What To Read in October

For the littles:

I suggest Spooky Spooky Spooky! by Cathy MacLennan. Adorable pictures, fun, pithy words to chant as you turn the pages, and in the end everything that is spooky, spooky, spooky, is just the kiddos dressed up for Halloween.

It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is a must have for Halloween fans.  It has buttons to press that help tell the story (I like the ones that play jazz while I read about Linus’ dream of seeing the GP. That Charles M. Schulz was one classy lad.)

Only a Witch Can Fly is my all time favorite Halloween book, but we read it all year.  It’s about imagination and doing things you think you can’t do.  I don’t have a picture for you today because it’s in my classroom.  I’ve been told time and time again not to read pictures books to middle schoolers, but I sneak ’em in, especially this one because I think they need to know about a little girl who tests her belief in herself while the rest of the world sleeps.

For the elder kiddos:

I think Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine is absolutely spectacular.  I used to read it to my sixth graders, and both boys and girls love this story.  It’s a Cinderella story with the best twist (the main character actually HAS character and chooses to think for herself), plus there’s ogres and giants and the sweetest love story. On a recent trip to the midwest, we listened to this book in the car and both Hadley and Harper loved it.  However, we made the mistake of watching the movie and that was just a bummer.  If you have a hankering to see Anne Hathaway, go check out The Devil Wears Prada.  If you want to see Minnie Driver, find yourself a copy of Circle of Friends (good gracious, read that book first, though) or Return to Me.  You’ll be better off.

For you:

How about Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier?  A good friend of mine recommended this book to me when I was pregnant with Hadley and now I’m going to delve into a backstory that’s mildly depressing: I was pretty nervous about being pregnant with Hadley because before her, I’d had a miscarriage and I didn’t think I could go through it again, but here I was with child and I was pretty nervous about the next nine months.  At the time my friend recommended the book, I was also really sick with the flu or a bad cold. Maybe it was SARS. I can’t remember.  Anyway, this story took my mind off of all the worry and I will forever be in debt to her because she gave me another story to step into while Hadley grew and grew and grew into the almost 10 pound baby girl she would turn into October 23, 2006.

This story has not a thing to do with the plot of Rebecca, but I will tell you that it is deliciously suspenseful and absolutely haunting. I suppose the moral of the anecdote I just told you is that you should always have a friend ready to hand you a book when you are overwhelmed.  Not a how-to book, but a keep-you-up-all-night-reading book. Once you find a friend like that, keep her close by.

What are your favorite October reads?