The Halloween Book (Hardcover) - by Jane Bull

Review:

The Halloween Book is a veritable gold mine of creepy crafts to make Halloween the most spine-tingling night of the year. Unearthly decorations ("Silhouette Windows," "Flickering Faces," "Jeering Jars"), exquisitely eerie dress-up ideas ("Fearsome Features," "Creepy Costumes,"), and delectably ghastly goodies ("Buckets of Treats," "Beastly Buffet," "Hanging Horrors," "Cauldron Cocktails," "Spooky Potions") will provide days of creative fun leading up to the haunted holiday. The perfect resource for a Halloween party, with DK's superb photos and clever activities, games, and recipes, this volume is a steep step above the standard craft book. So pour yourself a mug o' vampire broth or hot chocolate bones, dig into some sausage fingers, and get started on your screaming streamers and menacing masks. (Ages 6 to 11) --Emilie Coulter

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-5-This is the "Martha Stewart" book of craft, costume, food, and party ideas for the ultimate Halloween experience. It shows how to carve a pumpkin, make hanging glass-jar lights, spooky window cutouts, and decorated flashlights. There are descriptions and photos of additions to fairy, pirate, witch, vampire, and ghost costumes, with elaborate face painting and perfectly cut-out, acrylic-painted, paper-plate masks. There are directions for a paper-m ch pumpkin and a cr pe-paper-decorated sand bucket for holding treats. Refreshments include sausage fingers, "bread roll monsters," gorgeous-looking creepy cupcakes, and "cauldron cocktails." Finally, there are instructions for a shadow theatre and other traditional party games. The photographs are stunning, but all of the projects look like they were made by adults or particularly handy, older children. One hopes that youngsters will not be disappointed when their creations don't look quite so perfect.
Cathie Reed, The Montessori School, Lutherville, MD

This is a fun book aimed at the younger set filled with a nice sprinkling of Halloween costumes, recipes, crafts, and party ideas. The ideas are by no means original, but as a mom and Halloween-freak , I found this book to be a good inspiration to cooking up your own ideas. (The monster sandwiches are priceless! )The photos are lovely, the printed varnished pages crisp and bright -- I can practically smell the pumpkin pie when I crack it open.



So you'd like to... prepare for Halloween

First, you need to reacquaint yourself with the three classic monsters of horror: vampires, werewolves, and Frankenstein. For vampires, read the classic novel 'Dracula (Signet Classics (Paperback))'. For Frankenstein, go to the source with the original novel, 'Frankenstein'. Werewolves are a bit more difficult, because there is no single classic novel. If you want a broad, multicultural overview, nothing beats the folklore contained in 'Half Human, Half Animal: Tales of Werewolves and Related Creatures'. It contains legends of both European and American werewolves, from ancient mythology to modern urban legends. However, you might also want to consult the novels 'Wolf's Hour' (a kind of werewolf-meets-James-Bond plot) or 'Murcheston' (a successful imitation of the style found in a Victorian-era gothic novel). Both of these are masterpieces of the werewolf genre.
The next step in preparing for Halloween is to adopt the attitude and fashion sense you'll need. Picture yourself in a floor-length black cape, languidly draped over a brocade-velvet embroidered couch, a crystal chandelier scattering the flicking rays of candlelight. Obviously, what you want is to become a temporary goth for Halloween. Learn all about the fashions, music and attitudes of true gothness by reading 'Goth Chic: A Connoisseur's Guide to Dark Culture', '21st Century Goth' and 'Goth : Identity, Style and Subculture (Dress, Body, Culture)'. Halloween is the one time of year when everyone (everyone cool, that is) becomes goth.

Next, invite a bunch of friends over to your house for a movie marathon. Get the stylish classics, both old and new, such as 'The Hunger', 'Ginger Snaps', 'The Exorcist (The Version You've Never Seen)', 'The Ring (Widescreen Edition)', 'Blade (New Line Platinum Series)', 'The Phantom of the Opera - The Ultimate Edition (1925 Original Version and 1929 Restored Version)' and 'The Blair Witch Project'. Don't forget costumes, decorations, and eatables. 'Halloween : A Grown-Up's Guide to Creative Costumes, Devilish Decor & Fabulous Festivities' is a great guide to parties, costumes, and decorations that is aimed at adults, not kids. Another good all-purpose guide to Halloween is 'A Halloween How-To: Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destinations'. Try 'Halloween Costumes (Singer Sewing Reference Library)' if you have actual sewing skills, or read 'Instant Period Costume: How to Make Classic Costumes from Cast-Off Clothing' and 'Elegantly Frugal Costumes: The Poor Man's Do-It-Yourself Costume Maker's Guide' if you do not sew. For crafts, decor, and that perfect arrangement of pumpkins, try 'Halloween Crafts: Eerily Elegant Decor'. To keep those pesky rugrats scared stiff whenever they enter your yard, follow the instructions in 'Give Them a Real Scare This Halloween'. Or, if you dare, try 'Halloween: Customs, Recipes & Spells' or 'The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween: Celebrating the Dark Half of the Year', both of which tell you some of the history and witchcraft behind this holiday. If you have a weakness for pumpkins, consult 'Halloween Pumpkins & Parties : 101 Spooktacular Ideas' for recipes and craft ideas. If your guests want to eat something other than pumpkins, whip up some of the recipes in 'Halloween Treats: Recipes and Crafts for the Whole Family (Holiday Celebrations)'.

After your guests have gone home, wind down and try to stave off thoughts of Christmas with a stockpile of good horror novels. Good selections include 'Cabal', 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Signet Classics)', 'The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre', 'Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce', 'Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood', 'Darkness' and 'Everything's Eventual : 14 Dark Tales'.

Halloween Holiday News - Looking for Halloween Parties or Halloween Festivals?

