All Hallow’s Read
An illustration of Rip Van Winkle, by Ashley Smith Collet
Halloween remains my second favorite holiday and Neal Gaiman just made it better! Have you heard of All Hallow’s Read?
It’s a new and exciting Halloween tradition started by contemporary author Neil Gaiman, who, incidentally has quickly become one of my favorite authors. Diverse and prolific, he a self-described “writer of things” (and my goodness, is he a delicious writer of things!).
He’ written Stardust (one of my all-time favorite movies) The Graveyard Book (which I recently read and quite enjoyed), American Gods (on my list) and Coraline (I thought Tim Burton made that movie…)
What is All Hallow’s Read? Well, I’ll let Neil himself tell you:
Question: So What is All Hallow’s Read? All Hallow’s Read is a Hallowe’en tradition. It’s simply that in the week of Hallowe’en, or on the night itself, you give someone a scary book.
Scholars have traced its origins as far back as this blog post.
Question: Is this instead of Trick or Treat? Because I don’t want to get egged, and the kids around here are mean.
Not at all. Trick or Treat is Trick or Treat. This is All Hallow’s Read, a great excuse to give someone a book.
You can give out scary books or comics to trick or treaters on Hallowe’en if you want to, obviously. (We recommend looking the child in the eye and saying, “Take it. Read it. Trust me… around here… a book can be… safer than candy.” Then chuckling to yourself, as if remembering something unfortunate that happened to some of the local children only last year.)
So this year, as part of All Hallow’s Read, I’m recommending three short stories. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, and Click-Clack the Rattlebag, by Neil Gaiman himself!
Click-Clack the Rattlebag was written by Neil Gaiman in support of All Hallow’s Read. You can download an audio recording of it FOR FREE from Audible.com. For every FREE download, Audible.com will make a charitable donation. It’s an eerie story with a great ending. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain! Click here for your free download. (Telling someone where they can download a scary story counts as sharing a scary book, right Neal?)
Happy Halloween!
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