Virtual Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin Simulator Happy Halloween Fun! Visit the Virtual Pumpkin Carving Webpage (no seeds, no guts, no mess to clean up)!

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/pumpkin_sim.html

~ Donna Colson, Westfield Athenaeum

Shake dem Halloween Bones!

Each year, I read this really fun Halloween book to the 3rd graders called Shake dem Halloween Bones! by W. Nikola-Lisa and illustrated by Mike Reed. (Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997.)

It is about a Halloween ball, a hip-hop Halloween ball, told in rhyme by a DJ who has a jack-o'-lantern head! The storybook characters (or maybe just kids dressed up as fairy tale favorites??!!) have a hootin' good time "shaking dem bones" as they dance the night away. There are Red Riding Hood, Tom Thumb, Snow White, Goldilocks, and Rapunzel, and others and the kids love figuring out who they are from the clues in the hip-hop rhymes and fun colorful illustrations. There are also monsters, shiny eyes, glowing pumpkins, black cats lurking everywhere and each time I read it, I/we discover ones we've missed before. I pass out the "shake, shake dem bones" song on orange pumpkin-colored paper and the students dance and sing along whenever the song comes up in the text. They really get into shakin' dem bones! A really fun book! Since I will be at the Blogging workshop on Halloween this year, we did it last Wednesday instead! Maybe we can "shake dem bones" during the break?!?!?!?!

~ Rosemarie Borsody, Lenox Middle/High School Library

Fast facts about Halloween from History.com

Fast Facts about Halloween!

"The observance of Halloween, which dates back to Celtic rituals
thousands of years ago, has long been associated with images of
witches, ghosts, devils and hobgoblins. In the United States, the
first official citywide Halloween celebration occurred in Anoka,
Minn., in 1921. Over the years, Halloween customs and rituals have
changed dramatically. Today, many of the young and young at heart take
a more light-spirited approach. They don scary disguises or ones that
may bring on smiles when they go door to door for treats, or attend or
host a Halloween party. "Trick or Treat!""

From: http://www.history.com/minisites/halloween/

~ Richard Fairfield, Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield

My Frightening Story

A woman in a long dark coat came into my library. She was clutching something rectangular in a canvas bag. She looked around the room furtively. She looked at me. After several moments of watching and looking around the library anxiously, she began to move toward me. If anyone approached me, she would stop and wait, pretending to look at magazines or displays. As she got closer I could feel my heart beginning to pound louder and louder.

She slipped her hand into the bag and whipped something out of it and pointed it at me. I gasped

She said, "I just finished this book and I loved it. I want another just like it. Can you help me?"

WHAT do I do?????

~ Jan Resnick, WMRLS

Favorite Ghost Stories

My favorite ghost stories are those by Henry James and Edith Wharton. I haven’t read any in quite awhile, but I remember James’ Turn of the Screw.

In it a new governess is hired for the two innocent, little orphans who live in an isolated, spooky country estate in England. There is definitely evil about, but is it the ghosts of the dead previous governess and the handyman? Or perhaps the children are only pretending to see ghosts to unsettle the new governess. Or maybe it is the governess herself who is insane?

It is all very creepy and by the end of the story, the reader still doesn’t know what happened except that the little boy, Miles, is dead. Who was responsible? The ghosts, if they exist; the governess, if she is deranged; or Miles himself, if he was really evil? The reader gets to decide.

~ Janet Moulding, Director, Forbes Library, Northampton

Spooky Jokes

1. What's worse than being a 1000 pound witch?
Being her broom!

2. What does a vampire do when he has a cold?
He takes coffin medicine!

3. What did the black cat call the mouse on roller skates?
Meals on wheels.

4. Why did Count Dracula take out a subscription to the Wall Street Journal?
He heard it had good circulation.

Happy haunting...

~ Donna Colson, Westfield Athenaeum

The Becket Athenaeum Ghost

When I first began working at the Becket Athenaeum I was warned about the "ghost of the attic" . The Athenaeum is housed in an old church and the Director has talked about many scary happenings in the building. Sometimes when it is very quiet at the Athenaeum you can hear a creaking sound in the attic, which some have said is the ghost of a little girl, but in actuality it is an old chandelier that is hanging up in the attic and when the wind blows just right you can hear a creaking sound. I have scared myself a couple of times, working there when we are closed to the public and have had most of the lights off and have heard that noise, and then it would seem a moment or two later I would hear a book or 2 falling over in the stacks toward the back of the library. The first time this happened to me, I think I had only been working at the library for a month, I quickly gathered my things, and locked up for the evening and went home.

~ Nancy Wilson, Becket Athenaeum

Two Spooky Jokes

1. Why do ghosts make bad liars
Because you can see right through them

2. What do skeletons say before eating
Bone appetit

~ Carol Lynne Bagley, Senior Reference Librarian, Chicopee Public Library

Not-Too-Scarey (But Very Popular) Picture Books

The following is a list of not-too-scarey picture books that are popular at our library:

1. Trick or treat, smell my feet by Diane de Groat
2. How to trick or treat in outer space by Kathleen Krull
3. Poultrygeist by Mary Jane and Herm Auch
4. The Flying Witch by Jane Yolen
5. The Vanishing Pumpkin by Tony Johnston
6. Which Witch is which by Judi Barrett
7. The Bones of Fred McFee by Eve Bunting
8. One Witch by Laura Leuck
   
   ~Sheila McCormick, Director, Hatfield Public Library

A Very Spooky Joke

What was written on the hypochondriac's tombstone ?
"I told you I was ill" !

~ Leslie Schaler, University of Amherst Libraries

Somewhat Scary Jokes - Beware!

Somewhat Scary, Slightly Silly, and Some-might-say Stupid Halloween Jokes taken from The Usborne Book of Monster Jokes, c.2004.

· What did Dr. Jekyll say when he heard a knock at the door?

“Just a minute, I’m changing!”

· What do you call the sticky stuff between Godzilla’s teeth?

Tourists.

· What do you get if you cross a monster with a computer?

A big mac.

Ha Ha Ha!

~ Jenny Kinder, Library Assistant, Children's Department, East Longmeadow Public Library

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

My all time favorite Halloween movie is It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I still recommend it for its simplicity in message and style. Unlike many animations of today, it leaves room for thoughtful imagination.

My favorite quote: (Linus referring to Lucy)

"You heard about fury and a woman scorned, haven't you?" "Well, that's nothing compared to the fury of a woman who's been cheated out of tricks or treats."

When I mentioned this assignment in the teachers' room it prompted an interesting discussion between the old folks (like me) and the younger ones. We (the aforementioned old ones) reminisced about the days before DVDs and video casssettes, when youngsters had to wait until their favorite shows apppeared on network TV. Now with on-demand viewing, it seems that some of the magic of a Halloween special or a Christmas favorite is gone when you can watch it in the middle of July. Hopefully, parents put the videos/DVDs away and allow their children to experience the valuable lesson that anticipation and waiting for something special to happen can bring.

~ Kathy Dvorchak, LMS Baird Middle School Library, Ludlow