Share your Halloween haunts (Seattle Times)
Tricked-out house? If you decorate your home for Halloween, send a photo from last year (and information about how you created the look... Tue, 19 Sep 2006 07:19:51 GMT

Disney promises grins over gore (Orange County Register)
ANAHEIM – The Disneyland Resort on Thursday unveiled specifics of its "HalloweenTime" seasonal event, billed as the "biggest and best Halloween event ever celebrated" at the resort in its 51 years. Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:13:26 GMT

Parks grasp the Halloween spirit (Amusement Business)
Ghostly pirates, a couple of ghouls, even a harmless hayride can scare up plenty of revenue for theme parks as they segue into the profitable Christmas season. More parks are spooking it up for Halloween than ever before. Thu, 21 Sep 2006 23:17:38 GMT

A wet Halloween? (San Francisco Bay Guardian)
With just a month and a half to go before Halloween, it's still not entirely clear what's going to happen with the annual party in the Castro this year — but it could be an early, wet night for revelers. Wed, 20 Sep 2006 00:06:52 GMT

Halloween play tells a sweet story for children (Everett Herald)
Other upcoming productions include a story full of eccentric characters and a gem of a tale by George Bernard Shaw. Fri, 22 Sep 2006 07:12:47 GMT

THE 10TH ANNUAL COUNT'S HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR (Philadelphia City Paper)
Put on your spookiest costume and co

Halloween activities at Pierce College (The Acorn)
The family-friendly Halloween Harvest Festival begins Fri., Sept. 29 and continues through Oct. 31 at Pierce College, 6498 De Soto Ave., Woodland Hills. Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:13:17 GMT

Parks grasp the Halloween spirit (Amusement Business)
Ghostly pirates, a couple of ghouls, even a harmless hayride can scare up plenty of revenue for theme parks as they segue into the profitable Christmas season. More parks are spooking it up for Halloween than ever before. Thu, 21 Sep 2006 23:17:38 GMT

St. Gabriel festival scheduled on Sunday (Connersville News-Examiner)
There is one last chance for that famous St. Gabriel fried chicken before the snow flies, and that is during Sunday’s annual St. Gabriel Parish Fall Festival at Expo Hall. Thu, 21 Sep 2006 18:17:28 GMT

THE 10TH ANNUAL COUNT'S HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR (Philadelphia City Paper)
Put on your spookiest costume and come trick or treating at Sesame Place! Every weekend until Halloween, the park will host pumpkin decorating, haymazes, hayrides and countless shows and rides. Wed, 20 Sep 2006 20:35:37 GMT

E-mail Newsletters (Washington Post)
THE GREAT OUTDOORS Spirits of the Season Washington Walks' "Most Haunted Houses" tour makes the biggest impression in October, when its creepy vibe plays off the cooler weather and thoughts of Halloween. The tour will take walkers to, among other places, the Octagon House, the oddly shaped... Fri, 22 Sep 2006 06:36:28 GMT

Madison Finalizes Halloween Plans (Channel 3000)
The city of Madison's Halloween plan has been finalized after a year of planning and many meetings in the past few months between city leaders, police and fire departments, business owners and students. Wed, 20 Sep 2006 03:14:19 GMT

LET'S GO: Mount Gilead Autumn Fest is Saturday (The Marion Star)
Send us your go, do and see event: Are you, your group, community or village planning a fun activity the public can attend? We’d like to let our readers know about your plans. Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:52:44 GMT

Group mulls ways to make Halloween crowd less scary (Athens News)
Love it or loathe it, Halloween is coming soon to Athens in the form of another Court Street takeover by tens of thousands of revelers. About 25 local residents and officials met Thursday at the Athens Public Library to plan for the influx. Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:35:00 GMT

By Phil Melnychuk Staff Reporter (Maple Ridge News)
Shock and awe should shake up the skies over the Maple Ridge fairgrounds again this Halloween. "Bigger, better and more organized," says Lions club volunteer Peter Brockbank about this year's fireworks, planned for Sunday, Oct. 28. Wed, 20 Sep 2006 16:12:57 GMT

Local Beat - 09/21/06 (Corsicana Daily Sun)
This column is designed to give our local readers a place to put news and events that are important to them and others in the community. Local news such as public meetings, luncheons, events and other non-club local items for not-for-profit associations are listed in this column. Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:01:29 GMT

All about the Halloween Holiday:

Halloween
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31, usually by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting candy. It is celebrated in much of the Western world, though most commonly in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Canada and sometimes in Australia and New Zealand. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought older versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.

The form "Halloween" derives from Hallowe'en, an old contraction, still retained in Scotland, of "All Hallow's Eve," so called as it is the day before the Catholic All Saints holy day, which used to be called "All Hallows," derived from All Hallowed Souls. In Ireland, the name was Hallow Eve and this name is still used by some older people. Halloween was formerly also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries (along with Christmas and Easter, two other traditional northern European pagan holidays) and given a Christian reinterpretation. Halloween is also known as the Day of the Dead, and it is a day of celebration for Wiccans and other modern pagan traditions, though the holiday has lost its religious connotations among the populace at large.

Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the pookah, a mischievous spirit.

In the United Kingdom in particular, the pagan Celts celebrated the Day of the Dead on Halloween. The spirits supposedly rose from the dead and, in order to attract them, food was left on the doors. To scare off the evil spirits, the Celts wore masks. When the Romans invaded Britain, they embellished the tradition with their own, which is the celebration of the harvest and honoring the dead. These traditions were then passed on to the United States.

Halloween is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the "liminal" times of the year when the spirit world can make contact with the natural world and when magic is most potent (see, for example, Catalan mythology about witches).

Anoka, Minnesota, USA, the self-proclaimed "Halloween Capital of the World," celebrates with a large civic parade.

Contents [hide]
1 Symbols
2 Trick-or-treating
3 Games
4 Foods
5 Cultural history
5.1 Celtic observation of Samhain
5.2 Norse Elven Blót
5.3 Halloween customs
5.4 "Punkie Night"
5.5 "Mischief Night"
6 Religious viewpoints
7 See also
8 External links
9 Further reading

Symbols

Jack-o'-lanterns may be carved with a funny face.Halloween's theme is spooky or scary things particularly involving death, black magic, or mythical monsters. Commonly-associated Halloween characters include ghosts, witches, bats, black cats, owls, goblins, zombies and demons, as well as certain fictional figures like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. Homes are often decorated with these symbols around Halloween.

Black and orange are the traditional colors of Halloween. There are also elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins and scarecrows, reflected in symbols of Halloween.

The jack-o'-lantern, a carved vegetable lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols. In Britain and Ireland, a turnip was and sometimes still is used, but immigrants to America quickly adopted the pumpkin because it is much larger and easier to carve. Many families that celebrate Halloween will carve a pumpkin into a scary or comical face and place it on the home's doorstep on Halloween night for fun. Traditionally, something like this was done in order to scare evil spirits away.

