Looking for a fun way to celebrate Halloween with your kids this weekend?
For the fifth year in a row, Spooky Storytime is back to haunt Burnside Park with all your favorite family-friendly seasonal activities — for FREE!
This year’s theme is VEGGIE VILLAINS! Because if you don’t eat your vegetables, they might eat you…
At Spooky Storytime our guest authors, illustrators and artists Alison Paul (The Crow: A Not-So-Scary Story), Jen Corace (Gibbous Mooney Wants to Bite You!), and Ricky Katowicz will read from their own books and some of their other favorite spooky tales: Vegetables in Underwear by Jared Chapman, Creepy Carrots! By Aaron Reynolds & Peter Brown, Bone Soup by Cambria Evans and Pumpkin Town by Katy McKy and Pablo Bernasconi.
At Haunted Art in the Park, artist Ricky Katowicz will work with kids to create their own scary vegetable characters. Artist Alison Paul created larger than life characters that will be there to pose and interact with.
Haven’t planned your Halloween costume yet? No problem! We’ve got plenty of capes and masks for you to decorate, a talented face painter to turn you into whatever magical creature you can imagine, and a box full of shields, swords, and inflatable electric guitars to pose and play with.
Once you’re all set with your costume, explore our Hay Bale Maze, trick-or-treat your way through our fun activity tables, crunch on crisp apples from our local farmers and bring home a mini pumpkin to decorate. End your morning adventure with a costume parade and a spook-tacular dance party led by our friends from BIG NAZO!
I sat down with Spooky Storytime + Haunted Art in the Park co-founders, Children’s book illustrator/author, Professor Alison Paul and DPPC Program Director Jen Smith to find out more about the event.
Jen Smith:
What is your favorite thing about Spooky Storytime?
It’s hard to pick a favorite. When Alison and I started the event 5 years ago I had a 2-½ year old. I love Halloween, but a lot of that stuff was just too scary for him. I was inspired by Alison’s book title, The Crow: A Not-So-Scary Story, her ode to Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, for kids. We created a very fun – and a little educational – not-so-scary Spooky Storytime for kids. We have a life sized skeleton, Ms. Bones, featured every year – but instead of being posed to terrify you – kids can get up close and learn to identify the parts of the skeleton. Seeing the costumed kids and parents playing in the park transformed with all of this original art and activity.
Photo courtesy of Indowncity
What are you most excited about for Saturday?
I’m super excited to see the characters that Alison and Ricky came up with – Scarrot, Mash Brains, Brockenstein, and Cornicula brought to life in the park, in our kid-sized hay bale maze (thanks, Pezza Farm!). Every year we try to bring the world of a book out into the park to transform it. This year, our Spooky Storytime artists created four completely unique characters inspired by the theme of the featured books. I love working with artists to help them do something they’ve never done before specific to the park & public context.
What’s the scariest vegetable (in your opinion)?
I’ve always found eggplants mysterious.
Of all the Halloween costumes you’ve ever worn, which one is your favorite?
I really enjoy coming up with costumes inspired by our featured books for Spooky Storytime. One of my and my son’s favorites is Gibbous Mooney Wants to BITE You! Illustrated by our friend, Jen Corace. It’s about a precocious little fruit bat boy who gets a little over-enthusiastic about biting. All the characters have moon-themed names. I dressed as Gibbous Mooney’s mom in the book – who has a fabulous 60’s vampire look, and got inspired to give her a name – Crescent Mooney – and think more about what this mom’s character would be like. I’d never realized how hard it might have been to have fangs before!
Professor Alison Paul
What’s your favorite spooky storytime activity and why?
I love the kids in costume. I think most of the time the very young ones are at an age where they didn’t or can’t pick it out, their parents did – so it’s really funny to see what the parents choose to make their toddlers look like – it’s a little joke with themselves.
What are you most excited about for Saturday?
I’m excited to see how the kids will interact with the hay bale maze. In past years the kids have always been magnetically attracted to the hay bales, so we decided to expand it this year. Will they run around inside the spiral, climb all over it? They always do things you don’t expect.
What’s the scariest vegetable (in your opinion)?
Zucchini. I think it can get bitter if it’s not cooked properly – and I don’t think it ever was when I was a child. And the name’s pretty scary too – there’s just something about that “Z”.
Of all the Halloween costumes you’ve ever worn, which one is your favorite?
My most memorable costume, which was my least favorite to wear, but was my favorite concept – was the wedding cake. My mom made me a 3-layer wedding cake costume per my request as I had been a flower girl 3 times that summer and had even acquired a cake topper.
What inspired you to create Storytime?
I have a Halloween birthday. It’s my favorite time of year and I love Storytime so I was excited being able to do create one which focuses on a very special time of year for me since growing up.