John and Sydney's class came to the library today for a holiday presentation and book talk. At first we scheduled for Halloween, with the obvious scary book talk and viewing of an animated short of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell Tale Heart, but we later moved the date to November 1. Scary seems passe' by that point, but the class had already seen my first alternate idea, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.
This coming weekend Paideia's Latino Parents Association is sponsoring the annual Day of the Dead celebration, with traditional Mexican food and music, and displays of altars created by various school groups. So today's theme was Dia de Los Muertos.
We started with the wonderful 1929 Disney animated short, The Skeleton Dance, and all the books I talked were in some way related to El Dia, spirits, souls and the afterlife, or Mexico/Mexican-Americans. Students in both groups checked out books at the end of the period -- almost half of the books presented were taken! A successful and fun day.
Book checked out included:
Elsewhere
Everlost
All That Remains
Anna Dressed in Blood
The Afterlife
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall
A Certain Slant of Light
Other books in the talk included Corpses, Coffins and Crypts: A History of Burial; Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife; A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver; The Graveyard Book; and David v. God.
Enjoy Disney's first entry in a series of 75 Silly Symphony cartoons, The Skeleton Dance. If the embed video doesn't show, click on the title above to watch directly from YouTube.
Do you celebrate All Saints' Day or El Dia de Los Muertos? Share your traditions in the comments.
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