Trick-or-treating
The main event of Halloween is trick-or-treating, also known as guising in Scotland, in which children dress up in costume disguises and go door-to-door in their neighborhood, ringing the bell and yelling "trick or treat!" The occupants of the house (who might themselves dress in a scary costume) will then hand out small candies, miniature chocolate bars or other treats. Homes sometimes use sound effects and fog machines to help set a spooky mood. Other house decoration themes (that are less scary) are used to entertain younger visitors. Children can often accumulate many treats on Halloween night, filling up entire pillow cases or shopping bags.

In Scotland, children or guisers are likely to recite "The sky is blue, the grass is green, may we have our Halloween" instead of "trick or treat!", they will then have to impress the members of the houses they visit with a song, trick, joke or dance in order to earn their treats.

Tricks play less of a role in modern Halloween, though the night before Halloween is often marked by pranks such as soaping windows, egging houses or stringing toilet paper through trees. Before indoor plumbing was so widespread, tipping over or displacing outhouses was a popular form of trick.

Typical Halloween costumes have traditionally been monsters such as vampires, ghosts, witches, and devils. The stereotypical Halloween costume is a sheet with eyeholes cut in it as a ghost costume. In 19th-century Scotland and Ireland the reason for wearing such fearsome (and non-fearsome) costumes was the belief that since the spirits that were abroad that night were essentially intent on doing harm, the best way to avoid this was to fool the spirits into believing that you were one of them. In recent years, it has become common for costumes to be based on themes other than traditional horror, such as dressing up as a character from a TV show or movie. In 2001, after the September 11 attacks, for example, costumes of firefighters, police officers, and United States military personnel became popular among children. In 2004, an estimated 2.15 million children in the United States were expected to dress up as Spider Man, the year's most popular costume. [1]

A program started by UNICEF involves the distribution of small boxes by schools to trick-or-treaters, in which they can collect small change from the houses they visit for donation to the charity.

A child usually "grows out of" trick-or-treating by his or her teenage years. Teenagers and adults instead often celebrate Halloween with costume parties or other social get-togethers.

Games
There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. The most common is bobbing for apples, in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water; the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity which inevitably leads to a very sticky face.

Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination. In Púicíní (pronounced "pook-eeny"), a game played in Ireland, a blindfolded person is seated in front of a table on which are placed several saucers. The saucers are shuffled and the seated person then chooses one by touch. The contents of the saucer determine the person's life for the following year. A saucer containing earth means someone known to the player will die during the next year, a saucer containing water foretells travel, a coin means new wealth, a bean means poverty, etc. In 19th-century Ireland, young women placed slugs in saucers sprinkled with flour. The wriggling of the slugs and the patterns subsequently left behind on the saucers were believed to portray the faces of the women's future spouses.

In North America, unmarried women were frequently told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before they married, a skull would appear. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from the late nineteenth century.

Foods

Because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, candy apples (also known as toffee apples) are a common treat at Halloween. They are made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, and sometimes then rolling them in nuts. At one time candy apples were a common treat given to children, but this practice rapidly waned after widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples that they would pass out to children. The vast majority of the reported cases turned out to be hoaxes, and the few that were real caused only minor injuries, but many parents were under the assumption that the practice was common. At the peak of this hysteria, some hospitals were offering to x-ray children's Halloween haul at no cost in order to look for such items.

A Halloween custom which has survived unchanged to this day in Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish "báirín breac"). This is a light fruit cake into which a plain ring is placed before baking. It is said that whoever finds this ring will find his or her true love during the following year.

Other foods associated with the holiday:

candy corn
hot apple cider
roasted pumpkin seeds


Cultural history

Celtic observation of Samhain
In the Druidic religion of the ancient Celts, the new year began with the winter season of Samhain on November 1. Just as shorter days signified the start of the new year, sundown also meant the start of a new day; therefore the harvest festival began every year on the night of October 31. Druids in the British Isles would light fires and offer sacrifices of crops, animals and sometimes humans, and as they danced around the fires, the season of the sun would pass and the season of darkness would begin.

When the morning of November 1 arrived, the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take it home to start a new cooking fire. These fires were intended to keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits such as "Sidhe" (pronounced "shee," most notable of which are the beán sidhe or banshees), because at this time of year it was believed that the invisible "gates" between this world and the spirit world were opened and free movement between both worlds was possible.

Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. Villagers cast the bones of the slaughtered cattle upon the flames; the word "bonfire" is thought to derive from these "bone fires." With the bonfire ablaze, the villagers extinguished all other fires. Each family then solemnly lit their hearth from the common flame, thus bonding the families of the village together. Hundreds of fires are still lit each year in Ireland on Halloween night.

Neopagans still celebrate the sabbat of Samhain on Halloween, as well as also taking part in secular Halloween activities.

Norse Elven Blót
In the old Norse religion and its modern revival, Ásatrú, the day now known as Halloween was a blót which involved sacrifices to the elves and the blessing of food.

A poem from around 1020, the Austrfaravísur ('Eastern-journey verses') of Sigvatr Þorðarson, mentions that, as a Christian, he was refused board in a heathen household, in Sweden, because an álfablót ("elves' sacrifice") being conducted there. However, we have no further reliable information as to what an álfablót involved, but like other blóts it probably included the offering of foods, and later Scandinavian folklore retained a tradition of sacrificing treats to the elves. From the time of year (close to the autumnal equinox) and the elves' association with fertility and the ancestors, we might assume that it had to do with the ancestor cult and the life force of the family.

Halloween customs
Observance of Halloween faded in the South of England from the 17th century onwards, being replaced by the commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot on November 5. However it remained popular in Scotland, Ireland and the North of England. It is only in the last decade that it has become popular in the South of England again, although in an entirely Americanized version.

The custom survives most accurately in Ireland, where the last Monday of October is a public holiday. All schools close for the following week for mid-term, commonly called the Halloween Break. As a result Ireland is the only country where children never have school on Halloween and are therefore free to celebrate it in the ancient and time-honored fashion.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have evolved from the European custom called souling, similar to the wassailing customs associated with Yule. On November 2, All Souls' Day, beggars would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes" - square pieces of bread with currants. Christians would promise to say prayers on behalf of dead relatives helping the soul's passage to heaven. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits at the Samhain. See Puck (mythology).

In Celtic parts of western Brittany. Samhain is still heralded by the baking of kornigou. Kornigou are cakes baked in the shape of antlers to commemorate the god of winter shedding his "cuckold" horns as he returns to his kingdom in the Otherworld.

