Halloween's Past and Present

A Halloween Reader: Poems, Stories, and Plays from Halloween Past (edition 2004) by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne

This is a well researched collection of Halloween stories, poems and plays - which evoke a sense of what halloween was like in the past, when the dead were closer and your future more readily glimpsed.  Read Ms. Bennatyne's introduction to understand why these themes were so prevalent!

Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America's Fright Night (edition 2011) by Lesley Bannatyne

Ms. Bannatyne again provides the reader with a well researched and interesting read - this time she explores how Halloween is celebrated in contemporary America.  Her chapters range from man-made haunted houses and zombie crawls to halloween art and craft collectors!

A quiet tale of love that will envelope you as softly as the first snow of winter.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, is a sparse, mysterious tale that takes place in the Alaskan wilderness of the 1920's.  Seeking isolation and peace, Jack and Mabel, an older couple, must endure the Alaskan wilderness all the while mourning the fact that they are childless.

One magical evening, as the first snow falls, they decide to make a snow child.  In the morning, she is gone and so are the mittens and scarf that adorned her.  Now, through the trees, a young girl is glimpsed wearing the same red scarf and mittens running about with a pet fox.  Is she real or a mirage of their parental desire?  This novel is part fairy tale and part survival story. Ivey spins a quiet tale of love that will envelope you as softly and deeply as the first snow of winter.

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The Winter Pony by Iain Lawrence / The South Pole Ponies by Theodore K. Mason

Iain Lawrence has written a beautiful juvenile historical novel about Robert Falcon Scott's doomed expedition to reach the South Pole.  What makes this story so involving, is that Mr. Lawrence tells this story from the point of view of Jimmy Pigg, one of the white ponies who made the arduous journey.  This story is rich in historical detail and humanely told.  The voice of Jimmy Pigg is believable, heartbreaking and transcendant.  Wonderful for older children who love animals and adventure.  Be warned though, this story is tragic.

If children would like more information about these South Pole Ponies, they have another book they can turn too, and it is replete with photographs.  Theodore K. Mason has thoroughly researched both the Shackleton and Scott Expeditions and brings the plight of these men and ponies to vivid life.  This book was written in 1976, but it is a wonderful resource for children and adults interested in Scott, his ponies and Jimmy Pigg.  This book is cataloged for Young Adults so some parent supervision is advised.