Halloween : A Grown-Up's Guide to Creative Costumes, Devilish Decor & Fabulous Festivities


Reviews

Finally, here's a Halloween book that's definitely for adults. It's brimming with practical and inventive ideas for parties, decorations, and costumes, and with an amazingly atmospheric design that's a luscious treat for grown-up eyes. Take the dread out of a costume party with creative and playful ways to dress for success on All Hallow's Eve; there are even actual costume elements to use, from wings and tails to masks and hats. You'll find ways to repurpose items right out of your own closet or benefit from a quick trip to the thrift shop. Unique make-up tips for a ghoulishly great appearance will complete the effect. An elegant "Pumpkin Primer" supplies projects to enhance the holiday spirit, including menacing hex dolls and simple, spooky candlescapes. Finally, a selection of theme party ideas, from Day o' the Dead to a Masked Ball, will make for a Happy Halloween. After all: why should kids have all the fun?


bug costumes actually looked pretty good, and so on. I especially loved the Monet costume, which was of watery blue cloth and bedecked in water-lilies, with a garden bridge on the hat. Many of the costumes and decorations are very artistic. Even some of the no-sew costumes made me say "Oooh, cool!"

I give it one star for the several infuriatingly innaccurate Asian-inspired costumes and decor. The "samurai" armor was just a joke and perhaps could be said to have its own peculiar charm, and the Yuki Ona costume (which is supposed to be spelled Yuki Onna, it's pronounced differently) was quirky and didn't look even remotely Japanese or even Asian (actually, it looked like the Snow Queen) and the bedsheet kimono was actually pretty good and began to look authentic in comparison to the other things, but when it had flat paper masks from the "Kabuki, or CHINESE opera"...! Ooh, that makes me SO MAD! Aargh! If they'd just stopped at one horribly innaccurate Japanese costume, I would have shrugged and skipped over it, but when they kept doing it, one after another... grr. It's not racist, just not researched enough.

Something similar happens when it talks about using a voodoo-doll motif for a Halloween party. It then tells you a bit about the religions of Vodoun and Santeria, from which the "voodoo dolls" come. This raises the question of why it's using very serious religious symbols as fun party decor.

The book has historical information about Halloween, monsters, and other cultural things. For example, after the instructions for the Green Man costume, it has two pages telling what is known (and not known) about the Green Man's history. With the fairy costume, it tells about different kinds of fairies, and how some kinds of fairies are more dangerous than cute.

However, after having seen how innaccurate this book was when it came to Japan, I'm highly suspicious of its educational value and authenticity in other areas of history and culture. It's clear the book *tried,* since it does at least include historical information for everything it can, but I'm not going to use it as history reference. Enjoy, but take with a grain of salt.

The section about the Mexican Day of the Dead seems considerably more accurate than the others, and fairly true to the spirit of that holiday and culture, but I still feel a bit suspicious about its authenticity.

Sorry if I seem grouchy about the book- I really did enjoy its originality of design. It's a relieving change of pace from the "country charm" Halloween craft books where you've seen everything before. None of those hokey books had scarecrows like the one in this book, which is a terrifying art statue with broken garden implements for claws, a faceless pumpkin head,and a metal wire body wrapped in dead vines! That's probably the scariest thing in the whole book, and genuinely scary at that. Not all of the things in it try to be adult or scary, mind you; there's plenty of light-hearted Halloween silliness too. I am going to have to try some of the things in here!

The book title caught my attention as the word "Grown Up" jumped out at me. I am big fan of everything Halloween so I had to have this book. I should have borrowed it at the library first! I read other reviews on Amazon.com about how wonderful this book was so I purchased it solely based on the reviews.
DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER:

The cover threw me off. It had pictures of a paper mache skull with horns, a pumpkin with star holes, floating candles in a bucket filled with flowers and mini pumpkins and a picture of hand-made crepe paper witch hats on the front door. I was thinking: all right! A cool book on how to decorate and cool crafts to make!

What they should have put on the front page was a picture of a man in spider costume, a picture of a woman in a poodle outfit, a picture of a man wearing a bird beak..you get the picture.

COSTUME 101

The first 107 pages out of 173 pages were all about costumes only. Here's a sampling: black spider, poodle, bees, really ugly paint spattered thing...

The good thing about this book - you can make most of the costumes listed here because they are items that are readily available.

The bad thing about this book - it really shows.

