Family Reading Night: Autumnal Bliss

My one loyal reader (Hi, Mom!) might remember that during the school year I do a monthly outreach program with the local public school time. It is called Family Reading Night and it is one of my favorite programs that I put on at my job, mostly because it gives me a chance to see a lot of my favorite kids (yes, I play favorites) in their school setting, but in a storytime environment.

It also means I get to pick out picture books that will work with kids older than three, which is a lot of fun. This month is October, so of course the theme was going to be related to fall and Halloween. This is one of my favorite times of year, so I was glad to get the opportunity to share some really great autumn stories with some really great kids, until, of course, the program was canceled due to a tornado watch for the area. But... for posterity, here's what MIGHT have been, had Mother Nature not interfered.

There is a hilarious collection of poems with scary elements called Monster Goose by Judy Sierra. My personal favorite is "Mary Had a Vampire Bat," which probably tells you a lot about me.
Lisa Desimini wrote a cute story about two mean witches who set out to ruin Halloween, but fortunately for the local children, fail miserably. Oops, spoiler alert! It's called Trick-or-Treat, SMELL MY FEET!
David Ezra Stein just came out with a new story about a bear who hsa never witnessed fall and is very distressed when he sees his first fallen leaf in the not-too-heartwarming book, Leaves. The hibernation theme complements Nancy Tafuri's The Busy Little Squirrel quite well. This could also work with a younger crowd, if adapted, due to the repetition.
Marty Kelley's classic Fall is Not Easy illustrates the distress that trees have with all the pressure put on them by the media to have the prettiest leaf colors.
Brand new this Halloween season is The Three Bears' Halloween by Kathy Duval, which I am going to recycle for storytime next week (which, as a mere coincidence, has a theme of "threes" and folktales--I swear, I do not pick the themes!).

While Kidz Bop is not really my favorite, they did put out a Halloween CD, which I was plannting to bring along for mood music during craft/snack time.

I'll be able to use some of these titles when Family Reading Night is rescheduled, but the "rain date" is after Halloween, so I will have to throw in a few late fall/Thanksgiving choices as well. C'est la vie.

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