This week I’m looking forward to sharing two new books in the LRC and they just happen to be SPOOKY stories…
Sounds Spooky
written by Christopher Cheng and illustrated by Sarah Davies
In a rickety old house, spooky sounds fill the air.
Crashing and slamming;
Snarling and hissing;
Creaking and mumbling.
Who…or what…
is making them?
I’m not scared.
Are you?
Visit the Sounds Spooky website to watch the book trailer and find out more about how this fabulous book was written and illustrated.
The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon
by Aaron Blabey
No matter what hour, she lurked looking sour,
be it midnight or mid-afternoon.
Her dresses were shabby, her mood always crabby.
Her name was Miss Annabel spoon.
Have a look at the first pages of The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon here.
When have you been scared by a strange noise or unusual shadow at night?
Do you have a spooky story you would like to tell us?
One night I woke up to a scratching sound in the garden below my bedroom window. I thought someone was outside my window! Next I heard a hissing sound and then a low growl. By this stage I was quite scared and Jambo wasn’t much help!
When I was finally brave enough to peek around my blind I saw that it was a possum making all the noise. I was SO relieved because that’s not what my imagination was thinking…
Miss Y 🙂
Dear students of the library,
Hello! My name is Yvonne from 3/4 Dwyer. My teacher put you on the blog roll. I love the book called Sounds Spooky.
But we don’t have it at my school library. What state are you in? Any way… I love the voki. You should see my class blog.
Yours,
Yvonne (3/4 Dwyer C2 NT)
Hi Yvonne
Thank you for visiting our LRC blog and leaving a comment!
Spooky Sounds is a fairly new book so you might get it in your library soon. Perhaps you could show your Teacher-Librarian our blog post and ask her to buy if for your library!
We have been enjoying the spooky sounds in the story and the illustrations are fabulous – the illustrator, Sarah Davies actually made a model of the haunted house and the characters.
You are very lucky to have Miss Dwyer as your teacher. She definitely makes learning FUN in your class!! You blog is on our blog roll too! I have been showing lots of our classes the blog post where Miss Dwyer had a ride in Josh’s helicopter – the kids loved it and many went home to watch the videos again!
We are a school in Melbourne, Victoria. There are 550 students at our school. How many students are at your school?
Who are some of your favourite authors or series of books?
Miss Y 🙂
Hello Miss Y, and everyone at SMOT! I really hope you enjoy Sounds Spooky. I had so much fun doing the illustrations – it was like being a kid again, playing with all that sticky tape and clay. It sounds like you have the most wonderful library (and librarian) … you lucky things. Maybe one day I’ll have a chance to come and visit.
Christopher and I are working really hard to get lots of fun activities ready for the Sounds Spooky website, and we’ll be adding to it over the next few weeks, so do go and check it out. If you know any good spooky jokes, we need more for our joke page: http://www.sounds-spooky.com/jokes.
Have lots of spoooooky fun, and don’t be scared!
x Sarah
Hi Sarah
How exciting that you have come to visit our LRC Blog and leave us a comment!!
The classes I have shared Sounds Spooky with so far have REALLY enjoyed it!
We already knew you because we loved your illustrations in “Fearless”. Here’s a photo of my dog Jambo reading Fearless http://smotlrcblog.edublogs.org/prc/
I explained that you made models of the spooky house and characters for this book and also used your computer for the illustrations and the children were fascinated. It’s great to hear that you had so much fun doing them!
We visited the Sounds Spooky website and watched the video – very cool! We noticed you had to add to some pages so we will keep visiting. We’ll try and send you some spooky jokes to add to the joke page.
One thing we would like to know is…is it a shadow of an egg timer on the end papers of Sounds Spooky or are we seeing things??
We would love to have you visit our school! Let us know next time you come to Melbourne….
Miss Y 🙂
Hi Sarah
I would like to know if you made new models of the children for each page.
Nathan S 1C
Dear Miss Y,
I was so excited to read about these spooky stories! I have not heard of them before. I wonder, are they written by Australian authors? I will have to look and see if I can get them here.
