Skeleton Bones and Goblin Groans: Poems for Halloween

by Amy E. Sklansky, Karen Dismukes (Illustrator)

Jack o' lantern
Jack o' light.
Jack o' darkness.
Jack o' night.

A spirited collection of Halloween poems
guaranteed to tickle the funny bone

Thrillsome, shocking, bewitching -Halloween! It's the only night of the year where a being can truly be . . . itself! But Halloween's not just for goblins. Read along and see for yourself as bats, witches, daring adventurers, even ordinary kids (especially ordinary kids!) are excited to come out for tricks or treats.

Spooky-fun poems and winning hand-beaded illustrations perfectly capture the fun of this much-loved holiday.

Genres: Halloween, Poetry, Picture Books, Childrens, Holiday, Nonfiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2004

About the author

Amy E. Sklansky has been writing books for children since 2002. Her dozen works include poetry, picture books, and board books.

Reviews

[Corinne Creighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is filled with fantastic short poems is destined to get anyone excited for Halloween! Each page has a different poem about all things Halloween. For example there is a poem about Skeletons, Vampires, figuring out what costume to be, trick-or-treating, mummies and many more. Some stanzas of these poems are written to fall off the page. One poem about a skeleton in a grave has the text of the poem falling down into his grave! The illustrations on these pages give the allure of spookiness which will really give kids excitement for Halloween.
As a huge fan of Halloween I immediately picked up this book once I saw it. My favorite part about this book is how the background of the illustrations play into the illustrations of the characters. For example, the poem about Frankenstein has a bright green background that goes well with the drawn Frankenstein. Also, for the poem about a skeleton in a graveyard, the background is a dark blue shade that really gives off a spooky night time feel. Most Halloween poem books are very cheesy and not fun to read, however this book really brings the spooky feel and kids will feel excitement when reading!

[Dominic Sedillo · Rating 2 out of 5]

The rhymes are kinda whatever. The illustrations are fun. It seems to be a book that the rhymes rely on the illustrations being in front of you; reading them independently doesn’t make as much sense because there is no context.

However, I’d this fine for little, teeny, tiny kids.

[Sierra Dirksen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a series of poems about all the monsters that come out on halloween. I was excited to find a halloween poem book, because many times you can not find halloween related books. This book was interesting with is bright colors and different creates. It was interactive by making the reader turn the book different ways for different poems. Overall, I liked the book and would definitely read it for Halloween.

[Amber Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems are amazing! This would be a good book of poems to read around Halloween time. I really like how none of the poems are scary, so this would be good to read with any age group. I would use this in the classroom and read one poem a day, for every day we are at school in the month of October. This would also be a good preview for students about Halloween poems, and then you could have them write their own Halloween poems.

[Hannah]

A large collection of Halloween poems. The poems vary in length throughout but each follows a Halloween theme. This would be a great book to read during the month of October in just little areas of down time. The kids could also write their own Halloween themed poems and display them In the hallway printed on different halloween printed caricatures.

[Emily Knickerbocker]

This book was full of poems about Halloween. It was silly and would be a fun read to an elementary class leading up to Halloween. I would have the students write about Halloween talking about their favorite part and why we celebrate Halloween.

[Christine Kallner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection for Halloween with unique hand-beaded illustrations.

[Egallagher2016gmail.Com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frankenstein, a ghost and a mummy are in it.

[Savannah Domeyer]

This book has a handful of poems about Halloween. It would be perfect to do an activity with these in your classroom during Halloween time.

[Jaden]

Poetry Book

This book is full of fun Halloween poems. Some of the poems are funny and some are scary. This would be a great book to read for fun to the class around Halloween!

[Katie Petrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book of poems Amy E. Sklansky tells a variety of stories through various Halloween creatures. Each poem has its unique voice that brings to life a new story within each individual character.

Each poem has its own individual style to it that it holds its own unique value. In considering the shape of the poems, each poem has a different shape. Some are long with few lines, and others may only have two words per line. This shape brings a different effect to enhance the words. For example, the long but short shape of the poem goes along with goblin it is describing. In ways the poem takes shape of the character. This goes to enhance the effect of the text. This applies for long short lines in other poems. For example, the long short poem resembles the character of a one eyed creature who stands tall. By using different shapes to the poem it helps readers visualize characters clearer. Additionally, it also plays off of the actual text allowing readers to grasp the whole meaning of the poem. In terms of visuals within these poems, each has its own picture. The pictures do a good job of working off of the poems. The images are at times mirrored to the text, where as other times the images help give deeper insight in the poem. This children's poetry book has a variety of styles and combinations that is perfect to expand a young readers mind and literary experience.

[Catherine Toca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skeleton Bones & Goblin Groans is a fantastic book of easy poems for kids with an exciting Halloween theme.

In this book, the poems all share the central theme of Halloween but are not too scary for children. Some of the poems include themes of picking a Halloween costume, the anatomy of a skeleton and an upside down poem about a bat. The poems are all fairly short so as not to lose the interest of young readers.

The illustrations are also very bright and fun, which makes it a very good eye-catcher. The pictures are made of beadwork, done by Karen Dismukes. This creates a fantastic sense of texture on every page.

My personal favorite poem in the book is entitled House for Sale! This poem gives the reader all of the specification of the house pictured. It isn't until the end that it is revealed that the house is haunted!

This book is perfect for kids. They will especially have a fun time with it around Halloween to get them into the spirit of things!

[Jessica]

Super fun to read to children around Halloween time. It gets the class to giggle and think of creepy ways to write poems which are many times bland. The artwork is colorful and unique. It looks as though someone stitched up all of the pictures. The poems are simple and include rhymes which could also be a learning point for the class. The poems also include many words that are not common in children's books like entombed, mandible, sneer, agape etc. Many learning experiences can be had while the children are enjoying the poems.

[Ashley Lahr]

This book has a wide variety of Halloween poems. There are ones about Frankenstein and skeletons. This would be a good poetry book to share with lower elementary students. There's a Poem called, "What should I be" this would be good to share with the class to talk about what they plan on as going for Halloween.

[Brittany Cullen]

This is a really cute poem book to read to kids around Halloween. They are rhyming poems that children really enjoy and they are funny. They have fun bright pictures that the children will enjoy looking at and you can have fun with it. You can do a lot of different activities with it and have them create Halloween poems.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

My request didn't come in until after Halloween, but it was well worth the wait. This may be my favorite Halloween book now. I love the felted, beaded illustrations and the short poems of different types and topics. Will try to request this one earlier next year!

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book of poems for Halloween. Our girls actually picked it out, based on the cover illustrations and we really enjoyed reading it aloud together. We read a few of the poems twice, they liked them so much!

[Lauren Sharp]

Poetry 1
The poems follow Halloween festivities. My favorite was "A Witches' Favorite Day." The witch says Halloween is her favorite day because no one makes fun of her and she is the most stylish. She looks forward to Halloween everyday.

[Relyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bigger hit for my students than with me. I used this with my annual poetry unit and scavenger hunt.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack is loving this 1000 books before kindergarten challenge!!!

[Abby Huhe]

This is a great poetry book for introducing poetry. The poems are short and mostly easy vocab. It is also fun for halloween.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This silly and fun book of poetry is perfect for preschoolers and up. Its fun rhyming and illustrations really scream Halloween. There is a poem on every page and it covers everything about Halloween! It’s a great book to read at a Halloween party or even in May just because. Little ones will love hearing the similar sounds and will even enjoy guessing the rhyming word. I really like how fun and upbeat this book is and how well the illustrations are.