About Me

My name is Genevieve Woods and in addition to being the mother of an adorable preschooler named Oscar and his adorable toddler brother Henry, I am the Children's Buyer at Spellbinder Books, a small independent bookstore in Bishop, California. I am often asked by customers for recommendations...and thus the idea for this blog was sparked.

Many sites recommending books for kids are created by librarians and non-profits. While these are great sites, they often recommend out-of-print books. This site is all about the great books that are available now! While I am not being paid for these recommendations, I would appreciate it if readers would purchase the books I recommend from local independent bookstores, or even B&N. Basically don't buy from the evil empire (A_A_O_), because if you do much of our literary knowledge will be lost.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Haunted Reads for Kids

 There are some GREAT Halloween books out for kids this year!
by Micheal J. Rosen
Ages 4-8
Fantastic photos of carved pumpkin and squash leap off the page in this simple tale of vegetables trying (unsuccessfully) to give kids a scare on Halloween.

by Eric Rohmann
Ages 4-8
One of my favorite books to come out this year, Bone Dog uses the Halloween holiday to illustrate how the love between a boy and his dog can last beyond the grave. The story can be read year-round and will be especially good for those grieving the loss of a beloved pet. After his dog dies a young boy doesn't feel much like trick-or-treating, but he dresses up and goes out anyway. He encounters scary skeletons and his dog (now Bone Dog) rescues him by calling to all the living dogs; living dogs, of course, love bones and the skeletons flee.

by Guy Vasilovich
Ages 3-8
The 12 days of Christmas gets a spooky re-do in this Tim Burton–esque picture book. As Halloween gets closer the creatures get creepier.

by Kate Stone
Ages 3-8
Gorgeous! This book's awesomeness is proven by the fact that the publishers are ALREADY out of stock and are frantically printing more to get it back into stores before Halloween. The story about a little monster's walk through the woods is cute, but it is the intricately cut pages that are overlaid with shadowy vellum that make this book graphic masterpiece.

by Todd Parr
Ages 2-6
This isn't really a Halloween Book, but it certainly can be used as one. Todd Parr simply illustrates a number of fears and gives kids a way to re-frame the situation.
"Sometimes I'm scared of dogs.
I'm not scared when they give me kisses.
Sometimes I'm scared I will make a mistake.
I'm not scared when I know I tried my best."
 You could call this a self-help book for pre-schoolers; everybody needs some help sometimes.

by Patricia Reeder Eubank
Ages 1-4
This cute board book is a favorite of customers. One little witch plans her Halloween party, with the help of two brooms, three ghosts, all the way up to ten guests.
by Sam Lloyd
Ages 1-4
This book doesn't even pretend to be for Halloween, but I stuck it here because it DOES have a monster, and it is super cute. Puppet Monster Dudley has bad manners and is exhausting to take care of, but he sure is fun! Hello Dudley is actually part of a series of puppet board books; I haven't read them all but if they are all as good as Dudley I'm sure they will be a huge success.

by Chronicle Books
Ages 0-3
I confess this book didn't come out this year, but this year was the first time I saw it, and I just had to include it in our spooky reads. These small board books with little finger puppets peeking out through die-cut holes are simply beloved by babies, toddlers, and their parents. Little Spider is a great way to bring some Halloween fun to a six-month-old.





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