Many of the costumes just require you to take your old dress/shirt/gown and throw paint all over it or sew a few things on it here and there. There was even an outfit called "Dancing Queen" and can you guess what you are supposed to do? Slap used CD's all over yourself. You are supposed to look like a dancing queen...isn't that what being covered in CD's is all about?

The Queen bee outfit looks...anemic. I thought bees were supposed to be fat. In this case the Queen bee stands in skin tight clothing with what looks like black chicken wire around her waist (I think its supposed to be black netting).

The "Mother Nature and Green Man" costume I find hilarious. Just looking at the picture you'd think they were hippies covered in vegetation and/or mossy stuff. On the next page there is an entire page on "Who is The Green Man?" I figure if you have to go around explaining who the heck you are it takes the fun out of it after the 500th time. "No...I'm NOT the moss man or the hippy man covered in vegetation...I am the Green Man (insert expletives and other cuss words here)...!"

I must admit there are a few neat outfits: the shimmery mermaid outfit, the gladiator and the bedsheet geisha, but not much else going for it. For every one male costume there are about 3 or 4 women's costumes (mainly old dresses with things sewn onto them).

The second part of the costumes section take you step-by-step on how to make things like birds beaks, hairy legs (I am not making this up), thundering hooves, walrus tusks (WALRUS? where's the matching costume for this tusk?). There's one page on how to make an outfit for your dog.

The third part of the costume section teaches you how to paint your face (3 pages of really boring stuff), how to make a hat, how to make paper bags LOOK like a face. Are you sleeping yet? The only thing remotely fresh that I saw in this section was the medusa wig. You get a bunch of plastic snakes and pin it to your swim cap covered in black tulle.

FINALLY...THE DECOR SECTION:

The first ten pages in this section covers pumpking carving basics, how to add a "nose" to a pumpkin simply by turning it over so the stem acts like a nose, how to make a pumpkin look like a "bushy head" by sticking twigs and leaves out of its head, how to carve squares into a pumpkin to make it look geometric, how to....urgh.

The next five pages are all about making dolls. Voodoo dolls, corn "dollys" and hex dolls which are nothing more than twigs hanging eerily off some dead branches. Phhhhfft.

Then..get this...another craft article on how to make a GIANT 6 FOOT SPIDER! That's right...in your very own back yard! How did the craft section go from tying together twigs and corn to make faceless dolls to a gigantic, humongous, insanely huge spider? I take that back, the spider is 6 feet in diameter, which means its actually bigger.

FOOD SECTION:

There are differently themed parties throught this book: the New Orleans voodoo cocktail party, the Day of the Dead dinner party and the Masked Ball party. Not many recipes. Just a lot of nice pretty pictures, I do give this book some credit!

Review: I am a fan of adult Halloween books - nothing cutesy or for the kiddies. I bought this book thinking it would have equal amounts of decor and costumes as I am the type of person that likes Martha Stewart's Halloween decorating ideas. While this book is very good, it is primarily costumes and masks. I would have liked to see more decor. The first 108 pages out of 175 pages are costumes. The remaining pages covers jack-o-lanterns, decorating with candles, a few recipes, etc. Nothing new or spectacular. Great if you like to craft your own costumes...mediochre if you want new decor ideas and crafting your own Halloween items.

Maybe it's because I'm not a seamstress, or even a casual sewer, but I don't understand the objections of an earlier review. It's hard to believe we're talking about the same book! Yes, there is a costume using duct tape, but throughout the book I found many new, very original and creative ideas that I will be able to use for my annual Halloween extravaganza. I have read dozens and dozens of books on Halloween costumes, crafts, and decorating, and never been quite so inspired. As a Halloween afficionado, I recommend it highly!

So many times you see these books on line and wonder if they have enough good ideas to make it worth the purchase price. In my humble opinion this book at 172 pages, is worth the purchase price. Great costume ideas including making wonderful fairy wings using a laminator machine. Horns, hooves, and other accessories you don't often see are described with nice pictures. One section is devoted to hats, wigs, and make-up and includes a Medusa Wig! Pet costumes are also included in this book! The decor section has some truly original ideas along with the traditional hex dolls, corn dolly's, and a giant spider. The table top Victorian graveyard was my favorite! The last section is devoted to theme parties with a Day of the Dead dinner party and Voodoo cocktail party. Handy copyright free images are also provided to make decorations.