"Punkie Night"
"Punkie Night" is observed on the last Thursday in October in the village of Hinton St. George in the county of Somerset in England. On this night, children carry lanterns made from hollowed-out mangel-wurzels (a kind of beet; in modern days, pumpkins are used) with faces carved into them. They bring these around the village, collecting money and singing the punkie song. Punkie is derived from pumpkin or punk, meaning tinder.

Though the custom is only attested over the last century, and the mangel-wurzel itself was introduced into English agriculture in the late 18th century, "Punkie Night" appears to be much older even than the fable that now accounts for it. The story goes that the wives of Hinton St. George went looking for their wayward husbands at the fair held nearby at Chiselborough, the last Thursday in October, but first hollowed out mangel wurzels in order to make lanterns to light their way. The drunken husbands saw the eerie lights, thought they were "goolies" (the restless spirits of children who had died before they were baptized), and fled in terror. Children carry the punkies now. The event has spread since about 1960 to the neighboring village of Chiselborough.

Sources: on-line report from the Western Gazette and a National Geographic radio segment. Chiselborough Fair is memorialized by Fair Place in the village. The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) reported that there was "a fair for horses and cattle on the last Thursday in October."

"Mischief Night"
The night before Halloween, known in some areas as "Mischief Night" or "Devil's Night," is often associated with destructive activities performed by adolescents. Some of the acts range from minor vandalism to theft, or even violence. Many youths involved in mischief night would be considered too old for traditional trick-or-treating. The most common wrong-doing is trashing people's houses, lawns, and trees within property with tons of toilet paper.

A dialect survey begun in 1999 by Harvard University indicates that there are a number of terms for this particular day of the year, but that the vast majority (70.38%) have no special word for it.

Religious viewpoints
The majority of Christians ascribe no doctrinal significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular entity devoted to celebrating imaginary spooks and handing out candy. The secular celebration of Halloween may loom larger in contemporary imagination than does All Saints' Day.

The mingling of Christian and pagan traditions in the early centuries following the founding of the Christian Church have left many modern Christians uncertain of how they should react towards this holiday. Some fundamentalist Christian groups consider Halloween a Pagan holiday and may refer to it as "the most evil day of the year," refusing to allow their children to participate. Among these groups it is believed to have developed Satanic influences. In some areas, complaints from these fundamentalist Christians that the schools were endorsing a Pagan religion have led the schools to stop distributing UNICEF boxes.

Other Christians, however, continue to connect this holiday with All Saints Day. Some modern Christian churches commonly offer a "fall festival" or harvest-themed alternative to Halloween celebrations. Still other Christians hold the view that the holiday is not Satanic in origin or practice and that it holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children - being taught about death and mortality actually being a valuable life lesson.

Halloween Decorating Ideas & Haunted House Decorating

Here are some super idea books that can help you decorate your home or party
perfectly this year for Halloween! If you are looking to scare the beejebeez out of the neighborhood trick or treaters, here's a great place to start. Create your own super haunted house effect or just create a more halloween festive look for your home. These idea starters will sure to be helpful! I'll bet you didn't know Martha Stewart wrote a book on Halloween decorating!








Hocus Pocus: Halloween Crafts for a Spooktacular Holiday

Haunted House Halloween Handbook

This book seems targeted at someone that is planning to help build a medium scale haunted house for a charity event. It does this very well, describing the essence of what is scary and why, as well as all the steps required to create a safe and profitable haunted house on schedule. The author focuses on how to do first rate effects on a third rate budget though the use of innovation and imagination (and most importantly, his experience, which he shares with you). Most haunted houses are just stupid, because the designers build something that sounds like it would be scary, but does not really scare people. This author understands that people going to a haunted house want to be scared and he describes the essence of the subtle differences that transform an effect from eliciting a yawn to invoking a scream.

I have been building haunted scenes in my home for (gulp) thirty years and have produced medium scale haunted houses for charities, but I still learned a number of things from this book. The books includes plans, instructions, parts, and suppliers. The author (I learned after reading the book) builds �low� cost scary effects where are superior in scare and lowest in cost, of any I have seen. The book does not quite give enough specific information to build these for yourself, but it does cover a lot of other stuff. If you spend more then $150/year of scary stuff then you qualify as a Halloween nut and you should buy this book.

This book isn't for everyone. This is for true Halloween enthusiasts willing to spend tens of hours, days, or even months preparing for a scary event. If you want tips for making your home a hallmark Halloween showcase, this is not the book for you.

Very basic book that MAY be helpful to a home haunter, but if you serious about producing a haunted attraction, this book will be of little help to you. The book's drawings are simplistic and the description of props is somewhat vague, however, there are some basic technics that can utilized to create certain effects. The book's discussion of the finances of a haunted attraction is very limited and unimaginative. The use of actors to replace mechanical activation of effects is prominent in this book which leads me to believe that the authors financial skills are lacking( Labor cost & insurance are monumental hurdles in any haunted attraction). In general I would recommend that you save your money on this one, the internet provides most of information in the book "free for the asking".

E very year my friends and i do a haunted house in our friend's garage. We needed some new fresh ideas and this book helped greatly!! This book is easy to understand but makes it easy to have great professional looking haunted house ... even in your friend's garage :)

This book provides excellent information about operating a haunted attraction. It covers more than just effects. Planning, location, safety, advertising, and other important subjects are covered. The production value of the book is lower than I expected; that's why I only give it 4 out of 5 stars. The artwork is simple but adequate. However, the quality and amount of information makes this book well worth the price.

This book provides all necessary information for people interested in starting their own haunted house or their own haunted house party. The author has suceeded in offering a truly informative reference guide.

Give Them A Real Scare This Halloween

Book Description

This book is hysterical! This author is so talented...not only does he write the book (and the ideas are tremendous), but he also illustrated the whole thing (and the pictures are little black and white cartoons that make you laugh out loud!). I would recommend this book to not only Halloween fans like myself (and such great ideas inside this book if you love to have fun with scaring the wits out of the older kids...no small ones, could be a father waiting in the wings), but to people who want a good laugh and some great ideas.
Wonderful book - A+!

I was looking for ideas for scary decorations, which is not really what this book is about, although it is well written and the cartoon drawings are great.
If you're looking for scary tricks to perform, this book has Halloween gags which would be good for a family or group to do together, to scare Trick Or Treaters or haunted house guests.

