Children's Literature - Genres/Indianapolis

Fun new words for familiar tunes.

Is it a witch or a blonde little girl hiding in the bushes of the spooky house when the three bears go trick or treating?

When the neighborhood cat tries to crash the mice's harvest party, the mice have a plan to scare the intruder away.

Mouse shows Cat how to grow pumpkins, then turns one into a surprise. Includes facts about growing pumpkins.

Although devastated when his pet dog dies, a young boy goes trick-or-treating and receives a timely visit from an old friend during a scary encounter with graveyard skeletons.

Hailey talks about the history of Halloween and goes trick or treating with friends.

Will the barnyard animals trick--or treat--Farmer Brown? Find out in this Halloween tale from the #1 "New York Times" bestselling creators of "Click, Clack, Moo." Farmer Brown does not like Halloween. So he draws the shades, puts on his footy pajamas, and climbs into bed. But do you think the barnyard animals have any respect for a man in footy pajamas? No, they do not. For them, the Halloween party has just begun. And we all know these critters "far" prefer tricks over treats. There are big surprises in store for Farmer Brown

In the dark, a funky beat. / Something white with bony feet. / Skeleton dancing up the street, / Doing the Halloween Hustle.Skeleton is dancing his way to a Halloween party--but as he grooves across town, he keeps stumbling, tumbling, and falling apart! Can Skeleton stay in one piece long enough to make it to the party? Does he have a shot at winning the Halloween Hustle dance contest?

When babysitter Lulu takes the five little monkeys trick-or-treating, they decide to change costumes with their friends and try to fool Lulu and their mother.

A fun and funny Halloween romp for children and parents alike!It's Halloween night, and creatures and critters from near and far are starting to gather outside the front door. And now here comes a whole army of monsters, on broomsticks, buses, and bikes, all clamoring in the darkness. What is it they want? Are they coming for you?

This humorous, creative story is the perfect Halloween adventure for children and parents to share.

Oscar is short, like all dachshunds, and other dogs make fun of him. On Halloween he takes more ridicule than ever in his hot-dog costume, but one brave act makes him a hero. A School Library Journal Best of the Best of 1995. Full color.

A young girl spends a glorious fall day picking apples and searching for the perfect pumpkin in this refreshed classic. "When red and yellow leaves are on the trees," a little girl goes with her parents to a farm where they pick apples and choose "the best pumpkin of them all." Back home, she helps to carve a grinning jack-o'-lantern face on the big orange pumpkin, which guards their doorstep on halloween night while her mother hands out shiny red apples and she and her father go trick-or-treating with the neighborhood ghosts and goblins. Bold, autumn-colored paintings and a simple but lively story capture a little girl's joy and satisfaction as she shares in the excitement of the fall season.

A classroom guinea pig finds a way to plant his own garden in this funny tale of pumpkins and patience.   After watching the first graders grow plants from seeds, Hercules, the class guinea pig, is inspired. He wants to grow things, too!   With the help of a rabbit named Daisy, Hercules plants his seeds and waits. And waits and waits. . . . He learns that growing things takes more than seeds and soil, sun and rain. It takes patience. But sometimes having to wait makes the reward even sweeter.   "Duke's story brims with humor of both the classroom and animal-buddy varieties, and her featherlight paintings capture every ounce of Herky's enthusiasm, impatience, and eventual satisfaction." --PW, starred review

Mom has to go help Grandma, but it's Halloween, and Carl and Madeleine don't want to miss out on the fun. So after Mom leaves, they make their own costumes and go out trick-or-treating by themselves. They even stop in at a party to bob for apples before they return safely to their house, content from their Halloween adventure and with Mom none the wiser.

If you take your trick-or-treat sack and venture into the dark woods on Halloween night, you'll find cat bones, rat bones, and bat bones - and all are looking at YOU! "Take care! Beware! Despair! the bone creatures cry. "You can bet you've just met your worst nightmare!" What will you do? Cry? Sigh? NO! Because you're too tough / to worry about stuff / like the rattle / and prattle / of bones! Told in unmetered rhymed verse, this Halloween adventure is a real treat.

New from award winning picture book superstars Mac Barnett and Christian Robinson! "Dazzling." -Kirkus Reviews, starred review You would like being friends with Leo. He likes to draw, he makes delicious snacks, and most people can't even see him. Because Leo is also a ghost. When a new family moves into his home and Leo's efforts to welcome them are misunderstood, Leo decides it is time to leave and see the world. That is how he meets Jane, a kid with a tremendous imagination and an open position for a worthy knight. That is how Leo and Jane become friends. And that is when their adventures begin. This charming tale of friendship--from two of the best young minds in picture books: the author of the Caldecott Honor-winningExtra Yarn and the illustrator of the Bologna Ragazzi Award-winningJosephine--is destined to become a modern classic that will delight readers for years to come.

