Halloween Howls: Spooky Sounds, Stories & Songs - Softcover

Megan Dempster; Mollie Denman; Laura Kuhn; Alex Lubertozzi; Edgar Allen Poe

3.56

16 ratings by Goodreads

9781402201936: Halloween Howls: Spooky Sounds, Stories & Songs

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1402201931 ISBN 13: 9781402201936

Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc Media Fusion, 2003

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Featuring the most terrifying, ghoulish stories in text and on audio, songs, creepy sound effects, decorations, costumes, games, recipes and other brainstorms, Halloween Howls serves up all the spooky fun you need to celebrate this haunted holiday.

Stories about ghosts, monsters, possessed creatures and other assorted nasties are perfect to read on your own or listen to with the lights turned down low. The spooky sound effects-which can be played for trick-or-treaters or to set the mood at Halloween parties-and the silly songs in the text ("We Three Ghosts" and "The Hearse Song"), as well as on the audio CD ("The Addams Family" theme), are guaranteed to bring a smile. Fun for all ages and members of the family, Halloween Howls will become an indispensable part of your Halloween celebration.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Halloween. What is it about this day that so fascinates young and old alike? Strange costumes, good food, scary stories.... The origins of Halloween take us back to ancient Ireland and a Celtic fire festival known as "Samhain" (pronounced "sow-in"). Samhain, or All Hallowtide, was a feast of the dead that signaled the end of harvest and the onset of winter. On this night, the ghosts of the dead would trick humans into becoming lost in their burial mounds, where they would be trapped forever. Eventually, people began dressing up as these spirits, visiting people's houses and begging for treats. Those who refused would often become the victims of practical jokes. So Halloween has always had an element of playful wickedness, as well as a blurring of the boundary between the world of the living and of the dead.
When the Celts converted to Christianity, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 as All Saints' Day, a day to honor the Christian saints and martyrs, as well as a way to replace the pagan festivals of the dead. The celebration was also called All Hallows. The night before-Samhain-became All Hallows' Eve, eventually "Halloween." When in a.d. 1000, the church made November 2 All Souls' Day, the three-day celebration of All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day became known as Hallowmas.
In America, however, it is All Hallows' Eve-Halloween-that has remained the center of our post-harvest celebrations. It is the one day of the year in which we can laugh at death and take pleasure in the morbid, the disturbing, the terrifying. Many Halloween traditions have become ingrained in our families and communities-getting together for good food and drink, trick-or-treating, dressing up in costumes, playing games, and telling scary stories.
This book is a collection of some of the best scary stories to tell and listen to on Halloween, as well as many fun things you can incorporate into your holiday festivities. The audio CD that comes with this book presents a handful of the stories told in chilling fashion, with spooky sounds and songs you can use on their own, or with your other favorite activities, on All Hallows' Eve. So put on your costume, turn out the lights, and be prepared to scare yourself silly!

The Editors

From School Library Journal:

Grade 6-8–This oversized paperback includes 13 short stories, trivia, games, and decorating tips. Traditional folktales as well as selections by Edgar Allan Poe, R. L. Stine, Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker, and others are included. Following each story is a suggested activity or a song, or lists of scary movies. The tales are consistently intense and chilling; each one is more deliciously gruesome than the one before. Most of them can be found in other collections, but having them all in one place makes this title a worthy purchase. Children who enjoyed Stine's Beware! (HarperCollins, 2002) will add it to their reading list while librarians and storytellers will find the selections appropriate for reading aloud and oral telling. The graphics, while not particularly appealing, separate the stories from the activities, and their gray and black tones add to the mood. The accompanying CD has five tales from the book, spooky sounds, songs, and a short history of Halloween. Its deep-voiced and smooth narration conjures goose bumps that will delight its middle-grade readers. The silly songs ("Monster Mash," Addams Family theme, etc.) and spooky sound effects are useful for programs as well as for pleasure listening.–Molly S. Kinney, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
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