Smell My Feet

Halloween, my favorite day of the year, is just around the corner.  Here are a few books to get you in the spirit for a day of spookiness!

A wagon full of pumpkins

Pumpkins by Ken Robbins

This book of photography tells the real story of pumpkins.  Robbins shows through words and exquisite photography all the different uses, types, and parts of a pumpkin.  He explains how pumpkins grow, tells you how to carve them, and even shows what they look like when they rot.  This is a great book for your youngest ghouls and goblins or even as a coffee table book in the fall!

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg

This book is actually a series of illustrations, their titles, and cryptic captions for each.  In the introduction, Van Allsburg explains how the illustrations were the mysterious left-overs of 14 picture books that were never written.  Harris Burdick is the author/illustrator who dropped off the illustrations at a publisher saying he would return with the rest later.  But Harris Burdick never showed up... (cue creepy music here) The book is all 14 illustrations.  In a fun note, my book buddy Mas, told me about a new version just published in which famous authors write stories to go along with the illustrations.  I will definitely check it out but in the meantime, let these pictures give you the heebie-jeebies.

The title and caption

One illustration from Harris Burdick

Creepy illustrations accompany the stories

Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

I tried really hard to find a copy of the Scary Stories books I read when I was younger.  You know, the creepy collection of stories with tales like the one about the spider that laid an egg on a girl's face and the little baby spiders came crawling all over her one day.  Well, apparently every one else wanted those books too because they were all checked out at my library.  I got a different book, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, in the "series," if you can call it that.  These are stories collected from American folklore.  Schwartz writes the stories and even gives you suggestions on how to tell them. For example in one story, as you deliver the punchline, he suggests, "As you give the last line, pounce on one of your friends."  Most of the stories aren't as scary as I remembered them but I am also not ten years old.  I think ten year olds will find these just creepy enough.  I did LOVE the stories meant to be funny.  The chapter titled, "Aaaaaaaaaaah!" explains on the first page that the stories, "...in this chapter are meant to make you laugh."  And they did.

The Graveyard Book and Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Gaiman took the Newbury prize for The Graveyard Book in 2009.  This story tells of a boy who, at the age of 18 months, is the sole survivor when a man murders his family.  Bod (short for Nobody) Owens is his name and after the murder he crawls into a graveyard where he is raised by the ghosts and groundskeeper who live there.  As he grows up, he learns all their secrets until one day he is faced with the very man who murdered his family.  Cool, creepy, and perfect for the trick-or-treater in your life who is reading chapter books.  Gaiman also wrote Coraline, which is a pretty creepy book itself.  There was a movie made a few years ago but the book is, obviously, better.  Coraline is fed up with her parents and slips into an alternative world where a different version of her parents live...only they have buttons for eyes.  They want to keep Coraline there and in order to do so they need to replace her eyes with buttons too.  Ewwwww.  And so cool.

So there you are folks. Have a safe, happy holiday and don't forget to send me pictures of your book characters to post after the candy is consumed!