Block Parties & Poker Nights : Recipes and Ideas for Getting and Staying Connected with Your Neighbors (Paperback)

From Library Journal
Although there are other titles on potluck dinners, backyard barbecues, and similar themes, Allen's clever book is likely to strike a chord with many readers seeking "connection" in these often anxious times. She does include the block parties and poker nights of the title, but she goes beyond such occasions, starting with a section on "Breaking the Ice," which includes suggestions on how to welcome a new neighbor or how to meet the neighbors if you're new (or not so new), and finishing with "Good Times and Bad," which includes ideas and comfort food for "the tough times," ways to resolve a conflict with a neighbor or deal with other such crises, and more. The recipes are fairly standard-there are many old favorites here-but they are usually simple and many of them are easy to make for a crowd. Recommended for most collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
Across the country, folks are rediscovering potluck parties, progressive dinners, and other neighborhood gatherings as a way to forge bonds that endure long after the last dish is cleared away. From small, adults-only get-togethers to neighborhood extravaganzas, Block Parties and Poker Nights has dozens of creative ideas, for fun, fulfilling community events and the tried-and-true dishes that make them so memorable.

* Recipes for soup buffets, salad bars, and backyard barbecues *
* Welcome baskets for new neighbors and homemade treats to share *
* Tips on foods that travel well *
* Ways to support families in times of need with reheatable comfort food *
* Celebrations for all seasons, from Fourth of July bashes to Kentucky Derby parties*
* Suggestions for starting treasured holiday traditions like caroling parties and cookie exchanges *
* And, everything you need to know to throw a blow-out block party with all the trimmings *






Review

From School Library Journal

-An artful arrangement of ingredients aided by imaginative titles transforms ordinary food into disgusting treats such as, "Pus Pockets" (pita stuffed with cheese, baked, slit, and squeezed) and "Worms au Gratin" (spaghetti and noodles). While some children will only browse through the book to exclaim at the yucky fare, those who try the recipes will find that they contain sensible advice, beginning with safety tips, cooking terms, measurements, and clean-up hints. Instructions are clearly written and list needed tools. The advice, "with an adult's help" is given whenever cooking, baking, or the use of a sharp knife is required. Burke's pen-and-ink cartoons are essential for their humorous portrayal of monsters and ugly characters and because arrangement of food is so critical for gruesome effect. Even so, some imagination may be needed to see the werewolf in the Waldorf Salad or Brussels sprouts as gorilla tonsils. The food itself is mostly healthful, with fruits and vegetables featured as prominent ingredients. Food coloring is used in some recipes and stuffed olives (eyeballs) appear more than once. Some titles may be over readers' heads, but the serving suggestions (e.g., crumpled facial tissues with the "Phlegm Brulee) will help them understand. Filled with clever ideas, this is an excellent choice for those who are looking for something creepy but fun.

"Filled with clever ideas, this is an excellent choice for those who are lookin for something creepy but fun."--School Library Journal.

was disappointed with this book.Its a wonderful idea to make a book like this but most of the recipes are not something that my family & i would use.The titles of the recipes are great,gnarled witch fingers,tongues on toast,brains on the half skull,etc.This book just needs some better recipes.

I used this book for an adult business halloween party. they all acted like kids grossing out at each item (yet eating them ALL and asking for more). I only made a few items last year to see their reaction and couldn't believe how they devoured them and started searching my refrigerator for more! this year i'll be adding many more of these recipes to my menu.

If you can get past the names of the dishes (and your imagination doesn't go into overdrive), you will love this book! The instructions are simple, and there are plenty of opportunities to teach kids about good kitchen technique. This book belongs in every parent's collection.

Fall and Halloween Activity Book for Families

Book Description

The "Fall and Halloween Activity Book for Families" contains over 600 ideas for family fall celebrations. Activities are designed for children and are very family oriented, not macabre or overly frightening. If you are planning a Halloween party, this book will walk you through everything from invitations and decorations to table settings, foods to serve and games to play. There is a completely illustrated section with Halloween crafts and activities for children; pages of designs and interesting adaptations for carving and decorating pumpkins; and an area filled with ideas for Halloween costumes, masks and more. Complete recipes are included for snacks, dinners, desserts and beverages with flavors or themes that fit in with fall or Halloween. This book has a section on other autumn celebrations including some from different countries and cultures.

Things-to-do in the "Fall and Halloween Activity Book for Families" use simple and inexpensive materials and most take small or reasonable amounts of time to accomplish. Many things are easy enough for toddlers and some require the skills of older children. Adapt your choices to the abilities of children who will be participating.

From the Publisher
You'll never run out of autumn or Halloween ideas for kids with this book. It has over 600 ideas in a completely illustrated format with easy-to-follow directions and recipes. Kids and adults can have plenty of fun together with these activities.