But if you're planning a Halloween party, and you want to socialize and actually be part of the party, this is probably not the book for you. Most of the ideas in this book must be repeated every time someone new arrives. They require you to play an active role in the scare, either in costume or behind the scenes, and many require two people.

This book is fun to read and the illustrations are amazing! For practical purposes though, this is not the book you want if you need step-by-step instructions to decorate. This book merely gives examples and ideas and lets you use your imagination to do the rest. Also, some of the ideas are so crazy and involved that you would have to start the day after Halloween to get them done by next Halloween! This book is great for a laugh and is meant to be taken lightly. I recommend for anyone who loves Halloween and a good laugh; but, not to anyone who is looking for detailed instructions on decorating for Halloween.

what an awesome little book for halloween lovers everywhere.The illustrations are great and the book is very funny.I found an enourmous amount of great halloween ideas and useful information for everything halloween.the halloween supplier index in the back of the book is great.If you are really into halloween and need some great halloween ideas,you need to buy this book.You will never be sorry for the money spent.I have tons of new ideas now and am ready to put them into use this halloween season.This is a must have book for any halloween lovers!!

This book is ideal for home haunters or those producing a haunted fund raiser to collect ideas for developing the haunt. Written for the armature there are dozens of creative ideas to perform scares, decorate a room, party or front yard and ways to create special effects. The hundreds of humorous illustrations walk you through each idea. This book is an inexpensive way for any Halloween enthusiast to get started. It's worth the price of the book just to read for laughs.

This book is ideal for home haunters or those producing a haunted fund raiser to collect ideas for developing the haunt. Written for the armature there are dozens of creative ideas to perform scares, decorate a room, party or front yard and ways to create special effects. The hundreds of humorous illustrations walk you through each idea. This book is an inexpensive way for any Halloween enthusiast to get started. It's worth the price of the book just to read for laughs.

Like anything else in life, you often get what you pay for, and for the small amount of money you will have to shell out for this book, it is well worth the price. No, it will not provide hands-on diagrams on how to professionally and elaborately design your entire yard or house but that was obviously not the intent of this book. Pfeiffer's book is aimed at those who are into Hallowe'en decorating for the fun and enjoyment of it. There are some great suggestions here that can make Hallowe'en time, quality family time. The reader will find some very catchy ideas to stir up the spirits of all the little ghosts and goblins on Hallow'en.

The book contains everything from magic tricks and costumes to building a Halloween attraction and suggestions for your spooky party. The illustrations are quite good considering the cost of the book and there all kinds of tips and techniques among the pages to make your Hallowe'en a night to remember. Most children do not care how if your home or party is professionally designed; children are in it for the sheer fun (as Hallow'en was intended) and you are bound to find something here to please all your little creepy critters and fairy princesses (and Moms and Dads, too!)

This Halloween guide had plenty of neat projects for making your house scary for Halloween. I found that the instructions were pretty thorough, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for.

I'm a busy working mom. There's no way that I would be able to invest the time or the money in many of these projects. If you are a person who's really into Halloween, this book is for you. However, if you're like me, a very busy person who needs to put together a party for her kids but only has limited time, I'd recommend something like "101 Spooktacular Party Ideas" by Linda Sadler

I looked at several books on this subject and found this to be the one. Great price! It has everything that expensive books have. The book contains all the great Haunted House Tricks(Pepper's Ghost). Great illustrations! It explains how it is done and shows you how to do it. I found the book very easy to follow. In a land, where everyone from Knott's Berry Farm, Universal Studios, The Queen Mary, Non-Profit Organizations, back and front yard amateurs that have some kind of haunted house attraction; this is the book to help you compete.

Haunt Your House For Halloween: Decorating Tricks & Party Treats

Review

Being a Halloween aficionado, I find this book cute, and full of good for ideas for a mild Halloween, but "haunted" is not what I would call the decorations. I still can't understand why some of the pumpkins have jester hats. Personally, I would call this more fall country decor than anything, but very cute and good ideas all around.

I'm a serious Halloweenie. When I heard the title "Haunt Your House For Halloween: Decorating Tricks & Party Treats" the last thing I expected were cutsie country painted wood cutouts of pumkpin men (stacked 3 hight like snowmen), pigeon-looking blue crows, and BUNNIES with harlequin diamond painted ears. There were even oversided EGGS painted in yellow, orange, and white as if to be candy corn.

If you're a serious country crafter who wants to spend a lot of time cutting shapes out of pine with your jigsaw and then painting them, this book has great ideas for you. Personally, I found that a lot of the instructions were quite lengthy and involved, and required a lot of money spent on materials and tools.

I bought two Halloween books online this year in preparation for my 2nd annual haunted costume party. This one was a big disapointment for me. If you're looking for some really fantastic, easy, original and genuinely SPOOKY decorating and party ideas, try "Scary Scenes For Halloween" by Jill Williams Grover. I've left rave reviews for the wealth of amazing ideas I've gathered from her book.

This book has a lot of ideas for decorating your house. The majority of the items are "country" style wood cutouts. They are cute but not what I thought would be in a book that is called "Haunt you house for Halloween"! The directions are thorough and easy to follow. The book has a lot of photographs of the actual finishes projects as well. The ideas are probably good for houses with little children who may scare easy or for people who like the painted wood decorations.






Halloween Decorating (Arts & Crafts for Home Decorating Series)

Best book I have seen to make halloween decorations for your home and garden.The pictures will bring you right in the mood and you just can?t wait to get started on your crafts. This book is a "must have" on your bookshelf.

Halloween : The Best of Martha Stewart Living

Halloween books abound, but none is as elegantly spooky or as eerily opulent as this gorgeous guide from Martha Stewart Living. Set the scene for the ultimate Halloween party with a magical yard full of pumpkins glowing with vibrant geometrics and sparkling with Christmas lights. Welcome guests with shadow lanterns flickering with bats and haunted windows. Strew the house with chiffon ghosts and fill the air with haunting sounds. Then host a pumpkin-carving feast, a crafty party, or a ghoulish supper, and whip up eyeball highballs, croaked messieurs, and spider-web sundaes. And don't forget the creepy makeup: follow along as willing victims transform into a skeleton, mummy, and several other creatures (Martha herself becomes an astonishing black widow). Excellent directions, full recipes, beautiful photographs, and an extremely detailed source list should inspire anyone to celebrate All Hallows' Eve with style. --Amy Handy

Book Description
Halloween is rivaled only by Christmas when it comes to the holidays that generate the most interest for Martha Stewart Living’s readers. Halloween is a compendium of the best Halloween ideas published in the magazine over the last decade.