I peer outside, there's something there  That makes me shiver, spikes my hair.  It must be Halloween.     Green eyes watch from the dark as skeletons dance, goblins skip, and ghosts float by. Come along to find a scary, scary surprise! With rhythm, rhyme, and just the right amount of fright, this is the perfect spooky story to share on Halloween! Featuring a striking new cover design at a new trim size in paper-over-board format. 

The creators of Pick a Pine Tree are back with a joyful, energetic celebration of a Halloween tradition. Pick a pumpkin from the patch. Tall and lean or short and fat. Vivid orange, ghostly white, or speckled green, might be just right. Pairing a wonderfully rhythmic read-aloud text with expressive retro illustrations, author Patricia Toht and illustrator Jarvis capture all the excitement and familial feeling of a favorite holiday tradition. Readers will be happy to follow along with each step, from picking out the perfect specimen at the pumpkin patch (be sure to stop for cider and toffee apples) to carting it home, scooping out the insides, carving a scary face, and finally lighting a candle inside -- savoring the familiar ritual of transforming an ordinary pumpkin into a one-of-a-kind glowing jack-o'-lantern.

Reader beware! This is the scariest book ever! Or so claims its melodramatic ghost narrator. You can go ahead and turn the page, but don't expect him to come with you. Anything might pop out of that black hole in the middle of the forest. What do you mean it's just a Bunny? Well, it's probably a bunny with big fangs. Watch out, it's - picking pumpkins with its friends, you say? Actually, despite the ghost's scare-mongering, none of the animal characters in the illustrations seem scary at all

Have you ever built a snowman and discovered the next day that his grin has gotten a little crooked, or his tree-branch arms have moved? And you've wondered . . . what do snowmen do when we're not watching? After an early snowfall, a few kids build some snowmen before going trick-or-treating. And when the kids go off to bed, the snowmen have their own Halloween festival! There's candy and apple-bobbing and costume contests and all sorts of autumn activities. When the kids wake up the next morning, the snowmen are gone... but they've left a very special message behind.

No rattling bones about it. There's never been a horror book like this one before. A madcap spoof on tales of terror, this clever meeting of broomsticks and slapstick, monsters and mischief is so funny, it's scary. Just how funny, you ask? Let's just say a "RIP"ping good time is in store for those who know a good joke (or a devilishly bad one) when they hear it. And, how scary? This comedy of horrors promises to leave even cowards screeeaaming for more. Completely original, wickedly zany, this hilarious tongue-in-cheek collection of silly spine tinglers and spooky rib ticklers is Kevin O'Malley at his ghoulish best.

A poor boy hopes to win a fortune for himself and his family by spending the night in a haunted house and bravely standing up to a frightening ghost.

Children go out at night seeking a ghost, through one scary place after another.

The teeth (Surinam or Dutch Guiana)
In the graveyard (short version of the traditional song Old woman all skin and bone)
The green ribbon (Europe)
In a dark, dark room (England and America)
The night it rained (loosely based on the folktale of the ghostly hitchhiker)
The pirate (British)
The ghost of John (Stockton, Calif.).

The carrots that grow in Crackenhopper Field are the fattest and crispiest around and Jasper Rabbit cannot resist pulling some to eat each time he passes by, until he begins hearing and seeing creepy carrots wherever he goes.

One October night, John Leep, a mean and stingy landlord, sets out to evict a widow from one ofhis rental houses and is followed by a ghostly rider.

Everybody loves a scary story, and nobody more than kids, but these tales collected from kids themselves are particular favorites. These are the traditional scary stories kids tell most often and most often ask to be told.

There's a KNOCK at the door.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;  A box shows up on the front step. A SPOOKY black box. What could be inside?nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;  With fun, dramatic designs, Mark Gonyea shows the scary things that might slither, slice, or slide their way out, from a ton of toads to a bunch of old bones to a robot with laser eyes. When it comes time to open the box, it's up to the reader to lift the lid!

What can a little witch do when her witchy spells and potions don't turn out right? She just keeps on trying until it's time for bed. The readers then discover her true identity. A lovely surprise!

