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Pleasurably scary books for kids at Halloween

What are we to make of a holiday dedicated to good scares in a time of distress and fear? There’s no doubt that Halloween 2020 will be an odd holiday and that even the innocent joys of ghoulish costumes and sugar overload feel strange this year. Nevertheless, there are some wonderful books to read over a basketful of candy, with just a hint of pleasant spookiness.

National Geographic Kids has come out with another in its popular Weird But True! series that delivers plenty of easy-to-enjoy facts about the holiday. Reading “Weird But True! Halloween” (by Julie Beer and Michelle Harris, ages 8 to 12, National Geographic Kids, $8.99) is a bit like bingeing on candy corn, but without the stomachache afterward — it’s fun, slightly addictive, and goes down easy. Wondering about the lowest-rated candy? (It’s circus peanuts.) Pondering whether a crew of people dressed as Frankenstein’s monster have ever parachuted onto a baseball field? (Yes, in Frankenstein, Missouri.) It’s easy to keep going until you’ve finished the whole book — and that’s the point, and the pleasure.

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For a story that mixes teamwork, personal fulfillment, and lifestyles of the undead, readers can enjoy “Glory on Ice: A Vampire Hockey Story” written by Maureen Fergus and illustrated with joyful humor by Mark Fearing (ages 3 to 7, Knopf Books for Young Readers, $17.99). What is poor Vlad to do when the centuries are starting to catch up with him? Sure, “he had a lovely home. He had more money than he knew what to do with. He hadn’t aged a day in eight hundred years.” But he’s bored — and after a trip to the community center, Vlad finds a way to pump more life into his existence: hockey. What follows is a silly but heartwarming tale of trying, improving, and being part of a very lively team.

Older readers (and perhaps their parents, too) will appreciate the subtle humor and spookiness of master storyteller Shaun Tan’s “Eric,” the evocatively illustrated story of a very unusual exchange student. (Now available in the U.S. from Scholastic Press, ages 5 and up, $19.99.) It’s never quite clear where Eric is from, just someplace quite different, and his unsettling habits of asking inexplicable questions and observing things no one else pays any attention to make the narrator wonder whether he is happy to be visiting at all. And then, suddenly, the visit ends: “none of us could help but be bewildered by the way Eric left our home: a sudden departure early one morning, with little more than a wave and a polite goodbye.” The whole family is uneasy, worried they had unfinished business with their strange visitor — until they see his room and the gift he left behind for them. Whoever Eric was, he clearly had a wonderful time — so at least that part of the mystery is solved.

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Caroline Luzzatto teaches fourth grade at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy. luzzatto.bookworms@gmail.com.

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