In contrast to recent trends toward frightening Halloween activities, the suggestions in this book are very family related. The few slightly scary things included are the types of things that create giggles instead of nightmares. Mostly, you can use the ideas to make memories of good times together and to help children develop skills in various crafts and to allow their imaginations to get a work-out.

Halloween Parties : How to Throw Spook-Tacular Soirees and Frighteningly Festive Entertainments (Paperback)

From Publishers Weekly
Photo stylist Hellander’s book of Halloween-themed entertainment ideas shares recipes, decorating tips and invitation ideas for six different spooky parties. The Tricks & Treats party is pretty run of the mill, with its jack-o’-lantern goody bags, suggestions for pumpkin carving and recipes for Cupcakes with Candy Surprise Centers and Hot Red Wine with Cloves and Almonds. The rest of the parties—Witches’ Brew; It’s a Mod, Mod World!; Hocus Pocus; Haunted House; and That Old Devil Moon—basically offer variations on the theme, with vaguely original ideas for party favors, place settings and snacks. Many of the suggestions seem flimsy (e.g., covering a room’s walls with wrapping paper to create a festive atmosphere) and don’t specifically apply to Halloween (e.g., party favors like styrofoam balls wrapped in crepe paper with tiny charms and fortunes stored inside; or recipes such as Breadsticks with Prosciutto and Robiola). But first-time hosts who haven’t a clue where to begin might glean something from this enthusiastic book. 96 photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description
A boring Halloween party? The horror! Millions of Americans live to be scared silly, and for them October 31 marks the beginning of the holiday season: a reason to dress and act outrageously. This hip, photograph-filled paperback, packed with recipes and crafts, makes entertaining on Allhallows' Eve terrifyingly easy. From a frightful dinner for four to a full-out, monster-mashing Haunted Mansion, Lori Hellander concocts six parties guaranteed to make guests scream in delight. The Hocus Pocus Potion Party highlights eerie elegance, while Tricks and Treats taps into Halloween nostalgia.

Like a skilled carver attacking a pumpkin, Hellander chops up each themed party into manageable chunks: invitations; shopping and scheduling; decor and costumes; food and drink; games for all ages. But aspiring fete-ishists need not have tons of time or an armory of glue guns to get the parties going: there are plenty of quick and simple-to-execute ideas, plus useful tips for impromptu entertaining. AUTHOR BIO: LORI HELLANDER lives in New York City, but her work as a photo stylist takes her to many places on the map. She is a regular contributor to Country Living, Bon Appétit, and Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion, among other national publications, and has made several guest appearances on HGTV's Country Style and the Discovery Channel's Surprise by Design.

BILL MILNE is a photographer and image-maker who has contributed to Gourmet, Wine Spectator, Time, People, and many other publications.




Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night (Hardcover)

From Publishers Weekly
If America is a melting pot, then Halloween is the stew that simmers in our national cauldron. In this fascinating study, Rogers shows how the holiday is a hodgepodge of ancient European pagan traditions, 19th-century Irish and Scottish celebrations, Western Christian interpretations of All Souls' Day and thoroughly modern American consumer ideals. At its heart, he says, Halloween is a celebration of the inversion of social codes-children have power over adults, marauders can make demands of established homeowners and anyone may assume a temporary disguise. Canadian professor Rogers is a fine cultural historian, who carefully sifts through complex social and religious data to tease out meanings and trajectories. One excellent chapter illuminates Halloween and Hollywood, while a chapter entitled Border Crossings discusses Halloween observance among non-Anglo populations in North America, including Mexico's "Dia de los Muertos." Rogers's is the best study to date of the history and growing significance of Halloween.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
Boasting a rich, complex history rooted in Celtic and Christian ritual, Halloween has evolved from ethnic celebration to a blend of street festival, fright night, and vast commercial enterprise. In this colorful history, Nicholas Rogers takes a lively, entertaining look at the cultural origins and development of one of the most popular holidays of the year. Drawing on a fascinating array of sources, from classical history to Hollywood films, Rogers traces Halloween as it emerged from the Celtic festival of Samhain (summer's end), picked up elements of the Christian Hallowtide (All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day), arrived in North America as an Irish and Scottish festival, and evolved into an unofficial but large-scale holiday by the early 20th century. He examines the 1970s and '80s phenomena of Halloween sadism (razor blades in apples) and inner-city violence (arson in Detroit), as well as the immense influence of the horror film genre on the reinvention of Halloween as a terror-fest. Throughout his vivid account, Rogers shows how Halloween remains, at its core, a night of inversion, when social norms are turned upside down, and a temporary freedom of expression reigns supreme. He examines how this very license has prompted censure by the religious Right, occasional outrage from law enforcement officials, and appropriation by Left-leaning political groups. Engagingly written and based on extensive research, Halloween is the definitive history of the most bewitching day of the year, illuminating the intricate history and shifting cultural forces behind this enduring trick-or-treat holiday.

