Learn The Do’s & Don’t of Halloween in “Rookie Red-About Holidays: Halloween”

I have a number of the books in the “Rookie Read-About Holidays” series; I started picking them up many many moons ago when the boys were younger and to have around the house when smaller kids came to visit. A majority of them are packed with information about a particular holiday and help kids learn about some of the aspects of it. Being a Halloween junkie, I couldn’t pass up getting this since it’s a cute book but I do have some huge problems with it. First off, it doesn’t explain why it’s still celebrated, how it all started or why some people choose not to celebrate it. I know that might seem those topics might be too heavy for younger kids but every child that has read this asked me [or another adult] the same questions. Who created Halloween? What is trick or treating all about? Why don’t adults trick or treat?

Rookie Read-About Holidays: Halloween

While other books in the series focus on teaching younger kids the basics of holidays, this one comes off like a “do or don’t” type of guide. Being someone who loves Halloween I am always trying to stress the most important things when it comes to safety – wear brightly colored outfits, only knock at doors you know, never eat candy until an adult checks it etc. The book covers all these points [and a few others] but it doesn’t really say why people go trick or treating. In fact, this is all the books says about the roots of the holiday: “Halloween is a very old holiday. It began hundreds of years ago in countries in Europe. Back then, some people believed that ghosts came out at night on October 31”. That’s it, that’s all the explanation kids get.

While I will never downplay the importance of safety when trick or treating, this book does nothing to teach kids the origins of the holiday or how other people celebrate it. I’ll even go so far as to say that the book skips over mentioning that some people don’t observe it because their religion prohibits it. So, what exactly does the book talk about? Well, there are some whole things like roasting the seeds inside the pumpkin, making a Jack-o-lantern, wearing costumes, bobbing for apples and some costumes that kids like to wear. What is provided is nice, but without explaining things a little more it just seems like a bunch of random sentences thrown together in a sloppy manner.

About the best part of the book is the “Words You Know” section that recaps what kids read about. This is a great way to boost their vocabulary and let them explain the words and pictures in their words in how they perceive them. Unlike other books in the series, this one doesn’t feature any type of phonetic pronunciation aid to help them with larger or unfamiliar words. To me this is a big no-no, if you are trying to get kids motivated to read on their own, you have to at least give them a little bit of help with sounding out the ‘big words’. If you are a homeschooler you might not find this book a huge help trying to explain the history of the holiday but it can be added to a reading list to provide some important safety tips for the younger kids as well as showing the older kids how to keep an eye on younger siblings.

My Take

Maybe I am being too critical of this book but to me, it lacks substance. Other books in the series really explore holidays; the Thanksgiving one talks a lot about the history involved with it, Kwanzaa explores the principals of the holiday and even Independence Day provides a lot of information but this book is sort of like a “Do and Don’t” list of things to do or not to do. The author of the book included an old black and white drawing of “celebrating Halloween long ago” but it doesn’t explain what the people are doing or how the celebrations differed from then until now. When I was talking about this at a homeschooling meeting and people were suggesting books for younger kids I voiced my opinion about this one. A lot of people said that because I was really into Halloween I expected a more traditional or historical view. After they read it they changed their minds and said that they were disappointed in how the book was “slapped together” and didn’t really teach kids anything about the holiday.

The Series

The “Rookie Read-About Holidays” series is great to check out for younger kids, most of them will teach the basics of a holiday as well as how it is celebrated in other countries. Some of the titles include: “Valentine’s Day”, “Christmas”, Kwanzaa”, “Groundhog Day”, “St. Patrick’s Day”, Chinese New Year”, Memorial Day”, Passover”, “Chanukah” and “Easter”. So far there are about thirty to thirty five books in the “Rookie” series with the newer one available in both hard cover and soft cover.

The Bottom Line

This is a nice book for kids that are younger but in my opinion it doesn’t have the same amount of information as others in the series. On the positive side it does stress the importance of being careful and not eating treats until an adult checks them but if you are looking to teach your child about the history of Halloween or how some people celebrate it, you won’t find anything even close to it here. Even though I have some real problems with how this book was put together, if nothing else, kids will get a nice list of things to do and not to do on Halloween. The author, David Marx, really botched up this holiday book by neglecting to add solid information to it. The others that he wrote were all filled with useful information, this one is bland, boring and to me, something that isn’t worth the suggested retail price of $9.99 for the hardcover or $4.99 for the paperback version. The only reason I purchased it was to try to complete the series and because I am such a Halloween freak.


As always, thanks for the read!

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2005 Freak369


Other great books for kids …

Secret at Dolphin Bay – A Lego Reader Book
Castle Under Attack – A Lego Reader Book
I Can Draw People
Early Learning Concepts: Weather
Getting to Grips With Grammar
Eyewitness Junior “Amazing Bats”


Recommended: