Halloween Round-Up

It's that time of year again! Get out the jack-o-lanterns and plastic skeletons, because Halloween is almost here. Today, I thought I'd share a few fun Halloween-related discoveries. You'll learn about a ghoulish new podcast for kids, a website focused on putting stories into trick-or-treat bags and another website all about connecting spooky middle grade authors to classrooms across the county.

1. The Creeping Hour is a new podcast for kids co-created by Elie Lichtschein and public media broadcaster WGBH. Elie sums it up this way, "The Creeping Hour is a podcast of scary stories hosted by three horror obsessed friends who listened to too many spooky stories and turned into monsters. The stories themselves are about creepy music that you can never unhear, diabolical orthodontists, flying beach monsters, haunted houses, and more…" It's the perfect podcast for kids (ages 8-12) who love to be scared. Read my full interview with Elie at https://spookymiddlegrade.com/2019/10/03/the-creeping-hour/.

2. Trick or Reaters is a website that encourages people to put stories in trick-or-treat bags every Halloween. Their site features a wide variety of spooky stories, arranged using their new Scare-o-Meter, which allows kids to select stories based on scare level. Adults can print out helpful PDFs to stick in trick-or-treat bags. The PDFs direct readers to the website, where kids can then discover the full library of spine-tingling tales. To read more, check out author Janet Fox's full article at https://spookymiddlegrade.com/2019/10/11/a-very-spooky-site-trick-or-reaters/.

3. Spooky Middle Grade is a website that I co-founded last year, along with a group of amazing 'spooky' middle grade writers. Our mission is to show that spooky stories have value all year round. We love connecting with classrooms through our free digital visits. Each Skype or Google Hangouts session features 3-4 spooky authors. We spend thirty minutes answering students' burning questions about the writing and publishing process. To learn more, or to schedule your free Skype, head over to https://spookymiddlegrade.com/free-skype-qa/.

I hope you've found these Halloween resources useful! If you have a resource to share, tell me about it in the comments :)