To help celebrate this ghoulish holiday, the editors of Martha Stewart Living bring us Halloween, a compilation of all the best tricks and treats of the spooky season.

Organized in two sections, Halloween makes this holiday so much fun it’s scary. In “Tricking,” pranksters will find all manner of pumpkin carving, eerie lighting, and makeup and decorating ideas. “Treating” provides the recipes for having a Halloween feast or a hanted-house party and ideas for making mischief with kids.

Reviews

Being a HUGE Halloween fan, I would have never thought that Martha could have any good ideas for Halloween decorating. Her decorating ideas are always so cute and cheerful, right?
How wrong I was! This book has wonderfully dark and gothic decorations that really capture the essence and magic of Halloween. Even the ideas for the kids are tasteful, without being overly cutesy.

Add to this great ideas for seasonal food (who knew you could use pumpkin in so many different ways), excellent costume ideas, and party ideas, and you have a great 'grown-up' Halloween decorating guide!

And for those reviewers here who complained that the book was only a collection of Martha's previous magazine articles: The title is "Halloween: The Best of Martha Stewart Living". The "Best of" title should have clued you in that this was not brand new material. I'm sure the audience for the book was people like me, who have never picked up Martha's magazine before. I know I buy every Halloween issue now, as well as other seasonal issues.

Here it is, the best of Martha Stewart Living Hallowe'en content through 2001! Everything is here, packaged so efficiently and beautifully that even die-hard Martha Mag collectors will want it. There are great crafts, recipes, and costume projects, but the real fun of this book is in simply looking through the pictures and informational bits.
Everything is so clever, and presented so creatively! Put it on your coffee table!

HALLOWEEN from The Best of Martha Stewart Living is a dazzling book filled with terrific ideas for Alls Hallow Eve.

First of all, the photography is beautiful. Just a leisurely look through the book and without reading anything, you can get plenty of decorating ideas. The various ways of carving pumpkins into traditional jack o' lanterns, celestial pumpkins, or even a chandelier is enlightening. No pun intended! The instructions are given for all of the decorative ways to carve the scrumptious gourds.

The chapter called Trading Faces has several different makeup applications; including those for a witch, a skeleton, a mummy, a cat and a vampire. The chapter on Haunting a House has lots of ways to make the house scary. A unique idea was to make the silhouette of someone standing on the stairs. Very effective! The Crafty Party chapter has ways to decorate everything in the house. There are ideas for table decorations, masks, and party favors.

Wickedly Good Menus is, of course, the chapter on food. There are about 20 recipes included. The following recipes sound especially bewitching: White Bean & Sausage Stew in Pumpkin Shells, The Devil's Salsa. and The Great Pumpkin Cake. For years, Susan, my sister, has been using the recipe to make the Ladies' Fingers. They are simply to die for! Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a great time of year. I just discovered this book and I was really surprised. It was by Martha Stewart no less! This is not your run of the mill book! The ideas are fantastic and go beyond anything I ever imagined. This is not ordinary stuff here. There are ideas for the house and yard, food and candy and way out ways to make yourself up for the evening. This is a quality publication. There is still time to order!

A Halloween How-To: Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destinations
by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne

Review:

Last fall, I checked this book out of the library looking for ideas for our annual Halloween bash and to decorate our yard. The book not only has a great wealth of ideas and tips, but also historical and sociological information on the holiday. This is one of the few books that I have found more geared towards adults wishing to celebrate the holiday. Most of what is out there leans towards the juvenile side of Halloween festivites.

I agree with past reviewers' main gripes about lack of graphics. The book doesn't need to have glossy coffee table book-type spreads, but it is seriously lacking in useful illustrations

This is a great book with many decorating ideas and references. This is the best book I found on the market. I applied a few of the ideas to my decorations last year and had a few children afraid to approach the door (though that was not my intent, nothing truly gory last year). Highly recommended!

If you are looking for a Halloween how to book for grownups, this is it. It is full of magnificent ideas for everything from parties to yard haunting. I love Halloween and I have many Halloween books. This one is the one I use the most. I especially loved the life-sized Grim Reaper. I made it for my yard haunt last year and received more compliments on it than anything else. I highly recommend this book.

Since so many other reviewers give a good overview of the book, let me tell you what I found unique and helpful about this book. The best section of this book tells you how to hold a themed adult Halloween party. It covers everything from the invitations (really cool invitations, with relevant literary quotes), to the decorations, music, and costumes. There are many themes listed. I have never seen this in any of the Halloween books I have bought. This chapter alone makes it worth the price.Full-disclosure: My tombstone-making instructions are featured in the book. But I don't get a cut of the profits, just the recognition (Thanks for the mention Lesley!)

The Halloween Book (Hardcover) - by Jane Bull

Review:

The Halloween Book is a veritable gold mine of creepy crafts to make Halloween the most spine-tingling night of the year. Unearthly decorations ("Silhouette Windows," "Flickering Faces," "Jeering Jars"), exquisitely eerie dress-up ideas ("Fearsome Features," "Creepy Costumes,"), and delectably ghastly goodies ("Buckets of Treats," "Beastly Buffet," "Hanging Horrors," "Cauldron Cocktails," "Spooky Potions") will provide days of creative fun leading up to the haunted holiday. The perfect resource for a Halloween party, with DK's superb photos and clever activities, games, and recipes, this volume is a steep step above the standard craft book. So pour yourself a mug o' vampire broth or hot chocolate bones, dig into some sausage fingers, and get started on your screaming streamers and menacing masks. (Ages 6 to 11) --Emilie Coulter

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-5-This is the "Martha Stewart" book of craft, costume, food, and party ideas for the ultimate Halloween experience. It shows how to carve a pumpkin, make hanging glass-jar lights, spooky window cutouts, and decorated flashlights. There are descriptions and photos of additions to fairy, pirate, witch, vampire, and ghost costumes, with elaborate face painting and perfectly cut-out, acrylic-painted, paper-plate masks. There are directions for a paper-m ch pumpkin and a cr pe-paper-decorated sand bucket for holding treats. Refreshments include sausage fingers, "bread roll monsters," gorgeous-looking creepy cupcakes, and "cauldron cocktails." Finally, there are instructions for a shadow theatre and other traditional party games. The photographs are stunning, but all of the projects look like they were made by adults or particularly handy, older children. One hopes that youngsters will not be disappointed when their creations don't look quite so perfect.
Cathie Reed, The Montessori School, Lutherville, MD

This is a fun book aimed at the younger set filled with a nice sprinkling of Halloween costumes, recipes, crafts, and party ideas. The ideas are by no means original, but as a mom and Halloween-freak , I found this book to be a good inspiration to cooking up your own ideas. (The monster sandwiches are priceless! )The photos are lovely, the printed varnished pages crisp and bright -- I can practically smell the pumpkin pie when I crack it open.

