Halloweensie Fun

Ladies and Gentlemen!

It's time for Susanna Leonard Hill's 7th Annual Halloweensie Contest!

The contest is fun and offers an opportunity to win great prizes. You, too, can enter--IF YOU DARE!

Bwahahaha! 

Basic Rules: Write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children using the words candy, monster, and shadow. Full info on the contest link above. MUST be posted by midnight 10/31.

So--here goes, folks. We all know this is not great literature, but I tried. Did you?

The Monster’s Regret

The monster crept

Behind the kids,

As they went trick or treating.

The monster leapt

Upon a bag

Of candy corn for eating.

The children wept

For loss of sweets

And fear of monster beatings.

The monster swept

Away a tear

Of sorrow that’s defeating.

The monster stepped

Up to the kids,

His candy swipe deleting.

The monster kept

No candy corn.

To keep it would be cheating.

The monster slept

Quite well that night

In shadows and clean sheeting.

Happy Halloweening!

Zombies in the Real World?

(Zombie walk Pittsburgh 29 Oct 2006CC BY-SA 3.0view termsOriginal work by MissDeeCS; Original uploader at en.wikipedia was PNG crusade bot; The PNG crusade bot automatically converted this image to the more efficient en:PNGformat. The image was previously uploaded as "Zombie894.gif". - This is my own photo. Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here.)

As Halloween approaches, zombie images and events appear. My own town is hosting a Zombie Walk tonight!

Zombies are the walking dead, beings who seem alive and yet are not, controlled by some supernatural force. Which leads us to the question, "Are zombies real?"

That's the question that children's non-fiction author Rebecca L. Johnson asks to begin her book, Zombie Makers: True Stories of Nature's Undead.

In this award-winning book, Johnson tells us how fungus "invades" a fly to support itself and turns the fly into a mechanically-moving, vacant creature. Johnson also explains how parasites and worms do their work to make "zombies" out of other living beings.

Johnson's science background draws her to write about topics like this, making them interesting and accurate for young readers. Many of the zombie discoveries occurred when scientists noticed something and continued to observe. Johnson writes in her author's note for this book: "Nature has no shortage of wonders. Scientists are finding new ones all the time. Even as I finished this book, a new zombie maker was discovered that infects honeybees. Who knows how many more are out there, just waiting to be found?"

Be ever watchful and have a happy Halloween!

Here's a classic from the Kingston Trio, "Zombie Jamboree"

Happy Howloween!

Remember the "Monster Mash"? Enjoy it with this canine acting group at Southern Tails Dog School!

DOGGY MONSTER MASH VIDEO @ Yahoo! Video

What will your costume be this year?