It's Halloween night, and creatures and critters from near and far are starting to gather outside the front door. And now here comes a whole army of monsters, on broomsticks, buses, and bikes, all clamoring in the darkness. What is it they want? Are they coming for you?

"Funny facts and information about Halloween, for kids"--

A wide-ranging, illustrated look at the history of Halloween illuminates the holiday from ancient Celtic ritual to billion-dollar industry. 32 halftones & line illustrations.

"A sophisticated yet playful celebration of all things macabre, morbid and marvelous . . . Bannatyne makes a great case for celebrating Halloween everyday, all year long. . . . It's an energetic, thorough and breathless salute to everyone's favorite horror holiday." -Chris Alexander, editor in chief, Fangoria magazine "No one else has delved so deeply-and lovingly-into the mysteries of Halloween." -Dr. Jeanne Keyes Youngson, president and founder, the Vampire Empire It took two years of investigative work for Halloween authority Lesley Pratt Bannatyne to add a fifth book to her collection. Traveling across the country, she visited and talked with fanatics and fang makers, professional haunters, registered mediums, psychologists, and Halloween enthusiasts ranging from NPR's Garrison Keillor to Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger and The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror" writer Mike Reiss to find out what the increasingly popular holiday means to people and how they celebrate it. Through the course of her research, Bannatyne attended a seance for Houdini, a Samhain ritual gathering, a World Zombie Day event, and the Haunted Attraction National Tradeshow and Convention (HAuNTcon). Diving right into the heart of how fear turned into a form of entertainment, she asks hard-hitting questions: What kind of community does twenty-first-century Halloween create? Why are we so afraid of dead bodies? In the battle between Christmas and Halloween fought by Zombie Clauses, who deserves to win?

Original, entertaining mix of personal anecdotes and social analysis examines America's perplexingly popular holiday, tracing the tradition's evolution from its dark Celtic history to its emergence as a mammoth marketing event.

The story of the ""Skeeter Hill Rascals"" tells about a group of boys led by Willie Wince to embark on a journey inspired by their desire to play organized ball together. The boys have never played a single out in organized baseball. Within the story are obstacles the boys must face beginning with devising a plan to get onto a Skeeter Hill baseball team. After devising a plan Willie maps out what the boys must do next, execution. Much can be said about inspiration and pursuing one's dream as the story illustrates. The fabulous five from Skeeter Hill show us with the help of a charismatic coach. Coach Swat volunteers to develop the boys into skilled baseball players. The boys develop into skilled baseball players but need an edge to beat the team that is devious and does not play by the rules. The two team begin the season on a collision course with the leaders on each team bitter rivals off the field.

Horror films come in a wide variety of styles and subject matter. Three of the most intimate explorations of terror are examined in this study. Intimate in terms of settings (small towns and an isolated motel) and in the emotional links between the characters and the terrors they face. In Psycho, Norman Bates is a darker reflection of his victim Marion Crane and her lover Sam Loomis. They share frustrations, fears and compulsions, albeit at different levels of intensity. In The Birds, Melanie Daniels and her new acquaintances in Bodega Bay share emotional problems which can impel them to act in destructive ways that are echoed, and then overwhelmed by violence from the natural world. Halloween features a monster, Michael Myers, who has more in common with one of his victims, heroine Laurie Strode, than is evident at first glance. Beyond the link between normality and the violently aberrant, all three films give glimpses of emotional intimacy that is threatened and sometimes tragically destroyed by horror.