Susanna’s Rules for the Halloweensie contest: write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children, using the words witch, bat, and “trick-or-treat“. Check out other Halloweensie Contest entries at http://susannahill.blogspot.com/
I’ve been going door-to-door dressed in costume with an open bag for treats most of my life – okay I have enjoyed the custom most of my life! I even got married on Halloween (Happy 21st, hon!). And I’ve only just read that this practice has a name other than ‘trick-or-treating’: guising. Ha! Learn something new every day! New words should be applied freely so as to cement them into one’s vocabulary, so I thought I’d have a little trick-twisting fun with idioms and sayings:
A half truth is a whole guise. (off a Yiddish proverb)
A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the guise you can invent. (Sorry Bill! ~William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence,” Poems from the Pickering Manuscript)
A guise may take care of the present, but it has no future. (Author Unknown; if you know, tell the author to drop a line!)
Fit to be guised.
Early to bed, early to guise…
Guise to the challenge!
One guise fits all.
Well…
That’s about the guise of it!
Also have to mention a Halloween PB – too delightful to pass up!
Author: Harriet Ziefert
Illustrator: Simms Tabak
Publisher: Candlewick Press, 2007
Age level: 2 and up
Opening: If one little witch meets one little witch, that makes…two little witches going trick or treating.
Why I like it: As you can see on the cover, one little witch is a bit suspicious of the other little witch as they meet their dressed-up friends. A little spooky and a lot of fun, with delightful illustrations from the late Simms Taback, who created over 35 picture books, winning the Caldecott Medal for Joseph Had A Little Overcoat and a Caldecott Honor for There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Do try an all time favorite of mine Kibitzers and Fools: tales my zayda told me.
Happy Halloween!