October 31st is just around the corner! How does it compare to the scary stories you grew up reading, or being told around campfires? Teen Board member Rachel D. breaks it down, below.
Halloween: the night of October 31, the eve of All Saints' Day, commonly celebrated by children who dress in costume and solicit candy or other treats door-to-door. Or at least that's how Google defines it.
But how about books? When we were kids, we were taught about monsters in our neighborhood in R.L. Stine's Goosebumps. We solved mysteries involving creepy creatures yet absolutely loved every minute of it. We read Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN, which made the idea of creating your monster seem absolutely terrifying. In David Mitchell's SLADE HOUSE, the classic haunted house story is rewritten and embellished as a chill-inducing compilation of chapters. And of course, the classic DRACULA by Bram Stoker revolutionized the way we told Halloween stories.
Although these stories weren't written for the sole purpose of entertaining kids on Halloween sure did end up that way. It seems you can't pass by a Halloween without mention of at least Count Dracula or a traditional ghost story (though we do tend to make them more tame and kid-friendly). Even though we know they can't happen in real life, we love them nonetheless.
In real life, we stick to the Google definition , but we try to incoorperate the things we see in books in hope of turning them into a reality. Admit it: How many times have you seen someone dressed as a vampire on Halloween? What about a ghost? Visited a haunted house? Although technically, books aren't a reality, we hope to incoorperate them into our day of festivities to make everything more fun.
So although it may be fun to think about what life would be like if you saw a real-life monster from Goosebumps or created your own like in FRANKENSTEIN, real-life Halloweens tend to be a bit more tame and may involve a lot more candy.
Rachel D. is a Teen Board member.