Review: A serious cultural history of Halloween
Single-subject histories on the likes of salt, codfish and even the color red have become a fashionable lately, and this book is a fine specimen of the genre. It traces the history of the celebration of October 31 from Samhain, the year cycle rite observed by the pagan Celts in Britain, to the many ways it is marked in North America at the time of the new millennium. His central thesis, supported by myriad examples and illustrations, is that Halloween has always been a liminal time, a boundary between autumn and winter, this world and the other world, life and death. Drawing from the theory of anthropologist Victor Turner, he argues that liminal times are also periods of ritual inversion in which the obverse of cultural values, however they are construed, are temporarily allowed to emerge into public consciousness and celebrated before being relegated once again to the cultural closet. Whether these oppositional symbols are spiritual otherworlds, as they were for the ancient Celts, or consist instead of what is disavowed by the dominant cultural paradigm, Halloween provides a framework during which they can be publicly explored and performed. This central feature of Halloween, more than any individual rite or symbol, constitutes the core of the holiday that has endured for over a thousand years.

Rogers begins by examining the practices of the ancient Celts, for whom Samhain was a year cycle rite that marked the passage from autumn into winter, a time out of time when the boundaries between the world of humans and that of otherworldly creatures - be they ancestors, deities or other kinds of spirits - were thought to be thin, and the "reverse world" was allowed to briefly overlap with the everyday world. Carrying this metaphor forward into history, Rogers shows how Halloween's supernatural connotations continued in medieval and early modern festivities associated with All Saints' and All Souls' Days, from which we get many of the rituals still associated with the holiday today, including jack-o'-lanterns, pranking behavior and petty vandalism. He traces the migration of these customs to the New World with two groups of immigrants: English Catholics and liberal Protestants (the Puritans disdained the observance as too popish), and the Irish.

Rogers really shines in describing the growth of Halloween in New World soil. He addresses the development of trick-or-treating in the 20th century not only as a form of social inversion in which children demand candy from strangers, in a reversal of the usual cautions, but as a rite that prepared children to become consumers of sweets and other paraphernalia associated with the holiday, such as costumes and decorations. But the dangers of the otherworld could not be tamed by conspicuous consumption; they re-emerged in the 1960s and 70s as fear of contaminated treats - the infamous razor blade in the apple. The very symbol of harvest home, the fruit of the Celtic otherworld, the Isle of Apples, was transformed into an instrument of danger - not, this time, from otherworldly beings, but from other human beings. Human beings similarly were the source of other Halloween dangers, such as the arson and vandalism of "Devil's Night" in Detroit and other North American cities. Meantime, Hollywood horror films picked up Halloween's association with the supernatural, darkness, death and decay, often weaving in themes associated with contemporary legends and rumor panics. The resulting mix blurred the lines between reality and the imaginary in a way that was new in the history of Halloween, emphasizing gory hyperrealism over the spiritual or supernatural frights that predominated in earlier centuries. At the same time that parents began to be afraid of allowing children to trick-or-treat on Halloween for fear of candy contamination and crime, Halloween emerged as a party night for adults, when those who had enjoyed costuming and rites of reversal as children wanted to experience them in a new, grown-up context. It reached its apotheosis in street parades of large North American cities such as Toronto, New York and Los Angeles, where it has become an occasion for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities to publicly celebrate identities usually relegated to the margins of society by the dominant culture. As in much of Halloween behavior, this is done through play, humor and parody, hallmarks of symbolic inversion at the core of Halloween. Rogers also treats the holiday's globalization: both the spread throughout North America of the analogous Mexican holiday El Día de los Muertos on the heels of Latino immigration, and the global diffusion of the commercialized Halloween to Europe and other markets. He provocatively asks whether the transformation of the holiday into a mass-marketed occasion for conspicuous consumption will eventually trump its subversive qualities, or whether individuals' creativity and sense of play will ultimately reclaim Halloween as a site of contestation.

