Since we are just around the corner from Halloween on the calendar, I’ve chosen a monster-related title from Eva Ibbotson for my Books at Bedtime post this week.  My daughter and I have been reading the Ogre of Oglefort by the late Eva Ibbotson (MacMillan, 2010.)  Perennial fans of Ibbotson, we were quite happy to have stumbled on this book in Japan at a bookstore in Osaka when we were there this spring.  And only now have we been working our way through this funny and rather unpredictable book.  The joy of reading Ibbotson is in how she turns all your stereotypical expectations of ogres and princesses on their ear similar to how the Shrek series of movies has parodied the fairytale.

In The Ogre of Oglefort, a motley crew of supernatural creatures – a hag whose familiar has refused her, a troll who works as a hospital porter, and a Mama’s boy wizard along with a young human boy, Ivo  – set out on a task appointed to them by the Norns.  The Norns are three wizened old women that are like the Fates who reside in a gigantic bed from which they issue the yearly task to the annual Summer Meeting of Unusual Creatures.  This year’s task is to slay the terrible Ogre of Oglefort and free the imprisoned princess.  Can this unseemly and bumbling crew manage?  Will they succeed?  But on the other hand, what does it matter?  Is the Ogre really that bad?  And what if the princess doesn’t really need rescuing so much as an understanding ear as to why she’d rather live with an Ogre than her parents?  Ibbotson comes up with some rather surprising turns in this story that will keep you reading (as well as having a good laugh now and then!)   The cover of my copy of The Ogre of Oglefort notes that the book was shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Roald Dahl Funny prize; such shortlisting is well warranted.  Although my daughter claims Ibbotson’s earlier title Which Witch as her favorite, I do think this title is just as witty and charming (in the antithetical sense) as her earlier comic novels for children – all very good reading, whether for Halloween or any time.

Eva Ibbotson, renown British children’s author died recently.  A lengthy obituary was published in the Telegraph.  After reading it, I became curious about her books and sought them out at the library.  What a delightful discovery!  I got four of her chapter books: Journey to the River Sea (Macmillan, 2001,) The Beasts of Clawstone Castle (Macmillan, 2005,) Which Witch (Dutton, 1995) and Island of the Aunts (Dutton, 1999.)  As per my usual custom, I read the first paragraph of each book aloud to my daughter for her to decide which one we would pursue for our bedtime reading.  They all started off so brilliantly, it really was hard to choose but we settled on Which Witch which is, by the way, rather appropriate for Halloween today!  Here’s the opening: As soon as he was born, Mr. and Mrs. Canker knew their baby was not like other people’s children. Curious?!  Do get out the book and by reading it, commemorate the memory of this wonderful children’s author.

Halloween is tomorrow and for a good portion of the English-speaking world, the event will be celebrated with children dressing up for trick-or-treating and adults going in costume to parties.  According to Robin May’s Holidays and Festivals: Halloween, Halloween had its origins in northern Celtic Europe — Britain, Ireland and northern France in particular.  The festival has long been associated with witches, the dead, ghosts and mischief much as it still is today.  It predates as well as precedes the Christian holy days of All Saints’ and All Souls, together known as Hallow Tide.

North Americans celebrate the event with trick-or-treating.  Children dress up and venture out into the neighborhood to gather candy by calling out “Trick or Treat”  at people’s doors.  Having grown up in Canada, I have very fond memories of going out trick-or-treating and now enjoy accompanying my children.  What has been specially memorable for my family growing up was introducing the holiday to Japanese kids who were experiencing the event for the first time.

Of course, this being Poetry Friday, I wondered if there might be any poetry books on the event as it is celebrated here.  Sure enough, at my local library I found Halloween Poems selected by Myra Cohn Livingston, illustrated by Stephen Gammell.  There are a lot of wonderful poems here about witches and skeletons, ghosts and jack-o-lanterns.   I liked the wry poem “Trick or Treating at Age Eight” where the little boy narrator comes to the conclusion that the only thing to fear on Halloween night are “the boys/a few years older/with legs a little longer,/hooting up and down the neighborhood/who chase me all the way home.”  And then there is the slightly spooky poem “We Three” where the little trick-or-treaters find an unexpected fourth in their group.  Gammell’s illustrations, accompanying the text, have an appropriately macabre comic feel to them — a little weird, but not too scary.  Halloween Poems makes for a delightful celebration of the season in poetry.

This week’s Poetry Friday host is Jennie at Biblio File.

Halloween is just around the corner for North Americans this week, so I’ve chosen a book that celebrates the event.  The Ghoul’s Night Out by Janice MacDonald (illus. by Pamela Breeze Currie) is a story about three ghouls — Annalise the Witch, Ernie the Ghost, and Milton the Skeleton — who experience Halloween trick-or-treating for the first time.  Normally these three happy occupants of a haunted house keep to themselves and enjoy Halloween from their perspective as ghouls.  One step out onto the yard on Halloween night ensures bagfuls of candy being dropped by fleeing and frightened trick-or-treaters.  Although Annalise wouldn’t mind if some of these kids would drop in for a chat, she’s quite happy to be the recipient of their largesse.

One autumn, however, the ghouls are prompted by a newspaper article to get involved in their community.  They decide the best way to do this is to go trick-or-treating themselves at Halloween.  What ensues is a comic adventure for the three civic-minded ghouls whose hearts are in the right place, but er, their appearances, not so much!

The Ghouls Night Out is a mid-grade reader aimed for kids, aged 6 to 10.   Divided into chapters with wonderful illustrations interspersed throughout, the story is best read a week or so before Halloween.  It’s an excellent primer for the season’s main event, occurring on October 31.  I’ve enjoyed reading this book to my kids before Halloween and recommend it highly.  It won the Our Choice Award given by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre at the time of its publication.   Do you have any good books that celebrate this special event for kids? Do tell!