Halloween Parties

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.


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 plenty more Halloween ideas.

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

Halloween Pumpkins & Parties : 101 Spooktacular Ideas (Paperback)

Half of this book features Halloween celebrations and entertaining, while the rest highlights creativity with pumpkins.

Review: All-new ideas for both crafters and noncrafters.
One-of-a-kind Halloween how-to with detailed instructions, patterns, and recipes.
Third in a series of highly successful Halloween books

Halloween Fun : 101 Ideas to get in the spirit (Better Homes & Gardens

Master everything from festive decorations and costumes to yummy recipes for little goblins with 101 ideas to get in the spirit with Halloween Fun, published by Better Homes and Gardens.








Family Fun Tricks and Treats

Halloween is a time of transformation and not for just humans who don the face paint and masks!

Reviews

There are a number of Halloween books out on the market for decorating, baking and costume making, but this is one of the few that actually has something new in it!

The crafts are clever, but actually look doable wtih things you might already have on hand. The costumes ideas are fun and innovative, the food ideas are also really cute, but not overly-complicated. While some classic ideas never die, this book puts a nice twist on things like "body parts" games.

Of course, the ideas come from the monthly magazine that Disney produces, Family Fun, and if you get the magazine, you'll have already seen alot of these things in print or on their website. Still, the book is nicely layed-out, easy to flip through and a good resource of party and costume ideas for both kids and their grown-ups.

Review: This book is an awesome resource for make-at-home costumes and decorations. The ideas are so cute, easy to follow, and where else can you find a recipe for slime?

Review: This was great!
My daughter & I love Halloween and when we saw this we bought it right away. There are so many wonderful ideas. A must have! There were a lot of spooky things to do with foods and great little ideas for those little helpers to decorate your home with lots of memories! You have to get this one!






Halloween School Parties: What Do I Do?

Midwest Book Review
Wilhelmina Ripple's Halloween School Parties: What Do I Do? (charmingly illustrated throughout by Heather Anderson) is a parent or teacher "how-to" manual for putting on safe and fun Halloween parties for children of all ages. Halloween School Parties features eight themes, sixty games, fifty-five crafts/favors; forty-nine treats, eight drinks, eight parent costumes, twenty-two educational facts, more than fifty helpful hints, fifty-two interviews from children and adults, two hundred twenty-five illustrations, a chapter on "what, why and how"; and an index for ease of use. Halloween School Parties is, quite simply stated, the best Halloween party book ever published and a must for school and community libraries everywhere.

Review
Another Mom in my son's classroom lent me this book as I was giving my 6-year old a Halloween themed birthday party. I made the popcorn hands treat which was a HUGE hit. It's a good thing I made extra as I saw parents munching away. Not one was left after the party. We also played the Wrap the Mummy game and the parents loved it as much as the kids. I'm a Room Mom for two classrooms this year. We'll be having a classroom Halloween party and again, I'll be making the popcorn hands and this time I'll put black and orange M&M's in the fingers to try. One Mom loved the Mummy Wrap game so much she will be hosting it at our classroom party. This was such a useful and resourceful book that I have ordered all her books to help me out this year!

Review
A wonderful book and many ideas to use for Halloween Paries, not just at school. The craft ideas are so cute and adaptable for any age. We have used these ideas at church parties. The What, Why, and How of Room Parenting chapert is useful for any entertaining event. Suggestion: Purchase a complete set.

Review
This Book it exactly what I have been looking for. A complete party how to book, from Bat Volleyball to Witch's Bubbling Brew.
I run a Day Care and to find activities for each age group is "pricless".

Review
This is a wonderful series of party books-perfect for classroom-size groups of all elementary ages. A couple of years ago I had 2 weeks to pull my 3rd grader's class party together after the room parent had moved. I planned the entire party out of this book. The kids had a great time! It was such a great help that our PTO bought multiple sets of the series as references for our Party Parents!

Review
This is a fabulous book! Every page is packed with great ideas on games or snacks or crafts or costumes! It is very detailed in all aspects. I can honestly say that each page has something I will use in the future for my Brownie Troop (I'm going to have to make these parties very long because I want to use every single idea). Wilhelmina Ripple has provided a very useful and fun book!

Review
I bought this book to get ideas for the large Halloween party we throw every year. This book is strictly sighted at school parties, including classroom crafts and games designed for a school setting. Since so many schools don't even allow "Halloween" to be mentioned (my kids have attended two schools that dictate "Harvest" themes) this book is of little use to me.








101 Spooktacular Party Ideas

Planning a Halloween party has never been easier! Whether you are having a few neighborhood children over, or are throwing a huge Halloween bash, 101 Spooktacular Party Ideas will help you plan an unforgettable Halloween party.
It is filled with ideas that will help you haunt your house with boo-tiful decorations, serve sinisterly delectable treats, play bone chilling games and make fiendishly fun crafts and party favors.

101 Spooktacular Party Ideas features 9 outdoor decorations, 10 indoor decorations, 10 quick and easy treats, 15 make ahead treats, 10 beverage ideas, 22 relay and active games, 11 quiet games, 14 craft and party favors, and more!

For easy reference, each food and craft idea includes a picture. Most of the decoration ideas also have pictures. Each idea has a supply list that tells the reader what materials are needed to complete the activity. Most of the materials are inexpensive and easy to find. Each party idea includes easy to follow instructions that will guide the reader step-by-step through each activity. Now it is easy to put on an unforgettable Halloween party.

About the Author
Linda Sadler has always enjoyed throwing Halloween parties and sharing her ideas with other people. As the mother of two boys, ages 12 and 15, she has over 10 years of experience planning school parties. She has also thrown Halloween parties at her home for over 15 years. The idea to write this book came from her constant struggles to find new decoration, craft, game and treat ideas for her parties. Her goal is to make planning a Halloween party easy, so she has written this book with easy to follow step-by-step instruction. Anyone, even those who are not crafty or creative, can follow the directions and make fun decorations, treats and party favors.


