Denise Brennan-Nelson - J Is for Jack-O-Lantern: A Halloween Alphabet

A Halloween Alphabet.

This A to Z adventure is filled with treatsfrom haunted houses and corn mazes to donuts on a string and deviled eyeballs. Discover how carving pumpkins, dressing up in costumes, and trick-or-treating originated. Learn a few tricks to help your jack-o-lantern last longer and find new treats for your next Halloween party, including a tasty witchs brew.

Award-winning author Denise Brennan-Nelson combines clever rhymes, perfect for reading aloud, with entertaining, informative sidebar text perfect for older, curious minds.

N is for Nighttime
Nighttime brings spooky sounds.
Shadows darting all around.
Coyotes sing an eerie tune
as witches fly around the moon.

Illustrator Donald Wu mixes just enough fun with fright to provide the perfect visuals of the trick-ortreaters, ghosts and goblins, and of course the witches in the moonlight.

A Halloween Alphabet

Written by Denise Brennan-Nelson and Illustrated by Donald Wu

To Becca Boo. I love you.

DENISE

For Robert

DONALD

In Autumn the days become shorter and the nights cooler. It is the season when most crops are harvested, deciduous trees lose their leaves, and birds and butterflies migrate to warmer climates.

The first day of autumn is known as the autumnal equinox, which occurs when the position of the sun makes the length of day and night equal for all parts of the world. In addition to the many changes, autumn brings us Halloween.

It is easy to fall into autumns splendor. Every year Mother Nature paints the autumn landscape with her fiery show of colors. Tourists that flock to see autumns spectacular show are called leaf peepers.

Did you know leaves are really orange, red, yellow, and brown all year long? We cant see these colors because the green pigment chlorophyll dominates during the growing season. Toward the end of summer as the trees begin to go dormant, the chlorophyll begins to weaken and the other pigments become more visible.

A is for Autumn

A is for autumnblazing colors so bright.

Cider mills, pumpkins, and Halloween night.

There are many symbols associated with Halloween. Images of bad omens such as black cats, bats, and broomsticks are commonly used to create the magic of the season.

It wouldnt be Halloween without bats hanging around. They have a bad reputation despite the fact theyre harmless and help keep the mosquito population down.

Most bats eat fruit and insects but there is such a thing as a vampire bat. It is the only mammal that feeds on blood. It lives in Central and South America and needs about one tablespoon of blood a day to survive. It uses its sharp incisor teeth to cut holes in its victims, usually cattle, and then sucks the blood.

During the Middle Ages it was believed that witches could turn themselves into black cats. In the United States and European countries it is thought to be bad luck if a black cat crosses your path but in Japan and the United Kingdom it is thought to be good luck.

B is for Boo

B is for boo, bones, and bat.

Dont forget broomstick, brew, and black cat.

Wearing costumes is a Halloween tradition that goes back to the Celts, a group of people who lived in Ireland, Britain, and northern France.

They held a festival called Samhain (summers end) to celebrate the end of harvest and the beginning of their new year. Their new year started on November 1st, so they celebrated the night before, which is October 31st.

The Celts believed that the souls of the dead came back this night to roam the Earth. They began wearing masks and blackening their faces with soot during the festival to frighten the evil spirits away. They also carved turnips and gourds and lit them with glowing coals.

As time went on, people began to dress up and perform antics to get food and drink. This was called mumming and may be how trick-or-treating evolved.

It wasnt until the 1950s that costumes were mass-produced and sold in stores.

C is for Costume

Store-bought or homemade.

Simple, sweet, or jazzy.

Pirates, robots, ghosts dressed up really snazzy.

Halloween games are so much fun.

Heres a simple yummy one:

Bobbing for Donuts Game Youll Need:

String

Donuts with holes

Somewhere to hang the donuts; tree, broomstick handle, clothesline.

How to play:

Gently tie a string onto the donut. Hang the donut by the string. Players then take turns holding their hands behind their backs while trying to bite the hanging donut. Each player gets his or her own donut.

To make it more difficult and fun, try blindfolding players first.

D is also for doorbell, disguise, delicious, delightful, dreadful, and decorations. What other Halloween words can you think of that start with the letter D?

D is for Donuts on a string

Dangle donuts from a string and cover each players eyes.

Now be the first to finish and win a kooky prize.

An eye may be small but it does a big job! Eyes are complex and efficient organs with many parts to them. Some supply tears, while others protect the eye from injury. These and other parts work together to provide us with our invaluable sense of sight. Did you know the fastest moving muscle in the human body is the one that opens and closes the eyelid?

Make this easy, edible, eyeball recipe for your next Halloween party and hear your friends go EEK!

Deviled egg eyeballs Ingredients:

1 dozen hardboiled eggs, peeled Mayonnaise

24 green olives with pimentos Pinch of dry yellow mustard Salt to taste

Toothpicks

Red food coloring (paste works best)

Directions:

Cut the eggs in half lengthwise. Scoop out the yolks into a bowl. Set whites aside. Mash egg yolks with fork. Mix in mayonnaise, mustard, and salt. Stir well. Place 1 teaspoon of mixture in each half of egg whites.

Push a green olive into the center of the egg yolk mixture, making sure the red pimento is looking out.

Dip toothpick in red food coloring and make red veins in the yolk mixture. Enjoy!

E is also for eek, eerie, evil, and enticing.

E