Halloween is around the corner. And, what better way to get kids into the holiday spirit than to create spooky crafts and listen to scary monster stories? Well, Workman Publishing has you covered with two cool, new books that are sure to provide fun entertainment for the kids!
Paint By Stickers For Halloween
The first book is Paint by Sticker Kids: Halloween (Workman Publishing, 2019). This is a unique craft book that provides 10 fun, Halloween-themed pictures that you can “paint” with stickers (which are provided). To make it even more festive, some of the stickers glow in the dark!! Pictures include things such as a spooky, haunted house, a black, frightened cat, and a trio of bright orange pumpkins!
How it works is the picture is split up into several numbered sections. You find the corresponding numbered sticker and place it where it matches its number in the picture. It's a great way for little ones to practice their numbers. It's also fun for kids of any age to watch as the stickers slowly create a fun picture that they create and can hang to help decorate for Halloween! And, the pages are perforated for easy removal (which I think many adults will appreciate).
Paint by Sticker Kids: Halloween retails on the Workman Publishing website for $9.95 (all prices in this post are subject to change). The book is listed for children of the ages 5 years and older. I had a 7-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy do the scaredy cat and mummy pictures, which they very much enjoyed doing. Below is a picture of their final creations! This would be a great book to provide crafts for a Halloween party or just for fun on a cool afternoon with a cup of hot cocoa (and pumpkin latte for mom).
Halloween Is Not Complete Without The Scary Stories
The next book is The Big Book of Monsters: The Creepiest Creatures from Classic Literature by Hal Johnson and illustrated by Tim Sievert (Workman Publishing, 2019). This book is a fascinating read as it delves into history and digs up some of the scariest monsters that have been around for ages (even from as far back as ca. 16th century B.C.). The author provides short stories of monsters from classical literature. He also includes fascinating facts about the actual background history of the stories and their authors (some of which I think the reader will find quite shocking). And, the book is colorful with ghoulish monster pictures throughout the book so the reader truly gets an eyeful of how scary these monsters are! (But, don't worry, it's not too scary.)
I have read the original “Frankenstein” book by Mary Shelley. The original book was a difficult (but really good) read. So, it was interesting to compare Johnson's presentation of Frankenstein to Mary Shelley's. He made it fun to learn about the Frankenstein story and more easy to understand since he writes in mostly modern English.
This is a great book for introducing children to classics that we don't hear about as much today. And, this book is much more at a child's reading level (compared to the classics). Keep in mind, however, that it does have some more difficult areas that may need explaining. The book is fun for adults, too. In fact, the book is recommended for readers of the ages 10 to 99 years. Some of the details are scary and may frighten the younger ones. We read it before bedtime and it was a great bedtime scary story. In fact, my family requested to read this book every day this week!
This book is available here in hardcover and currently retails on the Workman Publishing website for $16.95. Pick up a copy just in time for Halloween. But, honestly, this book is fun to read any time of year! Hope you enjoy it as much as we have.
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