Feed Me Books Friday: Halloween for the Younger Crowd

The Good, the Bad, and the Scary

What I love about Halloween for toddlers and preschoolers: a day devoted to pretend and imagination and playing dress-up! What I don’t love about Halloween: filling little minds with ideas of ghosts, witches, haunted houses, or otherwise scary creatures or places. Call me naïve or accuse me of sheltering my children, but aren’t there enough scary things in the world without telling them about imaginary things to be scared of “for fun?” When I taught middle school and my students devoured Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark, it made for a good discussion of urban legend and fun, chill-inducing read-alouds at Halloween time. However, finding books appropriate for younger children, engaging books that highlight the fun without giving the creeps, has proven a little challenging for me!


Costume Fun

The best part of Halloween for young children is the dress-up. Deciding what to dress as, selecting or crafting a costume, and showing it off at parties or trick-or-treating is plenty of excitement for little ones. I was drawn to Here Comes Halloween, by Caroline Jayne Church, because the illustrations so closely match those in one of my favorite books, I Love You Through and Through (reviewed here). I was not disappointed once I got a look at the text. It is a board book, including some touch and feel features and flaps, but even at 4 years old B continues to enjoy it. A child explores his Halloween costume choices through dress-up and imagination. What fun!

Also centered on the choice of costume but including other seasonal elements as well is And then Comes Halloween, by Tom Brenner. This picture book has more advanced text and detailed illustrations. The feel is just magical as the family goes about seasonal preparations for Halloween, which include costume selection as well as decorations, pumpkin carving, and changing weather. The conclusion of the book is trick-or-treating and happily off to bed, which is exactly the kind of Halloween experience I hope for my boys.


Seasonal Selections

Last week Maggie of Red Ted Art linked her review of Apples and Pumpkins to Feed Me Books Friday, and I just had to check it out. It was an excellent follow-up to our trip to the pumpkin patch with B’s preschool class. The harvest season is more emphasized in this story, but it does include carving the jack-o-lantern and trick-or-treating.

Prior to our pumpkin patch trip, I checked out Kids’ Pumpkin Projects, by Deanna F. Cook, from our library. It’s not a read-aloud, more of a reference for parents or a project book for older kids. Great year-round projects though, including planting a pumpkin garden, caring for it, harvesting, enjoying, and preserving pumpkins. We enjoyed several recipes and B is adamant that next year’s garden include a pumpkin vine.



Some Friendly Tricks

So how do you explain the phrase “trick-or-treat” without being too scary? B and I talked about tricks like riddles or fun surprises. B is a lover of riddles in general, so I used that interest and understanding to make a friendly introduction to some of the Halloween icons he’ll see in the stores, decorating the neighborhood, or costuming older kids. How Do You Know It’s Halloween, by Dian Curtis Regan, presents riddles in the form of listed clues and a revealing flap. Some of the items revealed include a jack-o-lantern, a skeleton, and a ghost, but the illustrations are friendly and nothing menacing is suggested by the clues. We used it as another opportunity to talk about real and pretend.

A similar lift-the-flap riddle book is Boo, Who? by Joan Holub. It introduces Halloween stand-bys like a ghost and a witch with simple, rhyming riddles and light-hearted illustrations. The final riddle reveals the “scariest monster” in a mylar mirror! Great reminder that the costumes kids encounter hide kids just like them and are nothing to fear.
Appropriate for: toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades.


Any suggestions for making Halloween fun and friendly? Leave me a comment or link up a review of your own (whether or not it’s Halloween themed).
And don’t forget to enter the giveaway on Wednesday’s review post!

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Feed Me Books Friday: My Pick for Labor Day

A Week Early So You Can Find It!


Yes, I know Labor Day Weekend is a week away, but I found this book some time ago and wanted to share it with any of you moms who might be interested in teaching your sprouts what Labor Day is all about. For many of us, it signifies the end of summer, but it is also a tribute to the “social and economic achievements of American workers” (Dept. of Labor website). So what does that matter to a preschooler? In B’s mind, it will be a special day because Daddy will be home from work. But we’ll also talk about the history of the day and I have no doubt he’ll appreciate the message of honoring the various workers of our country.


Trying out the World of Work

I’ve shared before how much B enjoys dressing up and role play. One of the most precious things he said recently was when we were talking about where people work. He knew Gramma works in a classroom, and his uncle works at a car mechanic, and when I asked where Daddy worked, he said “a helping place.” Daddy is the manager of his department, and the best way we have explained managing is that Daddy helps other people get their jobs done. So, Daddy works at a helping place! Love it! B likes to pretend he’s going to work like Daddy sometimes. He packs a lunch, puts on a collared shirt, and heads to his computer desk, where he “sends email” (which consists of typing in a word document).


What do we Celebrate?