Spooky stories are fun, but I don’t like to get too scary! Then they give me bad dreams and I don’t like nightmares!
What about you Miss Y? Do scary stories give you nightmares too?
Wondering in Seattle!
Mrs. Hembree
Hi Sarah
I would like to know how you made the lights glow on the flashlights.
Sebastian S 1M
Hi Miss Y!
I’m very pleased to meet you. My school has 234 people at our school. Our school is in Howard Springs on Girrween Road. It opened on October 4 2001. Anyway I asked my library teacher to get the book and she said she is going to get it on Saturday.
Hi Mrs Hembree
Yes, you’re right – the authors are Australian! I hope you can get them in the USA, if not let me know and I could get them for you!
Aaron Blabey has also written some other books that would be great for your library that you might also might like to look up – “Pearl Barley and Charley Parsley” (winner of our Children’s Picture Book of the Year in 2008), “Sunday Chutney” and “Stanley Paste”
I’m not a big fan of very scary stories or the Horror genre. I like to be able to sleep at night and not let my imagination run away with me! Last week I read some short stories to the Grade 5 and 6 students from a book called “Half-Minute Horror Stories” and some of them were quite hair-raising!! Amazing how many students Like to be scared!
If you scroll up the comments you will see that we were VERY excited to have a comment on our blog from the illustrator of “Sounds Spooky” – Sarah Davis!! Have a look at Sarah’s website. I love the picture she has there of one of her sculptures! http://www.sarahdavisillustration.com/
Miss Y 🙂
PS loved your Halloween costume as Baby Mouse – you looked fabulous! I think I’ll buy some Baby Mouse books for our LRC next year.
Hi Yvonne
Lovely to “meet” you too!
Glad to hear your library teacher is going to try to buy a copy of “Sounds Spooky” for your library. If you scroll up the comments you can see where the talentedl illustrator Sarah Davis left a comment for us! Your class might have some spooky jokes to add to the website.
Let me know what you think of “Sounds Spooky” after you’ve read it.
Miss Y 🙂
Dear Miss Y,
I really enjoyed the story Spooky Sounds. Too bad you weren’t there to read it to us. Currently Viduni, Oscar and Jasmine are reading the Harry Potter series
Sincerely Matthew.B in 2tm to be precise ;-P
Dear Sarah
How long did it take you to make and create your spook-tacular illustrations?
2V 😛
Hello Miss Y and everyone!
I tried to post a reply yesterday, but it looks as though the computer ate it… I didn’t notice the shadow of the eggtimer on the end pages, and I didn’t put it there on purpose! I’ll have to have a look and see if I can spot it. It might be quite a good symbol of mortality!
Nathan: I made one body for each character, with bendy arms and legs so I could pose them, and then arranged it so their heads and hands are removable – so the little ghost has 8-9 heads, one for each expression!
Sebastian: The torches glow because they’re actually real! I found tiny little working torches in a two dollar shop that the characters could hold. Christopher and I will be running some great Sounds Spooky competitions next year, and one of the things you can win is a mini-torch.
And everyone in 2V: It took me about 3 months to make all the characters and sets and do the photography, and then another month to combine the photos and finish all the illustrations on the computer.
Did some of you post some jokes? I was delighted to see a few new ones up on the page from Lachlan, Ted, Isabella, Thomas and Caleb – my kids thought they were funny!
xSarah
Hi Matthew
I’m sure Mrs Getson did a great job reading Sounds Spooky.
I have had lots of fun reading Sounds Spooky to the other classes. I have been scaring them all when the children meet the little girl ghost…he he he!
Miss Y 🙂
Hi Sarah
Oh dear! Sorry to hear that your post didn’t work yesterday. We’re glad you tried again today!
Thank you for answering our questions. That’s very clever to have one body for the characters and different heads!!
It’s great to hear that you (and your kids) liked the jokes we added to the website.
Miss Y and everyone 🙂