‘A clever reworking of a classic story. The little old lady’s fearless attitude and her clever solution as to what to do with the lively shoes, pants, shirt and pumpkin head that are chasing her will enchant young audiences. With brilliantly colored, detailed folk art illustrations. A great purchase.’ —SLJ. Children's Choices for 1987 (IRA/CBC) Notable 1986 Children's Trade Books in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC) Children's Books of 1986 (Library of Congress) 1988 Keystone to Reading Book Award (Pennsylvania Reading Association)

A classic with 16 stories, from funny to frightening, demonstrating storytelling and audience participation techniques.

Ten deliciously spooky ghost stories from all over the world are perfectly matched by Paul Hess's atmospheric and witty illustrations. The stories included are: The Ghost Ship (USA); Dogs to the Rescue (Russia); I'll Be Back (Lithuania); The Ghosts Who Danced (Ireland); The Haunted Farmhouse (England); Them Bananas (East Africa); Welcome to the Red Palace Inn (China); The Mystery Guest (Brazil); The Ghost and his Uncle (India); Atchoo! (Korea).

In the summer of her twelfth year, a poor girl named Emily leaves home to work on a farm in rural Quebec. Besides cooking and cleaning, Emily's chores include, every night, scraping the candlewax from the family's big stone hearth. The farmer and his wife love Emily, but when she falls ill and dies, another girl is hired to take her place. Soon, a strange event keeps recurring in the farmhouse: Every night, the new girl, Jenny, scrapes the wax from the hearth just as Emily did, but every morning, the wax is there again! What is going on? The first night the farmer and his wife fail to solve the mystery. But on the second night, the farmer's wife snaps awake to find herself staring at . . . a ghost! In classic, supple prose, acclaimed author Susan Milord retells a legend passed down by a French-Canadian family since the 1830s. Illustrated with lively, beautiful paintings by award-winning artist Lydia Dabcovich, The Ghost on the Hearth is both a thrilling tale of the supernatural and an affectionate celebration of long-ago rural life. An activities page at the end of the volume invites young readers to create their own stories of the supernatural.

A strange varmint haunts the woodsman who lopped off his tail and had it for dinner.

"'Will you walk into my parlor,' said the Spider to the Fly..." is easily one of the most recognized and quoted first lines in all of English verse. But do you have any idea how the age-old tale of the Spider and the Fly ends? Join celebrated artist Tony DiTerlizzi as he -- drawing inspiration from one of his loves, the classic Hollywood horror movies of the 1920s and 1930s -- shines a cinematic spotlight on Mary Howitt's warning, written to her own children about those who use sweet words to hide their not-so-sweet intentions.

When Tootie gets her first teeth, it’s clear to her big brother that she’s no ordinary baby. But how to convince Mom and Dad? It happens overnight: little sister Tootie goes from cuddly, ga-ga-googoo, I-want-my-ba-ba baby...vampire baby. Now she’s sinking her pointy fangs into everything — furniture, toys, and especially her big brother ("Youch, Tootie! No bite!" ). Mom insists that it’s just a phase, but Tootie’s brother knows better. Just look at her hairline! Or the fact that all her favorite foods are bloodred! With perfect comic timing, Kelly Bennett and Paul Meisel give a fresh slant to the new-baby story, proving that even monstrous little arrivals have a funny way of staking their siblings’ affections.

Presents simple crafts and recipes, read-aloud stories and poems, and fun-to-do puzzles and activities that can be used to create family Halloween traditions.

Whether you're looking for something to do on a rainy day or making a personalized gift for a friend, crafts are a great way to pass the time. They also provide an opportunity to learn how to draw meaning from technical texts. The activities in this book push readers to read for comprehension, use information gained from the text and illustrations to follow step-by-step directions, determine relationships among steps in a technical process, and build the skills they need to make the perfect crafts for the Halloween season.

A shy little ghost who's new to the group has trouble fitting in -- until his special talent comes to the fore. Boo is new. And even if the other kids are welcoming, it can be scary being new, especially for a shy ghost who can't play any of their games. ("You tagged me? Oh, sorry. I couldn't feel it.") Can Boo find a way to fit in and make friends with the rest of the group? From the creator of Rex Wrecks It! comes a funny story about feeling invisible -- and finding a way to be seen and appreciated for who you are.

This short-fiction series of spine-chilling stories will thrill young readers with its tales of horror, mystery, and the supernatural. Selections include both short prose and excerpts of longer works by well-known authors such as Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and Edgar Allan Poe, and introduces the work of a number of less widely known writers, including Gertrude Atherton, Frank Norris, Amelia B. Edwards, and J. Sheridan LeFanu. Brief biographies relate each piece of writing to its author's life and times and provide information about other works by each writer. the topic and full-color illustrations will capture the attention of reluctant readers.