Gary Paulsen paints a lovely picture in words of workers everywhere with his book, Work Song, and his wife’s pastel illustrations make the book a beauty to see as well as hear. The text is sparse, long sentences of rhyming phrases spread over several pages that tell what the work song is. Some of my favorite descriptors include, “towering buildings that were not there, hanging suddenly in the air,” and “resting short but loving long, resting for the next day’s song.” There are several trades and professions featured in the book, and while it is certainly not an encyclopedia of jobs, it does highlight the beauty in the variety of work in the world around us. This Labor Day, I will celebrate the workers who provide for the many aspects of a life I am grateful for, and I will celebrate that my first labor day as a stay at home mom who couldn’t be more appreciative of the work I do every day.


Appropriate for: toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades, everyone!


Share your Labor Day plans in the comments and/or link up with a book recommendation of your own! I’ll be sharing our “end of summer” book next Friday.

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Good Clean (Teeth) Fun

Taking a Bite out of Anxiety

It’s no surprise that dental visits don’t top the list of fun summer activities for most kids, and B is often anxious and wary of unfamiliar experiences, so I started my preparation for the dentist’s office weeks in advance. I requested a few books from the library featuring friendly dentists, and I tried to add tooth exams to the routine when the doctor play-set was out. Both helped B feel more prepared and even brought some laughs to the experience.


Who’s the Patient Here?

We don’t have battles over oral hygiene with B; in fact, he’s quite particular about his routine. We brush in the morning when we get dressed and again after bath time. The before bed routine also includes floss and fluoride rinse, both of which he happily complies with. However, coming at him with shiny, noisy, and possibly sharp tools is quite another story. On his first visit to the dentist he was very cooperative about letting her “count” his teeth with a gloved hand. But when the tools came out at a later visit, all he was willing to share was a tight-lipped frown and a vigorously shaking head. This time I was determined it would be different. When I came across a doctor’s mask dress up accessory at Michael’s craft store in the dollar bin, I snatched it up. My theory: donning the mask and doing some exams of his own might make it less intimidating when B was in the chair.


Brushing Up on Dental Terminology

Of the dentist-themed books I checked out from the library, A Trip to the Dentist, by Margot Linn, was the stand-out favorite for both B and me. We also checked out Harry and the Dinosaurs Say “Rahh!” and Vera Goes to the Dentist. My complaint with the other two is that while all works out ok in the end, both introduce the concept of being fearful of the dentist and then show why the fear was unnecessary. Harry conquers his fear by imagining that his dinosaurs come to life and scare the dentist, Vera initially runs away from the dentist, who has to chase her down and convince her to return. I’d rather avoid the fear to begin with. A Trip to the Dentist introduces readers to the dentist’s chair, staff, and tools with a silly guessing game and flaps to reveal the answers. You can imagine the giggles that arise when you ask what the dentist will use to polish Annie’s teeth and the choices include a sponge, a bucket and mop, and a dust cloth along with the tooth polisher. The illustrations are simple pencil and pastel drawings, and make the tools and experience friendly and welcoming. Linn also wrote A Trip to the Doctor, and we may be picking that one up too!
Appropriate for: toddlers, preschoolers


Linking up with:


Come Play at the We Play link up
Tackle it Tuesday
What My Child is Reading this Week

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Who Does Your Child See in the Mirror?

You Are What You Wear…

I’ve written before about B’s love of dress-up and pretend play (Paper or Clothes, What Will You Wear?). As much as I love and encourage imaginative play, the laundry of multiple wardrobe changes gets a little tiresome. A friend compared his total of 5 outfit changes during his birthday party to hosting the Oscars!

 Start at the Top

The latest brilliant addition to our pretend props: a hat collection. B just received some gently used hats from my aunt (a preschool teacher) and now he can change personas in an instant – at the drop of a hat, even! (Couldn’t resist that one!) He’s enjoying being an imaginary policeman, pilot, engineer, sailor, mail carrier, and chef!

 Your Child is the Star in this Book


Seeing B taking on the different occupations reminded me of a book that hasn’t been off the shelf in a while, Mirror, Mirror, What Will I Be? By Chris Inns. We picked this up at a discount store, but it’s always entertaining. There is a circle cut out of the center of each page, through which you can see a mirror on the back page. As your child looks in the mirror, her face becomes part of each character, including a cowboy, a rock star, a diver, a superhero, and an astronaut. Each is gender neutral, and facing pages have a cute rhyme about the character’s actions. This is a board book, and B enjoyed it as a baby simply because of the mirror inside. In fact, we took it for entertainment on car trips several times. As he developed the cognitive ability for fantasy play and recognized the characters more, he worked harder and making his reflection fit just right in the space for the face, and he enjoys the rhymes much more now too. Mirror, Mirror What Will I Be? is a great jumping off point for conversations about occupations and inspiration for pretend play.
Appropriate for babies, toddlers, preschoolers.


What are your favorite pretend games?


I’m linking up with What My Child is Reading this Week – check out some other good reads and link yours up too!

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