I have been sharing its verses with the kids at home--and at school--over the past couple days. They have enjoyed its whimsical, yet frightfully bewitching rhymes, along with the terrifically stylistic pictures, in preparation for this week's tricks and treats. I have enjoyed sharing the the poems and pictures myself, passing down the book in what has become a wonderful tradition.
Yet it seems I might have to start a new tradition with a new book.
In setting out seasonal texts for display at the school library this month, I happened across a "seldom-circulated, candidate-for-weeding" copy of Halloween by Harry Behn, illustrated by Greg Couch.
Originally written in 1949, the verse sets an entrancing tone, with staves populated by some of the elder spirits ever to have reveled upon the night between Summer's end and Winter's beginning. Couch's shadowy illustrations stir a mystical air of motion through every page.
The children have been spellbound at every reading.
So now, I look forward to sharing both books for years to come, establishing and expanding the Season's traditions in poetic honour of Hallowe'en.
It's Halloween
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/203187.It_s_Halloween
Halloween
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/698250.Halloween?from_search=true
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| CC0 1.0 Universal
(CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication |
