Halloween Books

	Shake Dem Halloween Bones This book is one of the best read aloud books I’ve ever found. When I read this book with my students, I use the drum kit on my piano to create a sort of rhythm track so that sounds like my cheesy old lady music teacher version of a rap song. To say that my students love it is an understatement. It’s really easy to refer to other literature because each page highlights a different fairy tale character. The chorus is very singable. I’m not sure if there was an intended melody, but when you speak the rhythm, I’m sure a simple melody will suggest itself. What Fun!
	There Was an Old Witch This is a re-telling of the Old Woman song. It’s very spooky, but very well done. It’s a little too spooky for small children, but at the end you find that she only wanted a bat for her Halloween hat AND there is no eating of anything, just finding things, so in my opinion that is a vast improvement over the original. I set my piano to sound like a harpsichord and play the song in a minor key to make it sound extra spooky.

	Twisted Sistahs Twisted Sistahs is a truly twisted tale. The rhymes are just perfect and the double meanings abound. I read this book to fourth grade each year and they just love it. It isn’t really a musical tale, but it is such fun I just can’t resist.