#ReadItMD13 Theme Week - "This Is Halloween, Everybody SCREAM!"

Welcome Ghouls and Boys to our #ReadItMD13 Theme Week celebrating all things spooky, scary and dark. It's Halloween on Thursday - and as you answer the door 20 times in one night to lots of little spooky chiddlers demanding "Trick or Treat", there's a ton of brilliant booky goodness to delve into as you tuck your little monsters tightly beneath the bedcovers once the excitement dies down. 

We're starting off with a book that we were in two minds about at first. "Darkness Slipped In" by Ella Burfoot is truly a book that will divide opinion, and definitely not a book to read at bedtime if your little ones haven't progressed past needing a night light. A young girl is scared of the dark, and with good reason because at first "Darkness" is a mischievous and playful scamp, who you're never really sure you can trust or turn your back on. But soon the girl confronts her fears, after all "Darkness" is pretty harmless really. 

Sticking with darkness for a moment or two...talk about a killer combination of author and artist, phew!

"The Dark" by Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen is utterly, utterly fabulous. With a similar theme to "Darkness Slipped in", "The Dark" features an adorable little lad, Laszlo, who knows all about the dark. The Dark lives in the basement, but sometimes it creeps behind the shower, or in spaces throughout Laszlo's massive (and quite spooky) house. One night The Dark steals into Laszlo's room but he's brave and bold, and follows The Dark down to the cellar to find out what it wants...

When this book first arrived (resplendent in a big black box and the most fabulous shipping envelope) we instantly fell in love with the tale, it became a book of the week, and we still just can't get enough of it. If ever there was a dynamic duo in children's books we'd love to see work together again, it's Snicket and Klassen!

Time for a rumpus, methinks!

"Spookyrumpus" by Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees tells us what all the ghoulies, ghosties, skeletons and monsters get up to once we're all safely tuck up in bed. A grand rumpus begins, a party to end all parties - loud enough to raise the dead, in fact! Whoooh!

...and in a similar vein, let's have a few more monsters having a high old time...

"Tamara Small and the Monsters' Ball" hit our doormat, courtesy of the absolutely smashing Giles Paley Phillips. His second monstery book (Who could possibly forget the brilliance of "The Fearsome Beastie" which also deserves an honourable mention in anyone's Halloween list) had all the essence of spookiness about it as young Tamara is unceremoniously taken away from her warm comfortable bed by a dribbling drooling monster. No evil intent though, the monster takes her to the annual event no monster could possibly miss. The Monsters' Ball! Brilliant rhymes, inventive monsters and possibly the world's coolest cake (which we STILL haven't quite managed to emulate in our bake-offs at home yet. We'll keep trying!)

More to come from us with all things monstery, ghostly, ghoulish, scary and dark as we explore more brilliant halloween classics very soon. We're going witchy next so if you have a favourite witch-based book, drop a comment below!