at a right angle)
And on the bed there is a basket,
(basket--cup hands together)
And in the basket there is a blanket,
(one hand over the other)
And under the blanket there is a BABY!
(hold out cupped hands as if something precious were inside)

Then, do the whole thing backwards:

Baby under the blanket,
Blanket in the basket,
Basket on the bed,
Bed in the room,
Room in the house,
House on the street,
Street on the hill,
Hill in the town,
Town in the kingdom,
And THIS is the key to the kingdom.

Goodnight Moon

Creating a bedtime ritual with Emmy has been one of the joys of motherhood. I've always enjoyed the quiet of evening and hoped that Emmy would too. So far she seems to relish the evening as much as I do. Currently our ritual for bedtime includes deep breathing, a few songs, some special blessings and of course books. Since Emmy was a tiny baby, I've read the classic children's book Goodnight Moon (published in 1947) to her. Somehow Margaret Wise Brown figured out a way to create books that children and adults absolutely adore. Most parents I know can recite this book word for word and always with a smile. Emmy enjoys finding the mouse on each colored page. Although this book is not chosen for bedtime as much anymore, it is still one of her most beloved bedtime stories.

I find it interesting how books for children can tell us about parenting styles over the years. For example, Goodnight Moon shows an adult figure (mother, grandmother, nanny?) across the room knitting and hushing the child to sleep, Bedtime for Frances (1960) shows a dad who, due to exhaustion, threatens the child with a spanking, and finally Olivia (2000) who shows a child as a unique individual and a mother who is accepting and connected to her child. I might also mention Goodnight Gorilla (1994) who shows a boy who is definitely in charge of his own bedtime!

We have quite a collection of "night-night books" that are kept in baskets by the bed. I've been wanting to write a list of the titles, which I thought might be helpful in future gift giving as well as a great reminder to Emmy of all of her favorites. What better place for such a list than in this blog so here it goes:

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
I Love You As Much by Laura Krauss Melmed
Time For Bed by Mem Fox
Goodnight Train by June Sobel
Ten in the Bed by Penny Dale
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow
Olivia by Ian Falconer
Little Bunny's Bedtime by Jane Johnson
Counting Kisses by Karen Katz
Kiss Goodnight by Amy Hest
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
Papa, Please Get The Moon For Me by Eric Carle
Wake Up, Night! by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
I Love You Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt
I Love You, Goodnight by Jon Buller and Susan Schade
The Napping House by Audrey Wood (great read right before naptime)
Lullabies and Sweet Dreams by Julie Aigner-Clark
The Prince's Bedtime by Joanne Oppenheim
Goodnight, Goodnight by Eve Rice
Only You by Robin Cruise
Corduroy's Day by Don Freeman
Goodnight Goodnight Sleepyhead by Ruth Krauss
Goodnight, Country by Susan Verlander
Sleepy Places by Judy Hindley
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Rosemary Wells
Hush Little Baby by Sylvia Long
While You Were Sleeping by John Butler
Rock-A-Bye Baby by Jeanette Winter
Let's Play by Leo Lionni
I'll See You in the Morning by Mike Jolley
Can You Cuddle Like a Koala? by John Butler
Let's Go Visiting by Sue Williams
I Like Stars by Margaret Wise Brown
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
Mommy's Best Kisses by Margaret Anastas
Good Night New York City by Adam Gamble

Sweet dreams and goodnight!