This short-fiction series of spine-chilling stories will thrill young readers with its tales of horror, mystery, and the supernatural. Selections include both short prose and excerpts of longer works by well-known authors such as Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and Edgar Allan Poe, and introduces the work of a number of less widely known writers, including Gertrude Atherton, Frank Norris, Amelia B. Edwards, and J. Sheridan LeFanu. Brief biographies relate each piece of writing to its author's life and times and provide information about other works by each writer. the topic and full-color illustrations will capture the attention of reluctant readers.

This short-fiction series of spine-chilling stories will thrill young readers with its tales of horror, mystery, and the supernatural. Selections include both short prose and excerpts of longer works by well-known authors such as Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and Edgar Allan Poe, and introduces the work of a number of less widely known writers, including Gertrude Atherton, Frank Norris, Amelia B. Edwards, and J. Sheridan LeFanu. Brief biographies relate each piece of writing to its author's life and times and provide information about other works by each writer. the topic and full-color illustrations will capture the attention of reluctant readers.

From the celebrated team behind Creepy Carrots!, Aaron Reynolds and Caldecott Honor winner Peter Brown, comes a hilarious (and just a little creepy) story of a brave rabbit and a very weird pair of underwear. Jasper Rabbit is NOT a little bunny anymore. He's not afraid of the dark, and he's definitely not afraid of something as silly as underwear. But when the lights go out, suddenly his new big rabbit underwear glows in the dark. A ghoulish, greenish glow. If Jasper didn't know any better he'd say his undies were a little, well, creepy. Jasper's not scared obviously, he's just done with creepy underwear. But after trying everything to get rid of them, they keep coming back!

Nicholas Flamel appeared in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter--but did you know he really lived? And his secrets aren't safe! Discover the truth in book one of the New York Times bestselling series the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.   The truth: Nicholas Flamel's tomb is empty.   The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives.    Nicholas Flamel is the greatest Alchemyst to ever live. The records show that he died in 1418, but what if he's actually been making the elixir of life for centuries?     The secrets to eternal life are hidden within the book he protects--the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed, and in the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. And that's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it.     There is one hope. If the prophecy is true, Sophie and Josh Newman have the power to save everyone. Now they just have to learn to use it.  "The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel has everything you loved about Harry Potter, including magic, mystery, and a constant battle of good versus evil."--Bustle Read the whole series! The Alchemyst The Magician The Sorceress The Necromancer The Warlock The Enchantress

From Newbery Medalist Susan Cooper, a story of adventure and friendship between a young Native American and a colonial New England settler. On the winter day Little Hawk is sent into the woods alone, he can take only a bow and arrows, his handcrafted tomahawk, and the amazing metal knife his father traded for with the new white settlers. If Little Hawk survives three moons by himself, he will be a man. John Wakely is only ten when his father dies, but he has already experienced the warmth and friendship of the nearby tribes. Yet his fellow colonists aren't as accepting of the native people. When he is apprenticed to a barrel-maker, John sees how quickly the relationships between settlers and natives are deteriorating. His friendship with Little Hawk will put both boys in grave danger. The intertwining stories of Little Hawk and John Wakely are a fascinating tale of friendship and an eye-opening look at the history of our nation. Newbery Medalist Susan Cooper also includes a timeline and an author's note that discusses the historical context of this important and moving novel.

In the third book of the bestselling Cirque Du Freak series, Darren Shan and Mr. Crepsley embark on a dangerous trek to the very heart of the vampire world. But they face more than the cold on Vampire Mountain-the vampaneze have been there before them. Will a meeting with the Vampire Princes restore Darren's human side, or turn him further toward the darkness? Only one thing is certain-Darren's initiation into the vampire clan is more deadly than he can ever have imagined.

In the compelling sequel to Cirque Du Freak, soon to be a major motion picture by Warner Bros., The Vampire's Assistant continues the saga of Darren Shan as he resists the one temptation that sickens him . . . the one thing that can keep him alive.

In this fourth book in the bestselling Saga of Darren Shan, Darren Shan and Mr. Crepsley embark on a dangerous trek to the very heart of the vampire world. But they face more than the cold on Vampire Mountain'the vampaneze have been there before them. Will a meeting with the Vampire Princes restore Darren's human side, or turn him further toward the darkness? Only one thing is certain?Darren's initiation into the vampire clan is more deadly than he can ever have imagined.