Published October 30, 2020
Halloween is only a few days away…
…and we are so excited!! In fact, this magazine issue is about as Halloween-y as you can get! We have stories and poems about Halloween, Halloween facts, Halloween artwork, a Halloween storytime event, Halloween cupcakes, and much, much more. Although trick-or-treating isn’t happening this year, we can still celebrate and eat candy! We hope you enjoy the candy we’ve handed out!!
We will be hosting a YouTube Live Stream on October 31 at 2:00 to read our Halloween story and show a few other Halloween related activities! It’s free to watch and open to all ages!! Go to youtube.com/watch?v=hFodfpwZ0GA to watch at 2:00 PM on October 31st (Halloween!!). Make sure to visit our website and click on the Important Information tab at the very top of our website for essential information! If you have any other questions contact us at andlmagazine@gmail.com or go to our website for our personal contact information. Hope to see you at our storytime! Our website is: aandlmagazine.com
Happy Halloween!
– Leeya and Adalia
Halloween Fun Facts!
Halloween This Year
Halloween in 2020 will be 100 times spookier than usual…because it will be happening on a FULL MOON, which hasn’t happened for about 20 years! Technically, moon phases only last for a couple of seconds before they aren’t the same phase as they were before and that goes for full moons, too. That’s not to say full moons haven’t been observed remaining full for over two days! But how much do you actually know about full moons..? Did you know that any moon phase we see is actually sunlight bouncing off of the moon back towards us? We see different moon phases each day because of the Earth’s rotation on itself and its revolution around the sun and the moon’s rotation on itself and its revolution around the Earth. During a full moon, the Earth is in a certain position so that it doesn’t block the sunlight coming towards the moon and the whole face of the moon can be seen in the sky!
Before it was Halloween…
Did you know that Halloween has been around for over 2,000 years? In the pre-Christian Celtic (1400 BCE) tradition, Samhain (or “summer’s end”) was celebrated on the first of November. Scotland and Ireland were the first to really popularize what we now call “Halloween.” In fact, since medieval times, children and youngsters would dress up and ask for food and money in exchange for songs and tricks. Did you know that in the 18th century, Halloween was a way for unmarried women to find their husbands? Apple bobbing was the way to find out who was marrying when!
Puns n’ Recipes
Go to our YouTube channel for a video of us decorating our cupcakes! This has LOTS more details than written below for those interested!
What is a skeleton’s favorite dessert? A cupwake (Get it? As in a wake you go to when someone dies…)
What we were going for…
We wanted to recreate some of those AMAZING Halloween cupcakes and cookies you can find online. We are not expert bakers, but our end result was much better than we had expected, so we decided to share it with our readers!! Here is an example of a tombstone-decorated cupcake we wanted to recreate.
Here’s what we did:
- We made some boxed cupcakes (a Betty Crocker boxed mix).
- We just bought icing, but you could get creative and make your own!
- We iced the cupcakes and cookies, put our tombstones (oreo cookies) on, and garnished the desserts with some candy corn/candy pumpkins! Viola!!
The results of what we made!
Reviews
Spooky Scary Skeletons
*On the next page, we have a whole playlist of Halloween songs!
However, we couldn’t review all of them so we picked our favorite: Spooky Scary Skeletons by Andrew Gold. The song starts out with a catchy tune that sounds like bones moving. The song is unforgettable and you will find yourself singing this all through the spooky season. It is also a great tune to dance to because of its Halloween-y and fun feel. The lyrics say, “spooky scary skeletons are shivering down your spine.” Although the lyrics are spooky and meaningless, they are still very eerie and amusing. You can find this song on our website (see the link above).
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Our story begins with Victor Frankenstein, a curious young man who yearns to learn the secrets of life and the cosmos. In his younger years, he read the books of ancients like Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus, learning what people believed of life in an earlier time. At his father’s urging Frankenstein leaves for university, where he learns of newer ideas in philosophy and chemistry. He gets an idea for a wonderful creation, which he spends several years building. A monster is born. Victor Frankenstein is terrified and let’s the monster escape into the world setting off a series of unfortunate events. This book has themes of horror and pain as well love and joy in the beginning. Follow along with an outcast creature, who yearns for love and care, a brilliant young man, who slowly loses his mind, and a wild, horror story is spun. Reading this classic will give you a new perspective on monsters, the human mind and so much more!!
Halloween Playlist – Hear it on Youtube!
Artwork by Leeya
How to Get to Our Interactive Halloween Short Story
We will read this story aloud at our Halloween Storytime! If you would like to join our storytime live, please join our Halloween Storytime by going to: youtube.com/watch?v=hFodfpwZ0GA We were unable to type the story out because we had designed an interactive short story for our viewers.
Halloween Comic
Designed and written by Leeya
Our AMAZING Halloween Artwork
The City of Fire
by Neel
Neel’s artwork showcases the awe-inspiring ability of superheroes and how they save the day. Neel decided that because so many people dress up as superheroes on Halloween, this would be a perfect piece for our Halloween edition.
A Starry Halloween
by Mirabel
Based on Vincent Van Gogh’s, A Starry Night, this painting of Mirabel’s (renamed A Starry Halloween) depicts a Halloween night, full of stars, color and the moon. The original painting is said to have thousands of interpretations though Van Gogh made it when he was in an asylum, looking out of the window. However, you can interpret this anyway you would like.
What has Happened to Halloween?
Poem by Adalia
Usually on Halloween,
we dress up and creep
around the neighborhood
to get yummy candy and
tasty tricks for all.
And until things began to change,
we would laugh and chant
and be crazy on Halloween!
Now that we have a virus on the loose
and safety is the #1 priority,
we are going to have to change the tradition
and Halloweening might not happen…
But never fear!
because A and L have a plan!!
BOO! It’s Halloween!!
and we know things have changed,
but we’ve handed out some candy,
to make everyone smile!
Enjoy your Reese’s and those Snickers,
and caramel M&M’s someone recommended!!
What Will Be Happening at A and L Halloween Storytime?
- We will read our Halloween story to begin! Hopefully, you have so much fun listening to it and can tell us what you think in the YouTube chat!
- Next we will read chapter four of Frankenstein and go over our discussion on Jamboard! Anyone with the link should be able to edit the file, which can be found on our website!!
- You may take a short quiz to see what you know about Frankenstein!
- If you have any ideas for book, movie or song reviews we should do, fill out our ‘What Should We Review Next?’ form on our website!!
- Now, we will turn on our Halloween playlist!!!
- Then, we will show our viewers how to make a cereal box gravestone! This is a super easy thing but you must make sure you have a cereal box or shoebox (or similar-sized box), newspaper and colored paper so you can follow along!