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I love horror and scary icky things.  I am careful to seperate my fondness of that subject from my daughter (4 1/2 years old) and my son (1 year old).  I am careful to hide my horror DVD’s away like they were something to be ashamed of.  Of course they are not, but seriously, the cover art on most of them are certainly not appropriate for a 4 1/2 year old!  With that said, I am very careful as to what I introduce to my children.

A friend of mine over at Raw Dog Screaming Press, Jennifer Barnes, recently wrote a children’s story with a bit of a “fright” to it.  It’s not horrid, it’s not explicit, it’s not graphic.  It is a children’s story called, Better Haunted Homes and Gardens.  It is illustrated by Kristen Margiotta.  It is published by Imaginary Books and is about 15 pages long.

My daughter (I’ll concentrate on her views rather than my son’s because his comprehension is simply various smiles and coos right now) does have a streak in her that enjoys being scared.  She will hide in a doorway and jump out at me, yelling “BOO!” as loud as she can.  She has very nearly made me poop myself a few times doing that!  I’m so proud of her!  There was another time when I went to see a scary movie and she wanted to go.  My wife explained to her that I was going to see a scary movie, to which my daughter replied, “but I like scary movies, I saw the Backyardigans Halloween cartoon!“  Oh how my heart broke!

Okay, Better Haunted Homes and Gardens is a fun quick read before bedtime, well.. maybe.  Ivy is someone who is looking for a home to purchase because her bug collection had outgrown the room she was currently renting.  (My daughter loves bugs and crawly things too by the way)  The story takes us to different homes that Ivy is looking at.  Finally she finds one that is described as having “12 secret passages” in the main foyer (could there be more?).  The house is big and full of secrets.

The really cool part to this book is that there is certianly room for further adventures with Ivy and her bugs.

My take; it’s certainly something I’ll add to my daughter’s book collection.

My daughter’s take: “daddy I want a big bug collection too, read it again.”

All in all, I liked it, my daughter liked it, when my son is old enough I’ll introduce it to him as well.

Check it out, it’s a fun read!