Scary books for Halloween
About 3,000 years ago, the ancient Celts celebrated the end of October like most kids do today — with a mixture of fear and excitement. The October end of the Celtic year meant the sun was leaving for the winter, and for one night the witches, demons, and creatures of evil were free to roam until dawn. Some peo-ple put out sweets and other good things to eat to calm the spirits. Others, hoping to fool the demons, dressed in disguises. Priests lit bonfires to scare them off.
We still light the ritual fires in jack-o'-lanterns, dress up, and offer sweets to celebrate the end of October. But these days the demons of darkness are more apt to look like Homer Simpson than like Mephistopheles. Halloween is both spooky and silly. Here are some best-of-their-class books that celebrate this haunting and hilarious holiday. All books: A
Ages 5 to 8
Guess What?
Mem Fox; illustrated by Vivienne Goodman
It probably won't take you long to guess
what Daisy O'Grady does for a living. Mem Fox's rollicking ques-tions
and answers reveal that O'Grady wears a black dress and has a black
cat. Vivienne Goodman's surreal paintings, chock-full of hilarious
detail, likewise drop a lot of pointed clues. The page-turning design
of the text and the wryly detailed, spookily funny illustrations are
a perfect combination. Is she a cursing, cackling, cranky old witch?
Guess! Is this a great Halloween book? Yes!
Wempires
Written and illustrated by Daniel Pinkwater
Young Jonathan Harker sees a vampire movie and decides to
become a vampire. When three real vampires visit him one night, he's
surprised to learn they would rather sink their fangs into cold
chicken and ginger ale than flesh and blood. These exuberant,
balding, bespectacled blood-suckers with Eastern European accents
(''Wempires! That's us!'') trash Jonathan's kitchen and wake up his
mom. Pinkwater tells this goofy tale with his signature breezy
dialogue and simple illustrations. The dedication to F.W. Murnau (the
German director of the classic 1922 film, Nosferatu), the young
narrator's name (the same as that of the narrator of Bram Stoker's
original Dracula), and the perfect ending are all neat Pinkwater
touches that make this a funny and intelligent Halloween book, worth
reading and rereading.
Gaes 8 to 11
Scary Stories 3
Retold by Alvin Schwartz; drawings by Stephen
Gammell
This is the third book in a series
of scary stories collected from folklore and retold by Alvin
Schwartz. This book, like Schwartz's first two, is a wonderful
collection of tales that range from creepy to silly to haunting. The
stories are all the more scary because they are supposedly true, and
believers will love the notes, sources, and bib- liography in the
back. Stephen Gammell's drawings add just the right touch of
supernatural spookiness.
Tales from the Crypt, Volumes 1, 2, and 3
Story adaptations by
Eleanor Fremont and Richard Wenk
Though
not as much gruesome fun as the originals, these short-story versions
of some classic Tales From the Crypt comics of the early '50s are
great trashy reading. Punny introductions by the Crypt-Keeper
(''Greetings and salivations, boils and ghouls''), the Old Witch, and
the Vault-Keeper lighten the sometimes gory situations. The
occasional illustrations are mild enough to sneak by unsuspecting
teachers, and the creepy plots, fast action, and surprise endings are
intact. The next-best thing to reading the original comics for
Halloween.
Weird! The Complete Book of Halloween Words
Peter R. Limburg;
pictures by Betsy Lewin
Weird! is a
perfectly entertaining book that explains where words like skeleton,
jack-o'-lantern, ghost, and goblin came from. Short, illustrated
entries packed with everything from Frankenstein to Shakespeare's
weird sisters to Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' video illuminate the
origin and history of Halloween words and customs. Fascinating
reading and a good reference book for all imps, devils, and witches
preparing for All Hallows' Eve.
Ages 11 and Up
Unreal! and Uncanny!
Paul Jennings
A ghost
skeleton on the dunny (toilet). A tattooed finger in a shark's
stomach. A U.F.D. (unidentified flying dog). Wonderfully weird and
spooky things turn up in these two collections of stories by a
best-selling Australian author. Horror fans with a taste for quirky
plots and disgusting details will love stories like ''Spaghetti
Pig-Out'' and ''Cow Dung Custard.'' Hauntingly amusing stories with a
twist.
The Spirit House
William Sleator
From the author
of the outstanding Interstellar Pig and The Boy Who Reversed Himselfcomes a chilling novel about an exchange student from Thailand who
brings more than just his luggage to America. Fifteen-year-old
Julie's life begins to go haywire after her brother builds a Thai
spirit house in the backyard for their guest. It's up to Julie to
fig-ure out what the ancient Thai spirit has to do with a regular
American girl. The subtle horror of what is real and what is not
makes for an eerie novel of suspense.
Tales of Edgar Allan Poe
Illustrated by Barry Moser
A marriage made in heaven...or maybe
hell? This collection of un-abridged stories enhanced by first-rate
artwork shows how good an illustrated book can be. Poe's stories are
recognized masterpieces of the macabre. Barry Mos-er's paintings,
true to the spirit of Poe, alternate between the quietly ominous drip
of a candle and the full-face, close-up horror of a hungry rat.
Here's a great reason not to buy rewritten classics with second-rate
illustrations. For more of the same original spooky tales with great
art, try Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle illustrated by N.C.
Wyeth and his The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
