Black and Bittern Was Night
It's a band of animated skeletons versus daring children in this rhyming Halloween picture book tale, told in delightful nonsense language. Here the children are “tyke-tots” and the adults “tall-bigs,” while the skeletons are called “SKUL-A-MUG-MUGS.” As the story begins, the SKUL-A-MUG-MUGS descend on a small, quiet town on Halloween night.
“They ring-ruckled round,
enclupping the town,
with quake-quiver-up
and scree-scrackle down.”
The SKUL-A-MUG-MUGS have a plan to keep the children from trick-or-treating.
“We'll brain-frizz tall-bigs.
Halloween they'll deep nix.
They'll shup-clup inside
nasty Noras and Nicks!”
But the children decide to take matters into their own hands.
“Thrickle! and thrackle!
Thinder-a-thray!
SKUL-A-MUG-MUGS,
we'll splook you away!”
What ensues is a fun, spirited fight to the finish, as naturally the children outwit and out-frighten the old SKUL-A-MUG-MUGS so the trick-or-treating can commence once again! In this one-of-a-kind book, award-winning author and children's poet Robert Heidbreder has imagined an empowering story about a chaotic world where the adults are terrified and the children take over to save the day --- and the candy, of course. The silly and spooky madness is delightfully illustrated with irresistible artwork by award-winning John Martz. This is sure to be a hands-down favorite as a read-aloud --- for all ages --- during the Halloween season or anytime fun wordplay is called for. It makes a fabulous language arts introduction to rhyming poetry that will surely inspire children to create their own made-up words and stories. Separately, it can also work for social studies discussions about cultural celebrations such as Halloween that focus on images and tales of the dead.
