Quiz:  How Well Do You Know Halloween Movies?

Quiz: How Well Do You Know Halloween Movies?

Posted on October 23, 2011 at 8:00 am

Get into the spooky spirit of Halloween with this quiz that covers movies with ghosts, goblins, and witches.  How many do you know?

1. High school witches get revenge on a mean girl by making her hair fall out but then their spells become more deadly.

2. When attendees at a witch convention discover that a boy knows who they are, they turn him into a mouse.

3.  A brother and sister move into a haunted house and unravel a mystery about what happened to the mother of their beautiful but troubled neighbor.

4.  A suburban mother thinks the ghosts in her home are kind of fun until they kidnap her daughter.

5.  A young widow is befriended by the ghost of a sea captain.

6.  300 years after they were hung, three witches return to Salem, Massachusetts to suck the life from children.

7.  A witch needs the heart of a star to keep her looking forever young.

8.  A witch kidnaps a princess to keep her looking forever young.

9.  A beautiful witch casts a spell on a publisher to make him fall in love with her with the help of her cat, Pyewacket.

10.  One of America’s most acclaimed novelists wrote a book that became a movie about three witches in New England who summon a newcomer who just might be the devil.

11. The ghosts are the good guys in this story about a loving couple who retain the services of a people exterminator when a wealthy but crass couple move into their home.

12.  The ghost of a departed spouse creates complications (at least three possible answers!).

 

Bonus question: What actress played witches in two of the movies listed above?

 

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Holidays Quiz
Halloween Books for Kids from Reading Rockets

Halloween Books for Kids from Reading Rockets

Posted on October 22, 2011 at 8:00 am

Reading Rockets has ten books for families about Halloween, including A Newbery Halloween : A Dozen Scary Stories by Newbery Award-Winning Authors, Hoodwinked (a little witch finds a surprising pet), and Pumpkin Pumpkin (a tiny seed grows into a pumpkin which makes its own seed to be planted next year).  Happy Halloween!

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Books Holidays
The Worst Witch

The Worst Witch

Posted on October 17, 2011 at 8:34 am

B
Lowest Recommended Age: 4th - 6th Grades
MPAA Rating: NR
Profanity: None
Alcohol/ Drugs: None
Violence/ Scariness: Spooky Halloween themes
Diversity Issues: None
Date Released to Theaters: 1986
Date Released to DVD: October 16, 2011
Amazon.com ASIN: B0002JP5EK

Thanks to my godson, Theo Leiss, for reminding me of this Halloween treat! The Worst Witch is based on a pre-Harry Potter series of books by Jill Murphy about a school for young witches.  Fairuza Balk, who would later play a teenaged witch in “The Craft” (and who was already a gifted young actress) plays Mildred Hubble, who can’t seem to get anything right until only she can save the day before an evil witch destroys the school.  Diana Rigg plays the school’s headmistress and her evil twin sister and Tim Curry provides one of the highlights as the Grand Wizard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmG80v473AI

 

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Based on a book DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Elementary School Fantasy For Your Netflix Queue Holidays
Happy Columbus Day!

Happy Columbus Day!

Posted on October 10, 2011 at 8:00 am

Christopher Columbus has not yet had the movie he deserves, but I prefer the Fredric March version to the later movies.  And I recommend a brilliant and completely engrossing new book from biographer Laurence Bergreen called Columbus: The Four Voyages.  He writes:

Before him, the Old World and the New remained separate and distinct continents, ecosystems and societies; ever since, their fates have been bound together, for better or worse.

Whatever you think you know and whatever you think you think about Columbus — visionary, delusional, greedy, loyal, brilliant, mad, whether you think of him as an adventurer, a spy, or a despoiler, you will be surprised, challenged, and fascinated by what Bergreen has uncovered.

Happy Columbus Day and cheers to all adventurers and explorers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cmpY8E_Xs0

 

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Books Holidays
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