Happy HalloReads!

Some holidays lend themselves to thematic selections better than others.  I mean, think of all the spine-chilling, freaky, suspenseful, and downright creepy books there are out there!   You could do a list of top-10 Halloween chillers/thrillers with Stephen King alone!

Since I'm in a middle school library, however, I'll have to take a, um, "stab" at a different list.    So here are, in no particular order, 10 excellent (not necessarily the 10 best) Halloween reads.

1.  Harry Potter and the ... (J.K. Rowling)  No, I'm not going to single out any particular one.  And maybe HP is pretty mild.  But come on - witches, wizards, wands, flying brooms, toads/cats/owls/rats, unnameable evil, death - definitely the stuff of Halloween.

2. Unwind  (Neal Shusterman)  Shusterman's description of a teen's unwinding is freakin' creepy!

3. Bliss  (Lauren Myracle)  Voices in one's head, possession, revenge, cats (again), flesh relics, and Charles Manson and the Family's murder trials?  Someone just ain't right in the head.

4. Rot & Ruin (Jonathan Maberry)  You've got to have at least one zombie book on the list.  Tom Imura and his brother Benny aren't your stereotypical zombie bounty hunters.  If there is such a thing.  There are three books in the series so far.  Let's just say that I read the 3rd book (all 469 pages) in a day.  

5. A Tale Dark and Grimm  (Adam Gidwitz)  Lemony Snicket meets the Brothers Grimm.  Yes, it's the stuff of fairy tales, but these are the Grimms' tales, not Disney's.  

6. The Diviners (Libba Bray)  Confession - I'm still reading this one.  But there is a psychic,  an ouija board, a healer, (at least one) murder by a psychotic mass murderer back from the dead, Revelation-like "prophecy", and more to be discovered, all in a 1920's setting.  Ain't we got fun?

7. Ashes (Ilsa J. Bick)  There's also Shadows, the recent second installment in the trilogy.  More zombies, aka The Changed.  Thanks to an EMP - electromagnetic pulse - of unknown origin, most children are alive, teens are dead or "changed" (or dying), and adults are dead.  The exceptions?  Those with significant brain trauma (Alzheimer's, post-traumatic stress syndrome, tumors) are miraculously alive and/or cured and are known as The Spared.  Bick must've thought or been told that Ashes was too mild, because the violence and gore factors increase dramatically in Shadows.  

8. The Skinjacker Trilogy - Everlost, Everwild, Everfound (Neal Shusterman)  Another entry from Shusterman with ghosts, skinjackers, and monsters.  The spiritual world is superimposed over the living world; we just don't see the other side.  

9. The Monstrumologist (Richard Yancey)  In this first book in the series, the monstrumologist Dr. Pellinore Warthrop and his assistant Will Henry are on the search for the monstrous anthropophagi.  After graphic descriptions in early chapters, I wondered if I'd be able to finish the book.   I did.  Full of suspense, blood, & body parts. 

10. Little House series (Laura Ingalls Wilder)   Not scary, you say?  Indians, fires, death of child?  No indoor plumbing or refrigeration? Suddenly going blind?  A potato and stick of candy for Christmas?   Crazy blizzards into the month of May?  Nellie Olsen?  'nough said.

That's my job, you see...

So why am I librarian?   Well, the books, of course!   I love to read and have been that way as long as I remember.   Back in the 4th grade, my amazingly wonderful principal, Guy Wilson, sat down by me one day and asked if I was happy, if I felt like I had friends - basically making sure I wasn't trying to avoid reality by reading.  Nope, I just didn't want to stop reading.  And I'm still that way.

As a librarian, I take joy in discussing books with students, making recommendations, and hearing them gush about their reading.   I love to see the kids who are in every few days - maybe every day.  It doesn't matter if it's short nonfiction, only sports books, only graphic novels and manga, only Erin Hunter's Warriors books.  If they love it, I want them to read it.

We've become a culture where illiteracy is prevalent and aliteracy is often the norm.  I have plenty of adult friends - even teachers - who confess to not really enjoying reading.  My thought: they just haven't found the right book.   I want to help change that.  And it's not just because of books.   It's about information in so many different formats.  It's about access to information.

I want to help students learn how to find information and how to use it.  I want them to be technologically literate.  I want them to be confident in their ability to access and apply information and skills.   Maybe it's in a book.  Maybe it's in a magazine.  Maybe it's online.   I'm pretty sure it's not in a STAAR test.

So I'm going to keep reading.  I'm going to keep listening.  I'm going to keep recommending.  I'm going to keep teaching and learning.  Because I'm a librarian, and that's what I love to do.

Note: Recent events force me to note that the use of the word "book" includes literature in both print and digital formats.   I love print copies, but I'm looking forward to expanding my own digital library.    Nerd, yes.  Snob, not as much.