Regardless of the cultural changes this holiday undergoes, Halloween seems to attract to it the oppositional and the carnivalesque. No wonder, then, that is has become a popular target for the invectives of conservative Christian ministers and their congregations, who label it "Satanic" and call for its suppression. But the suppression of culturally contested symbols never successfully eliminates the ideas behind them. In fact, as Turner and French cultural historian Michel Foucault argue, these oppositional images are fertile ground for cultural renewal, and provide alternative ways of envisioning reality: they are cultural countersites where social mores and pretensions can be mocked, parodied, and lampooned with impunity, and an alternative universe can temporarily be imagined.
Rogers does not address at any length the reclamation of Halloween by Neopagan groups in Europe and North America - a pity, because this trend fits well with his overarching theoretical approach. And he seems ignorant of the considerable work done on the holiday by American folklorists. Still, this excellent book will appeal to a wide range of readers. It reads fluidly and easily, is theoretically well-informed without being jargon-ridden or using theory as a bludgeon, and could easily be adopted for use in large undergraduate courses on cultural history, folkloristics and anthropology.

Review: Oops, wrong kind of book
I can honestly say that I have almost always finished reading a book that I start. This is the exception.

It's my fault, really. I was looking for a book that would discuss the origins and development of Halloween. I had in mind the sort that would discuss Charlie Brown and The Great Pumpkin and other Americana. You know, a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane in rural/suburban America.

Oops.

This is actually an academic treatise where the author wants to discuss social inversion, gender identity, and queer politics. No offense to the author, but most people don't regularly use the term "social inversion", let alone bring it up constantly in conversation. If you are a cultural transgressor looking to be affirmed in your okayness, this is perhaps a good book for you. I was looking to be affirmed in my nostalgia, so I am out of luck.

(Normally I don't review books down because I disagree with the author; however, I feel that this is marketed deceptively. Normal people don't talk like this guy writes, so I can only imagine that he is one of those people that must rework every concept to fit his sociological theories. Or maybe I'm just a jerk - you decide).

Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History (Paperback)

Review:

This is an awesome book if you are looking for the whole history behind halloween and how it became an american holiday.This book is not for someone who is looking for a holiday read,but rather for someone who really wants to know the history behind this greatest of all holidays.I learned things about halloween that i never knew before,and being a real halloween nut, I thought i knew alot.You will learn the whole history behind halloween with this book,I enjoyed it greatly.

Bannatyne's book on Halloween is the best. Well-researched, absolutely packed with information and nuggets of fascinating lore on every page, yet the author eschews dry academic prose - it's like listening to an erudite friend explain his/her area of expertise. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about such an interesting holiday. You really couldn't find a better, more comprehensive Halloween resource.

Although Bannatyne's history of Halloween contains useful material, especially covering the recent past, her work is marred by serious errors, mostly the result, I suspect, of an uncritical reading of her sources. She suggests, for example, that there was an actual cult of witches in the middle ages, a cult somehow linked to the druids, which is simply not true. A glance through her inadequate notes reveals good modern sources for folklore set side by side with works now hopelessly out of date. Bannatyne also consistently makes connections between Halloween and other folk traditions that are in no way supported by the evidence she presents. This may be, as a spokesman for the history channel suggests, "the best book on the history of halloween available today," but readers should be warned not to put too much stock in this endorsement.

This is a great book to get if you want to know more about Halloween. Not just the typical stuff, although that's there too, but where it came from and how poeple have been celebrating it for years. It's fun to read and has great information in it. I'm going to use it with my class so they know more about why we celebrate Halloween.

I was extremely pleased with this book. Not only does it chronologically relate the history of Halloween, but it also describes the cultural contexts of its evolution. This book is not only well researched, but offers a very readable and entertaining look at the folklore associated with Halloween. My only criticism is the poor editing by the publisher or reviewers. Unfortunately, this book is replete with "typos," and I found one entire paragraph repeated on consecutive pages. This becomes annoying after awhile. However, the content and writing style are so good, don't let the editing stop you from buying it. Actually, I wish it were available hardcopy.

As someone who has always loved Halloween, this book is a must have. After seeing, "The Haunted History of Halloween" on the History Channel, I went out and bought this book. It is by far the best book I have found that tells the whole history behind the holiday that we celebrate every October 31. From the ancient festivities of Samhain to the parties thrown by Victorians to parades in the 30's and 40's, this book explores the significance behind this holiday. Why do we trick or treat and dress up? Why are ghosts, witches, black cats, and devils associated with this holiday. This book answers these questions and a lot more.