happy halloween from khaki shorts!

Here is my Halloween joke:

Q: What do mummies like listening to?

A: Wrap music!

(ba dum ching! i’ll be here all night!)

(ok, i’m sorry.)

I’ve been celebrating Halloween all month by working Boo at the Zoo! This year I made a new pre-show Halloween playlist, so, to celebrate this spooky night on the blog I thought I’d share it with you!

Without further ado…

THE (SORT OF) ULTIMATE HALLOWEEN PLAYLIST:

1. Ghostbusters: This is an obvious choice. We play this before every Boo at the Zoo show and I’m not even being sarcastic when I say it never gets old. This bad boy was all the rage when I was in Kindergarten and it’s still a classic. ‘Bustin’ makes me feel good!

2. Witchy Woman, The Eagles:  Totally timeless, this song gets you in the right sort of “witchy” mood for a spooky evening.

3. I Put a Spell on You, Creedence Clearwater Revival:
Made famous to my generation by Bette Midler’s performance in the Halloween classic Hocus Pocus, I couldn’t find the movie version so Creedence Clearwater’s rendition was the next best thing. I love the guitar on this one.

4. Monster Mash: Corny? Perhaps. But necessary on any Halloween playlist.

5. Purple People Eater: See above.

6. Somebody’s Watching Me, Rockwell:  Is it dumb of me to have just discovered this song this year? Well, it’s a good one. Background vocals from none other than Michael Jackson to boot, and very timely in our current era of drones and Edward Snowden.

7. Time Warp, Rocky Horror Picture Show: This song is just so darn fun to listen and dance to.

8. X-Files Theme Song: The ultimate in scary, good fun. I used to be so terrified of the X-Files, but oh, so fascinated too. This little diddy brings me back to many a sleepover watching Scully and Mulder.

9. Hedwig’s Theme, Harry Potter Soundtrack:  I love the first few notes of this song. Brings me chills every time. Harry Potter anything is always appropriate, but especially around Halloween time. 

10. Dark Horse, Katy Perry: I read somewhere that this song was inspired by The Craft (which happened to be my little sister’s favorite movie when she was in Kindergarten. Weird? Yes.) making it a great Halloween jam when you’re ready for a little more of a pop/rap mix.

11. Nightmare on My Street, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince: Did I say rap? Well, here’s your real Halloween rap. I discovered this song this year and it is GREAT. Basically take The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air rap and add silly lyrics about Freddy Kruger and there ya go. Good, Halloween fun.

12. Witchcraft, Frank Sinatra: A little Frank can never hurt to class a list up a bit.

13.Thriller, Michael Jackson: Obviously.

14. Haunted, Taylor Swift: This one was the most controversial addition to the pre-show playlist, but, hey, I needed another song and this one is called Haunted (very Halloween-y) plus I liked the violins. Haters gonna hate, people.

What do you think of the Halloween playlist? Which songs would you add or veto?

Now go out and rot your teeth with candy corn! Happy Halloween!

The Best Letter Ever.

I wanted to share a very sweet story tonight on the blog.

A few weeks ago, Don Corrigan and I teamed up for an event at the Washington, MO Library. The two of us gave a joint presentation about tornadoes and it was a very nice evening, but by far the best moment of the night came before our speech.

I was approached by a woman named KyLee who handed me an envelope. Inside was a letter about her son Billy. The letter touched me so deeply, I wanted to share it here.

The full text is below:

Earlier this year my family and I attended Washington’s Family Reading Night. We were introduced to your book by you, Lily and Tara. Both of my boys were enthralled with the book and especially Lily. My eldest son, Billy (5 yrs), not only loved the book, but truly tried to grasp the concept of what the book was conveying. We read it every night for nearly 2 months. One night he asked me, “Mom, can we go to Joplin? I would like to give the people my piggy bank to help them.” After fighting back tears of pride and joy at my little boy’s giant heart I told him, “Absolutely.”

In May my sister-in-laws and I worked out a weekend for them to take the boys for a weekend of fun with their aunts. They happen to live near Joplin. I asked them if they would be willing to take part of a day and drive over to Joplin for Billy. He wanted to see the city and give his money to someone. They agreed. Unfortunately, he was unable to make his donation as they were unable to locate Red Cross or another similar organization. He was truly upset that he couldn’t hand his money to someone that could help him help Joplin. He came home from the weekend happy to have been able to see Joplin in its state of reconstruction. He was also confused and ready to learn more about the memorials his aunts had taken him to see. When he came home he asked me to find someone he could give his money to for Joplin.

I have looked online and found many places I could donate online. I could print the receipt for my donation and let him have it as proof of his generosity. I feel that the idea of what he wanted to do for Joplin would not be as meaningful to him in this fashion. He truly would like to hand the money to a person that he knows will give it to the people in Joplin. I believe that the act of handing his money to a person will be able to make this generous moment last a lifetime.

I read about the Tornadoes in MO program coming to our library and that you were going to attend. I felt this was the perfect situation for him to be able to hand his piggy bank to a person. I truly hope you will be able to accept this donation in person for him so that this truly heartfelt idea can become a permanent positive feeling of truly helping others in his own way.

I would like to thank you for writing this book. Your book is proof of how powerful words can truly be. Your book is proof of the power of reading. I do not know if you set out to try and shape people’s lives with your book. I will tell you that whether or not you intended to shape lives with this book, you have done exactly that with my son. I am thankful for your contribution to the personal growth of my son.
Sometimes the work that goes into writing and promoting books can seem overwhelming and even somewhat futile. But letters like this one make it all worth it. So much love and effort–between Tara, myself, Nick the illustrator, the staff at Reedy Press, Chris and Dawn at the Missouri Press Association, my writing group and others–went into the creation of Lily: A True Story of Courage and the Joplin Tornado. Billy’s letter reminded me why I wanted to write this book in the first place and gave me motivation to continue to work on children’s stories.
Billy’s generosity, his caring mother and this beautiful letter will always have a special place in my heart.
Thank you Billy for such a lovely dose of inspiration!