Hurry Up Halloween

Fall is my favorite season. Pumpkin patches that sprouted up overnight are beginning to be depleted of their stock while houses around my neighborhood are gearing up for the big night with scary bats and goblins hanging up creating a wonderfully frightening effect every evening. Those very same pumpkins are now decorating doorsteps as families prepare costumes for their kids and amp up their candy collection.

One of my favorite things every Halloween is finding some fun books to tell readers about, ones which I hope will make your hair stand on end or simply set you up with some spooktacular Trick or Treat spirit.

Halloween just got more ghoulish with the release of The 13 Days of Halloween from Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, written by Carol Greene, illustrated by Tim Raglin, and originally published in 1985. I didn’t have children when the book first came out and I am grateful to Jabberwocky for bringing it back. Now the kids and I can carol our way through Oct. 31 with this twisted take on “The Twelve Days of Christmas:” “On the first day of Halloween, my good friend gave to me: a vulture in a dead tree.” The illustrations are cool and creepy and when coupled with the offbeat verse make this an irresistible read.

For more ideas about what to read, check out my Halloween Book Roundup at http://losangeles.parenthood.com/Halloween_2009Roundup.php today!