Ten Days Before Halloween A Good Friend Gave To Me...“The 13 Days of Halloween”
Written: May 16 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Extremely cute ‘story’, kids love it, fantastic illustrations, a must read for Halloween!
Cons: Chances are every time you hear “The Twelve Days of Christmas” you’ll start singing this!
The Bottom Line: Want one of the cutest Halloween books for kids? Something that they’ll want to read over and over again? Get “The 13 Days of Halloween”, you won’t regret it!
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| Freak369's Full Review: The Thirteen Days of Halloween by Carol Greene, IS... |
I guess it’s no secret that I adore Halloween; everything about it from decorating to baking, making costumes to taking the tikes trick-or-treating. My friends know that I am a Halloween junkie and they gave up buying me bats, ghosts and tacky lawn ornaments because they found out the hard way I have pretty much everything on the market. When someone said “Let’s get her books” everyone immediately started with ghost stories, haunted houses and things of that nature. When they ran out of those they started on kids books and judging by the ones that I have on the bookshelves there must be a hell of a lot of Halloween kids books out there because they haven’t run out of title so far. This is one of the cutest ones for kids to read because it’s something that they can really get into even after they’ve memorized parts of it. Think of it as the Halloween version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” only with creepy, spooky and gross things instead of partridges in a pear tree. On a side note the name of the book is “The 13 Days of Halloween”, not “The Thirteen Days of Halloween” which might explain why I had such a hard time finding it in the database.
The Thirteen Days of Halloween
The story is pretty straightforward - it’s about thirteen days of Halloween but it isn’t until you read the inside cover that you learn that it’s also a love story. The “dashing ghoul” tries to win the heard of a ghost by showering her with gifts over thirteen days. One thing that would have made this perfect is if it were the “Thirteen Nights of Halloween” - that would have made it a little more themed toward the holiday and a little darker so adults that had to read this over and over again with the kids would get a little more into the spirit of things. Even so, that’s just something that I would change - as it stands its a great read and something that kids really get into. Once they memorize it you’ll catch them singing it over and over - but that’s not the best part - it’s when they sing it out in public and people hear the words and ask them where they learned “such a silly song”.
If you have ever heard the song “Twelve Days of Christmas” you’ll be familiar with the format that this book takes - each day the one friend gives the other something new and the list is repeated over and over again with each new gift that’s added to the list. This is what makes it something that kids want to read over and over again - they start to memorize the ones at the beginning of the list but inevitably get tripped up by something on the ninth or tenth day and want to start over at the beginning. This might sound like a huge waste of time but it is helping to improve their memorization skills, speech and patience. Carol Greene. the author, did a great job with the words and phrases but it wouldn’t have popped without the awesome illustrations by Tim Raglin. He provides the perfect blend of darkness and humor that these kinds of books need. There’s so much to see on each page that the first time you read it you’ll have to double back to reread the text because you’ll spend so much time checking out the drawings.
Here’s the complete list of things that one friend gives to another .... take a deep breath and sing it with me ... “On the twelfth day of Halloween a good friend gave to me ... twelve cauldrons bubbling, eleven bats a-swooping, ten goblins gobbling, nine wizards whizzing, eight brooms a-flying, seven spiders creeping, six owls a-screeching, five cooked worms, four giggling ghosts, three fat toads, two hissing cats and a vulture in a dead tree”. Tell me that isn’t something that kids are going to love singing over and over again! That’s the real beauty of the book - it’s gross, creepy and nasty but it’s something that’s so fun to read over and over again that kids beg to read this one all the time. The only thing I can’t figure out is this ... eight wizards whizzing ... hummm. The boys were all rolling on the floor when they read this the first time. “Mum, does that mean they were peeing everywhere?” Boys, give them something as innocent as a kids book and they have to take the low road with it.
My Take
If you are a teacher this is an awesome book to have a class read together - they get a kick out of the “story” and really like repeating the list over and over again. It exposes them to new vocabulary words, great drawings that aren’t scary [so it’s safe for the younger kids] and it’s a genuinely cute story. You can read this during a story time or when kids are working on Halloween crafts and trust me, this is something that they will ask to read over and over again. It’s a simple and basic theme story that’s just plain fun. Some books get too elaborate or are too childish to captivate kids - this one is the perfect blend of text and imagery Some holiday books for kids are too traditional, others are trying too hard to come off as preachy - this one isn’t perfect but it’s pretty darn close!
The Bottom Line
I have a lot of Halloween books in my collection; everything from craft books to ones that are pure horror and not suitable for kids of any age. I like to have books like this on hand when I know people are going to be dropping by for a visit with their kids and they start getting a little restless. Outside of a few other books that rhyme or have a counting theme to them, this one sees the most use with the five to eight year old crowd but older kids can read it and howl at the story. Halloween books lack this type of charm most of the time - they concentrate on the wrong things or just flat out scare the little ones to pieces. I have nothing against a good scare but I’d rather it be something that won’t give them nightmares or put them off of reading. If you are looking for a great Halloween book and haven’t checked out this one - do so, you won’t regret it!
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
Other awesome Halloween books for kids …
Halloween Night on Shivermore Street
Dragon’s Merry Christmas
The Hallo-Wiener
Minnie And Moo Meet Frankenswine
The Halloween Book
Crafts For Halloween
Aunt Eaters Mystery Halloween
Let’s Celebrate Halloween
Fluffy’s Happy Halloween
The Pumpkin Fair
In The Haunted House
Recommended:
Yes
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