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Halloween is as pure and undiluted as its title. I saw this flick in the theater when it was first released and it sure creeped me out!

In the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a teenage baby sitter tries to survive a Halloween night of relentless terror, during which a knife-wielding maniac goes after the town’s hormonally charged youths. Director John Carpenter takes this simple situation and orchestrates a superbly mounted symphony of horrors. It’s a movie much scarier for its dark spaces and ominous camera movements than for its explicit bloodletting (which is actually minimal). Composed by Carpenter himself, the movie’s freaky music sets the tone; and his script (cowritten with Debra Hill) is laced with references to other horror pictures, especially Psycho. The baby (more…)

“‘Twas the night before Halloween, and all through the house, All the creatures were stirring, except for the mouse.The monsters had gathered to plan and prepare, For the trick-or-treaters who soon would be there….”Little monsters and goofy goblins take center stage in this silly, spooky spin on Clement C. Moore’s beloved poem. But what will happen on Halloween when the monsters come face to face with human trick-or-treaters in this fun-filled book by the author of The Night Before Easter?* Ages 4-8

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Review

“A wonderful collection of tales that range from creepy to silly to haunting. …Gammell’s drawings add just the right touch…” — John Scieszka, Entertainment Weekly”Guaranteed to make your teeth chatter and your spine tingle.” — School Library Journal “Read these if you dare.” — The New York Times

Schwartz’s three best-selling collections of scary folklore–Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and Scary Stories 3–are made available in a three-volume boxed set.

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With just a few inexpensive ingredients, you can easily create delicious, scary and fun Halloween party drinks for the kids:

Halloween Ghoul-ade

Ingredients:

• 1 envelope Kool-Aid grape flavor unsweetened mix
• 1 envelope Kool-Aid orange flavor unsweetened mix
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 quarts cold water
• 1 quart chilled ginger ale

Directions:

Mix both envelopes Kool Aid together with sugar, in large pitcher. Add water and mix. Just before serving, add ginger ale.

Add A Frozen Hand to the mix!

For that special touch, add a frozen hand to the punch bowl and really surprise the kids!

Fill an unpowdered or washed, vinyl surgical glove with water, colored water or koolaid and freeze.  Just before serving, peel off the glove and place the “Frozen Hand” in the punch bowl!

Tips:

• Do not overfill the glove because the water expands as it freezes
• Run a thin wooden skewer from one side of the glove to the other, just below the opening, to act as a hanger.  Hang the glove over a pitcher to fill and place pitcher with glove into freezer to freeze.

Bubbling Bat Brew

Ingredients:

• Two 12 oz. cans frozen grape juice
• One 2 liter bottle of ginger ale
• One half-gallon lime sherbet

Directions:

Make grape juice according to directions on can. Add to punchbowl. Add the ginger ale and stir thoroughly. Add sherbet just before serving.

Make it Spoooooooky!

Punch out or cut holes in lid of a sealed plastic container.

Drop in a piece of dry ice.

Before serving drop the container into the punch bowl.

Verrry spooky!