"Don’t be shy. Don’t be afraid. Come on in. Granny doesn’t bite. See, Granny has hardly any teeth left. I couldn’t bite if I wanted to.Are you nervous because it’s All Hallows’ Eve? This is a spooky night. The dead walk, witches convene, a door opens between the world of the seen and the world of the unseen.And sometimes that door lets all sorts of evil onto the earth.No, no, don’t leave. I’m just telling stories. Silly old granny that I am. The night is cold and dark, and you’ve walked so far to get here, and I just want to help you."
All Hallow's Eve by Vivian Vande Velde is a collection of scary stories that all take place on Halloween. Specifically written for young adults, each story takes on a horror of its own. It is a collection that uses the mystery, fantasy, and magic of Halloween to create suspenseful and frightening stories.
Vivian tells horrifying stories of best friends who stick together no matter what, of terrifying goblins, ghosts, and ghouls who are determined to fulfill their quest, and obviously of witches who dance in the moonlight, the walking dead, and vampires that feed on those who dare traverse the night.
On Vivian's website you can read an interview explaining how she was able to come up with real-life and frightening characters. on her website, she even gives advice to future and current writers.
All Hallow's Eve is an excellent collection of stories for boys and girls, in middle school and high school, who are interested in reading scary and horrifying stories of the undead and unimaginable.
The collection of stories was is an excellent way to entertain students, while intriging them as they use their background knowledge. With experience about every possible superstition, every student has something to say. Vivian's style of writing while intriguing the reader at the same time, makes this book a number one seller.
Just In!!!! All Hallow's Eve was just voted number 6 in the Teen's Top 10 Selection Awards
9 comments:
I love your Granny hook.
I was a little bit confused when you switched from "Granny" to "I," though. Maybe you find a better place.
I also like how you talk about the book without giving away too much.
Revise the look of your paragraphs. Do you want to have these gaps between them? Do you want to start so low?
Hi Jonathan! Nice review--I just went in and cleaned up your text to make the paragraph spacing easier to read.
In the process, I lost the italics on the quote from the book. I am working on my Mac, which won't let me insert italics for some reason, so I will have to wait until tomorrow when I am on my windows machine to re-insert the italics.
This is definitely on my must read list for the future--thanks!
Tom
"Vivian tells horrifying stories of best friends who stick together no matter, of terrifying goblins, ghosts, and ghouls who are determined to fulfill their quest, and obviously of witches who dance in the moonlight, the walking dead, and vampires that feed on those who dare traverse the night. "- this sentence/paragraph doesnt make sense. "who stick together no matter of..."
i might have liked to see a LITTLE bit more on what the stories were about. you just mentioned characters to expect in the book.
Maybe if you do a boooktalk on this book you can say a little bit more on what the stories are about without giving them away too much, i think it can be done.
Loved your review- your enthusiasm made me want to start reading it right away. I am glad you mentioned that girls will enjoy this too. I have alawys enjoyed monsters and things that go bump in the night-not gore, but suspenseful! I like to the short stories- great for reluctant readers as well as moms who have kids that wake up when you just getting to the good part.Ha!
Hi, Jonathan.
Love the hook! Love scary books, too. I will definitely put this on my list of reads. I'm glad you didn't give too much detail/information about the different stories inside. The hook, for me, tells all I need to know. You've left me in suspense.
Amanda pointed out that one of your sentences/paragraphs didn't make sense "(Vivian tells horrifying stories of best friends who stick together no matter what...")I think the idea makes sense but it does need to be broken up. Right now, you have one paragraph with one sentence. So it's reading as a run on. Break up the ideas. It'll help with the flow.
Jonathan I also wanted to know a little bit more about the stories because I'm not a fan of horror stories and "Goosebumps". So I wanted something that would catch my and young adults interest from the stories. Maybe you could cut the part about the author's website because that's what the hyperlink is there for so that whole paragraph seems unnecessary.
This was one of the books I had selected to read. I enjoy reading short selections to students.
I viewed your video; the background and the way you entered seem to set the tone for the book.
I think that teens love horror stories and this book having thirteen stories within the text
will certainly appeal to even
reluctant readers.
Hi Jonathan--i love this booktalk, too. My only suggestion is one that i received early on in the process of constructing my own booktalks; that is, i think you could have cut this after about 1 minute in length. your beginning was terrific--it really got my attention, set the mood, as may said. perhaps just saying 1-5 sentences about the content of the book "it's got vampires, werewolves, etc......" would be enough to entice me and other to read.
in any event--nice job!
tp
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