Library Column for October 29, 2020

@ Your Library

It’s a spooky time of year. There is still a couple days to add decorations to your home for the holiday or to create a costume. A fun book for costumes using household materials is How to Create Spectacular Halloween Costumes by Louiann Brown and Jason Nemeth or Illegally Easy Halloween Costumes for Kids by Leila Peltosaari for 100’s of simple, no-sew ideas.

Decorating books include The Great Halloween Book: how to make this holiday more fun for the whole family by Mark Walker, Halloween Fun: great things to make and do by Abigail Willis, 175 Easy-to-Do Halloween Crafts: creative uses for recyclables by Sharon Dunn Umnik, Better Homes and Gardens Halloween: 101 frightfully fun ideas edited by Carol Field Dahlstrom and my favorite title Give them a Real Scare this Halloween: a guide to scaring trick-or-treaters, and haunting your house, yard or party by Joseph Pfeiffer.

If your family is not going trick-or-treating and yet you want a special evening, borrow one of our Halloween movies for a silly eveing. Try The Dog Who Saved Halloween or Will Vinton’s Claymation Halloween, The Teacher from the Black Lagoon and more slightly scary stories, 20 Halloween Stories by Weston Woods, Scared Shrekless. Families with older children or adults might enjoy Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Halloween the 2019 sequel to the original, set 40 years later, The Birds the classic Alfred Hitchcock film from 1963, Cabin in the Woods (best seen in an isolated cabin in the woods), Deliverance from 1972, The Vanishing from 1993 or Jaws (although probably better left til next summer at the beach).

I’ve read a lot of Agatha Christie, but never Hallowe’en Party. The book was dedicated to P.G. Wodehouse, a favorite author of mine, so even though the reviews say it is a novel littered with loose ends and unrealized characters I may have to give it a go. I’ve never understood the need to scare myself (there is plenty in the real world I find scary) but if you like a good scary read then try out some of these newer titles. Wonderland by Zoje Stage features a city family that just moved to the country and now all that stands between her family and an enigmatic presence is a mother’s love. Scott Carson’s The Chill is about a prophecy warning of additional sacrafices uncovered by a inspector as he oversees a dangerously neglected dam. Dean Koontz is one of master’s of horror fiction and his newest is Devoted about a dog and speechless boy who communicate – can they work together to stop a primal force coming for them? A new novel by George Romero and Daniel Kraus The Living Dead, set in the present day is the story of the zombie plague and George Romero wanted to tell it.

And be sure and check out our collection of Halloween picture books for slightly scary, more silly tales to make your Halloween perfect. Elementary students might ‘enjoy’ Scare Me by KR Alexander.

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