‘Head’ Writer/Editor
“It’s
Halloween,” the beloved Scholastic book of Halloween poetry by Jack Prelutsky with
pictures by Marylin Hafner, is perhaps the world’s finest piece of
literature.
In
celebration of the book’s author, whose birthday we celebrated all night (hence
the reason this story is a little late), monsters everywhere participated in an
“It’s Halloween” 24-hour read-a-thon.
“I
read the book 288 times aloud to friends and family yesterday for the
read-a-thon,” said Idaho goblin J.P. Hobbs. “And that’s with emotion,
inflection and a bunch of dramatic pauses, too. I especially love the poem
about the goblin. I love that slice-of-life stuff.”
The
read-a-thon, organized by Transyl-vein-ia’s Monster Fiends of the Library
(TMFL), attracted the likes of skeletons and ghosts and ghouls, grinning
goblins fighting duels, werewolves rising from their tombs, and witches on
their magic brooms. Even Count Dracula showed up.
“It’s
always great when the Count reads poetry aloud,” said a skeleton out at night,
who wishes to remain skinless. “He has such profound diction. Most vampires do.”
Prelutsky,
who was born Sept. 8, 1940 in the human world, was not present for the
festivities. But monsters brought in a birthday cake for him anyway.
“We
had the cake in the actual house that Mr. Prelutsky wrote about in his poem
‘Haunted House,’” said TMFL spokesmonster Luv Tareed. “We had all the lights burning
bright. The demons there were whirling, and the spirits swirled about. We sang
our songs to ‘It’s Halloween,’ and all night, ‘Happy birthday, Jack,’ we’d
shout.”
The
all-night celebration of Jack Prelutsky left quite the mess all over town,
especially when King Kong showed up to read his interpretation of “Bobbing for
Apples.”
“Kong
destroyed many buildings and left forehead indentations everywhere,” said
Frankenstein’s Monster. “The town never looked more beautiful.”
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