Halloween Recipes

Here are some ideas that can help you cook up some delicious Halloween food and treats for this year's Halloween celebrations!

Creepy Cuisine - Revolting Halloween Recipes that look Disgusting but Taste Divine

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.

Halloween Recipes and Crafts

Outdoor Décor is the first section and provides a number of projects that were new to me. One of the most interesting was the freshly dug graves project where you turn everyday plastic garbage bags and a little bit of dirt or soil, to create the look of a freshly dug grave on for your front lawn. Accent it with a Styrofoam tombstone (which you can also make very inexpensively) some leaves, maybe a fake hand rising out of the dirt, for a truly terrifying display.

Another outdoor project utilizes old tin cans, such as soup or even coffee cans. Painted pumpkin orange, simply punch a series of holes in the can with an awl or screwdriver to make a face. Place a candle inside the can and hang outside for a brilliant Halloween lantern. There's also dangling skeletons that can be made with old gallon milk jugs and a scary Halloween ghost flag that can be made for a few dollars.

Moving inside, there are more great projects. Utilize those, unused Halloween masks by simply stuffing them and hanging them inside...or outside...as recently severed heads. One of my favorite projects is the shrunken heads made out of apples. Simply peel an apple and apply a solution of lemon juice and salt to prevent browning. Carve out the apple in the shape of a face and let dry for a couple of weeks. You can even use marker or paint to further accent these ghastly little decorations. The highlight for me was a miniature graveyard scene made with a simple sheet of Styrofoam, some Spanish moss, twigs, little stones, and smaller pieces of Styrofoam to make tiny tombstones.

The recipes section has all sorts of Halloween themed ideas like deviled egg eye balls or lady fingers made from a half of a hot dog with a red pepper finger nail applied with a bit of cream cheese. Add raisins to ice cubes for drinks or punch to give the appearance of bugs. A great idea for adults is to take the traditional bread bowl spinach dip and cut the bread bowl into a jack-o-lantern face. It would make a great centerpiece for an office party.

If you're hosting a party for your children and their friends there's a great chapter featuring a wide display of games like "Pin the Mouth on the Pumpkin", "Encase the Mummy", "Apple Grab" and more that will keep the kids busy and having fun. The book closes with some tips on costume selection and makeup.

The projects in this book are great looking yet very simple and inexpensive to make. The projects all have a supply list and are described in step-by-step fashion. Chances are you'll find that you have a lot of the items you need already in your home. The book is printed on glossy paper and is lavishly illustrated with dozens of photographs throughout. A real ghoul's treat of fun and great looking projects.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Halloween Treats

Book Description

Amazon.com
Cocoa Cobweb Cupcakes, Black Cat Cookies, and Stained-Glass Spooks are just a few of the spirited tastes you'll encounter in Donata Maggipinto's delightful Halloween Treats. But it's not just recipes--you and your favorite little goblin will love creating spooky craft projects such as Candy Cauldrons, Leaf Lanterns, and Paper Bag Pumpkins together in anticipation of All Hallows' Eve. Maggipinto includes craft ideas for "Pixies" (children 4-8 years old) as well as older children, and nearly every recipe includes a safe task for younger helpers. (For example, while mom or dad should heat the milk for hot cocoa, kids can roll and stamp out marshmallow ghosts as accompaniment.) A few of the craft ideas will require a trip to the art supply store (such as lampshade paper for the very nifty flashlight lanterns), but Maggipinto leaves plenty of room for the magical combination of imagination and found objects. Her great "fanciful masks" are dime-store masks decorated with autumn leaves, candy wrappers, feathers, or anything else you might have at hand.
Maggipinto believes that Halloween festivities should last for at least a week; you'll find enough project instructions and recipes here for a month of Halloween fun. Grownups will love her Halloween dinner party menu (with Pumpkin Crackle Custard for dessert!) and kids can help by making corn kernel napkin rings and three-tiered pumpkin centerpieces. If you're looking for costume ideas, you won't find them here--the book is focused firmly on kitchen and decoration fun--but the beautifully illustrated Halloween Treats is a wonderful treasure trove of tricks and treats that every family will enjoy working on together. --Rebecca A. Staffel

Ghost Witches Join Party Menu "Don't reserve your Halloween cookie cutters just for cookies. Consider these boo-tiful ideas from 'Halloween Treats', by Donata Maggipinto:

Flatten large marshmallows with a rolling pin, then use mini cutters to make a ghoulish garnish for hot cocoa.

Make 'ghost-wiches' by cutting sandwich bread or lunch meats (or both) with the cookie cutters; a pastry tip to poke eyes and mouth into the bread.

And here's a tip from Good Eating: If you're determined to think sweet, you can also use those cookie cutters for devilish brownies and cakes. Either cut the cakes into scary shapes, or use the cookie cutters as stencils to make designs - with frosting or colored sugar on top of the icing."

Book Description
These days, Halloween is the most popular holiday next to Christmas. At its heart are family and friends having fun together--which is what this book is all about. In this cornucopia of creative Halloween ideas, simple crafts, tasty treats, and ghoulish good times abound. From delicious "one cauldron" dinners such as creamy pumpkin soup to luscious devil's food cake and black cat cookies, here are recipes ideal for entertaining adults and children alike, both in the kitchen and at the table. And then there are the crafts. Kid-friendly projects such as trick-or-treat bags, spooky lanterns, and tissue ghosts, and easy ideas for beautiful centerpieces, place mats, and name cards keep everyone from the tots on up busy and happy. Filled with clever projects and delicious snacks, and illustrated throughout with colorful photographs, Halloween Treats will keep the whole family (and friends of all ages) entertained. Happy Halloween!

About the Author
Donatela Maggipinto is the entertaining director at Williams-Sonoma and a regular on NBC's Today Show. She recently completed a series of cooking programs for the Television Food Network. She lives in Marin County, California.

Richard Jung is a San Francisco-based food and travel photographer whose previous books include Balsamico.





My Very Own Halloween: A Book of Cooking and Crafts
My Very Own Halloween is a great book for children to use to create treats to eat, as well as crafts to decorate for the occasion. Each food/craft has a list of the items required to create it. Then it shows a numbered list of descriptive steps to follow. There's a photograph of every creation and suggested menus combining the creations.