Fragile Earth Stuffed Animals Blog

When we were searching the shelves for Halloween books, Helen asked if I had How Spider Saved Halloween because it was one of her favorites. She also remembered it having a fairly good witch in it (and I’m sure Ladybug would agree!)

Spider is worried about finding the right costume because nothing changes him drastically enough to hide who is behind the costume. This book was published in 1973 – look at these costumes. No Halloween or Scream masks, no blood or guts. I miss 1973. Not the clothes, just the … innocence.

Spider goes to his friend Ladybug’s house to see if she can help him.

Ladybug and fly show him their costumes – see isn’t that a great witch?

Spider is still trying to think of a good costume for himself when they hear a smashing sound and laughter coming from outside.

Bullies have destroyed Ladybug’s jack-o-lantern. Maybe it wasn’t such an innocent time after all. Ladybug is terribly upset because what is Halloween without a jack-o-lantern? And that’s when Spider gets the idea for the perfect costume. He has his friends color him orange and he cuts out a green stem and voila!

He’s the perfect jack-o-lantern.  The three friends go out trick-or-treating and are having a wonderful time until they hear the bullies coming down the street with cans of shaving cream. (Even though they are bullies, they still are pretty tame.)

But Spider knows how to get back at them. Hiding behind a bush until they are right near him, he then jumps out and scares them. And that is how Spider saved Halloween.

Robert Kraus wrote several other Spider/Ladybug/Fly books, some of which are still available through Amazon, etc. In 1965, Kraus started his own publishing company, Windmill Books which published some of his NY artist friends’ books, including, among others, The Chas. Addams Mother Goose, (which I need to find immediately!) and several by William Steig, including Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, another huge favorite here at Fragile Earth Stuffed Animals. They also were the first to produce board books and bathtub books for very young kids.

I love it when ghosts get together for dinner.

Want to know why? They become the color of whatever they eat/drink.

Green for spinach juice?

What other kind of juices did they have? Blueberry? Strawberry? It just boggles the mind!

I always turn orange when I eat Pumpkin soup. I love that the ones that had seconds are a darker orange.

How funny is it that they look like the lettuce and the cheese? Who can tell me what type of cheese they’re eating:D

There are times when I could really use this magic dessert recipe.

Good friends are the ones that help you clean up at the end of a dinner party.

This surprises me a little (although maybe not that much knowing my penchants for chocolate), but I love the color brown they turn after drinking hot chocolate. And I usually don’t like brown at all. But this is such a warm, rich color. I’m thinking the ghost in the middle is overdoing his chocolate to milk ratio, just a bit!

Oh, and the bowls they are using for their milk? They would make AWESOME ice cream dishes. I’m just saying!

Posted by Mary Beth

I remember reading the Georgie books all through my childhood and was so excited to find some when I started teaching kindergarten. I loved sharing books that meant a lot to me with a new batch of kids every year.

The first Georgie book was published in 1944 and 11 more followed. They all involved Mr & Mrs. Whittaker, the owners of the house that Georgie haunts, Miss Oliver the owl, Herman the cat, and of course Georgie, the friendly ghost.

In Georgie and the Noisy Ghost, written in 1971, Georgie & crew move out to a house on the beach that the Whittakers have rented for the summer. Everyone knows that houses should only have one ghost haunting them. So what happens when a family with a ghost moves into a house that is already occupied by another spirit?

First they travel by car,

then by boat. What? Don’t you arrive at your new house in the middle of the night?

But wait, who’s that!

You’ll just have to read it yourself:)

One thing to keep in mind with these books – they do tend to be a bit wordy so if you’ve got avid listeners, you’re good. Otherwise, you might want to paraphrase or plan to read it in stages.