Monthly Archives: October 2013
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Above is one of the FEW holiday pictures for which one of our cats co-operated. His name’s Lucky. In many places, black cats are deemed unlucky, but we’re British, so to us, black cats are a symbol of good luck. Hence his name. We’ve had four full blacks over the years (the others were called […]
HISTORIC HYSTERIA
On October 30th, 1938, actor Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre Group caused a nation-wide panic with a radio broadcast of a play adapted from the science fiction novel, The War of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells. That this was just a play was clearly stated in the introduction, but close to a million of […]
DON’T FORGET THE STORY # 2
With Halloween almost upon us, here are some more spooky reads for kids. Some are not set in the past, but they do have ghosts and other … things from the past. For Ages 3-6 Gunhilde & The Halloween Spell by Virginia Kahl For Ages 7-9 Magic Tree House # 30: Haunted Castle On Hallow’s […]
GUEST WRITER # 2: GHOST WRITER V.L. MURRAY
INTERVIEW WITH GHOST WRITER V.L. MURRAY Check out Lynne’s ghostly contest at the end of the interview! Lynne Murray isn’t a ghost writer in the sense that she anonymously writes for other people. She sometimes writes about ghosts, and since she’s my guest today, I just have to ask her if she actually believes […]
HISTORY NOVEL REVIEW # 2: A HALLOWE’EN TALE
This book’s very cover gives you chills. As well it should because, who hasn’t been on a lonely road like that? A road on which anything might happen on a dark night – especially if that night is Halloween. And something does happen when Olivia and her friends set off for a Halloween party and […]
HALLOWEEN DVD SUGGESTIONS
A little personal history in which I recall how, some years back, the parish Halloween Party almost got a little too spooky. Returning from the video store with what the clerk had assured him was a scary movie, the priest handed the co-ordinator The Blair Witch Project. After a pause, she said, “Yes, well, Father, […]
MAKING A GAME OF HISTORY # 4: TRIVIA TRAIL
“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.” – Michael Crichton As those who live in the northern hemisphere have no doubt noticed, leaves have started to turn colour, and children everywhere are gathering them up for autumn projects. As […]
HISTORIC RUNNERS
“He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.” The above saying has proven advantageous for several historical figures. You can introduce kids to this wise old adage by telling them about England’s merry monarch, Charles II, whose life wasn’t always merry. In 1646, civil war forced the teen-age heir to the English […]
HISTORY’S CAT HATERS & CAT LOVERS
The world is made up of ailurophobes and ailurophiles. Ailurophobes hate and/or fear cats. The list of cat-hating historical figures includes Pope Gregory IX, Queen Elizabeth I, Johannes Brahms, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ailurophiles love cats. The list of cat-loving historical figures includes Muhammad, Nostradamus, Marie Antoinette, Robert E. Lee, Florence Nightingale, Albert […]
