Halloween Tales for Middle Grade Readers

The Graveyard Hounds written by Vi Hughes and illustrated by Christina Leist is a spooky mystery. This easy to read novel begins, as all truly scary novels should, with a violent lightning storm.  Afterwards strange things start happening at Annie and Mike's school. Then dogs start losing their bark.


I found Malice by Chris Wooding to be painfully terrifying. This is a novel best read by students in grades 6 and up who are not faint of heart. It's the story of teenagers tempting fate and getting trapped inside an horrific comic world where they are forced to fight for their lives. 


The first time I read Nightmares: Poems to Trouble your Sleep by Jack Prelutsky, (published in 1976) I fell in love with it. It remains my favourite Halloween poetry book to this day. It contains descriptive poetry about witches, werewolves, zombies, vampires and more. One of the most terrifying is The Ghoul. 

 
"The gruesome ghoul, the grisly ghoul,
without the slightest noise
waits patiently beside the school
to feast on girls and boys  

He lunges fiercely though the air
as they come out to play,
and grabs a couple by the hair
and drags them far away. 

He cracks their bones and snaps their backs
and squeezes out their lungs,
he chews their thumbs like candy snacks
and pulls apart their tongues....."

Picture Books For Halloween

My favourite time of year is approaching. There is something magical about Halloween. Maybe it's the playing around with what's real and what's not. Perhaps it's about the potential for safely exploring the darker side of the cosmos. Whatever it is, it is pure fun!

Here are some seasonal books that I adore. 

Our newest addition to the collection is Halloween Hustle by Charlotte Gunnufson. The rhythm and rhyming make this book a pleasure to read out loud. Will skeleton make it to the Halloween party in time?  

AlphaOops written by Alethea Kontis and illustrated by Bob Kolar is another of my new favourites. It is a delightful alphabet book with a twist.  The letters, dressed up for Halloween, are in a play, but do not come in the usual order. 
Kontis has some fun activities that accompany the text here. 

Halloween by Jerry Seinfeld is a hilarious picture book that is enjoyed by older students and adults alike. Seinfeld reminisces on his younger self partaking of the festivities of the season. Guaranteed to make you laugh out loud.

Me and My Dragon: Scared of Halloween by David Biedryzycki is another new title in our collection. In this charming tale, a boy helps his dragon overcome his fears of Halloween. 




My old time favourites are the series of Old Witch books written in the1960's and 1970's by Ida Delage. These charming tales about an old witch and her neighbours reveal the best and worst in human nature. At the same time, you can't help but laugh at her antics and cheer her on.

Enola Holmes Series by Nancy Springer

Last summer I became addicted to Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes series. I just finished the entire collection. It was the perfect light summer reading. To be honest, it took me a bit to get into the first book, but by the end I was hooked. It wasn't difficult really since I am a fan of mysteries of all kinds so long as they are not too scary. 

Enola Holmes is Sherlock Holmes' younger sister. Their mother left to live with the Gypsies when Enola was 14 years old. When Sherlock and their older brother, Mycroft, intended to send her off to boarding school to become 'a proper lady', she was forced to run away. Enola moved to London where she set up a detective agency of her own (under a pseudonym) that focused on finding missing people. At times she was in direct competition with Sherlock. At all times she must be wary of being tricked and dragged back home and off to school by her brothers.

I love this 'what if' take on the Sherlock Holmes classic. It has a great character in Enola Holmes who is a spunky, smart, and independent. She is an excellent role model for girls in our times. I love that she has a social conscience and tries to help out the many poor and disadvantaged in 19th century London. I am impressed by how she uses disguises to fit into the different parts of London in order to solve her cases and save the day. What I especially enjoyed is that while Enola is seen by herself and others as rather homely, she is capable of using great artifice to make herself so beautiful that her brothers do not recognize her. This is a delightful dig at 19th century as well as more modern conceptions of beauty.

On top of all this the stories have great plots filled with all kinds  fabulous secondary characters. 

I was heartbroken when I finished the series. It felt like saying goodbye to a new friend.

Dragon run by Patrick Matthews

Because there are so many great books about dragons out there, I’ve started this year off with a dragon theme. I’ve been collecting quotes about dragons and summaries of dragon books to create bookmarks for the library.

I’ve read numerous books with dragons in them this summer. Dragon Run is the most recent.  It was a fabulous read: full of action, yet complex enough to keep me hooked till I turned the last page. 

It is set in a society where Dragons rule. At the age of 12, Al Pilgrommor and his friends head off to testing day to discover what ranks they will become. The higher the rank, the more opportunities they will have. Unbelievably, Al gets a one. Within minutes of this revelation, he becomes an outcast and is on the run from The Cullers who will kill him and his family if they discover his true identity. On the way he meets new friends, has numerous hairbreadth escapes, and discovers that the world is not how he thought it was. 

It has great characters, lots of action, and a plot with many twists. How can you lose? 

Other great stories with dragons include: 

The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

No Such Thing As Dragons by Philip Reeve

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

The Dragonet Prophesy by Tui T. Sutherland

 

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

Each summer I try to read a classic children's book. This year it was Swallows and Amazons. I'm so glad I did. 

Four siblings: John, Susan, Titty and Roger, (The Swallows) get permission from their parents to sail to a deserted island on a lake and camp out for the remainder of their summer vacation.

While this is not a magical adventure like Half Magic by Edward Eager, that I read last year, it has its own kind of everyday magic, the powerful magic of imagination, play, and freedom.

The children imagine themselves as explorers and pirates as they spend their time fishing, visiting "the natives" for supplies, and exploring the world around them. Eventually they meet up with two sisters sailing their own ship (The Amazons) and agree to a friendly challenge. In case you want to read this book I won't spoil it for you except to say that after a bit of a stressful adventure, the two groups become fast friends.

This book resonated powerfully with me. When I was a child, my siblings and I headed out after breakfast and spent our summers in the hills just above our house, or down by the nearby river, creating worlds that paralleled the ones we lived in with our parents. The only rule was that we had to return in time for supper. This book returned me to those halcyon days.

I can't help but wonder if students at our urban school get the chance to experience this kind of joyful freedom here in the city. 

I'm giving this book only 4/5 stars because while I thought it was absolutely charming, I am not sure that many students in my school would appreciate this gem. It is very slow paced and full of descriptive details. In spite of this, I think it would make a fabulous read aloud. 

Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins

It took me a while to get into this book. I listened to it while traveling and initially had a hard time keeping track of all the characters. There are a lot of them. However, it is beautifully written and lovely to listen to, so I persisted. Eventually a few characters arose to prominence. Before I knew it, I was hooked. 

It is set in a small town in the USA in the 1970's.
It could have been the small town here in Canada where I grew up.

It is the story of a group of adolescents hovering on the cusp of adulthood. Nothing spectacular happens. They are quietly, awkwardly, coming to terms with themselves in reference to each other and what they want for their future.

It is introspective and philosophical. It resonates with deep truths about what it means to be human.

“I know I'm still young and there's a lot of time for things to happen, but sometimes I think there is something about me that's wrong, that I'm not the kind of person anyone can fall in love with, and that I'll always just be alone.”

My 14 year old self is half way in love with Hector. His older sister took him to a coffee house where, after watching a guitar player and having a 'satori' moment, he decides to learn to play. His father arranged for him to take lessons in the church basement. Two important people are part of this group. Meadow, who Hector develops a crush on, and Dan, the football star, who girls usually consider a hunk.

Hector's compassion, comfortable acceptance of who he is, and readiness to laugh at himself and his circumstances make him an ideal role model for all boys.

Debbie, another significant character, has a crush on Dan, the school football star.

Dan is the character I worry about. He has the potential to become a good person, but it will take work on his part and I am not sure he is capable of it.

I liked the use of the omniscient narrator who not only tells the story, but adds quirky commentary at the same time.

I loved the introspection - the peaking inside different individual's heads. I sometimes wonder if what goes on inside young men is really any different from what goes on inside young women.

I'm getting this one for our library
. 

Marco Impossible by Hanna Moskowitz

I still haven't quite figured this book out. Don't get me wrong, it's good, but it hasn't been the best book I read this summer.

It is about two best friends, Marco and Stephen. The two amateur detectives have to deal with a bully and his friends who are threatening Marco because he is gay.  At the same time they are grappling with their first forays into romance.

I liked the characters, especially Stephen who narrates this. I loved his family who felt real to me. I'm not so sure about Marco who seems extremely self centered, but maybe it is because he is dealing with more than we are aware of til the end of the story.

The saddest thing in this book is how the two boys never really communicate to each other. Marco is starting high school in a private school and Stephen has no idea why he is abandoning him. On the last day of school they come up with a plan to crash the high school prom so Marco can tell Benji, who plays in the band, that he really likes him.  

Pretty much anything that can go wrong, does. 

The fact that they never really talk about the important stuff contributes to the ensuing chaos.

I will be getting this book for our school library because it is a great addition to our collection of books with gay characters.