With Halloween just one week away, I went through the kidlets’ bookshelf to pull out some books to get us all in a spooky mood.  I broke out “Clifford’s Halloween,” “The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat,” “Froggy’s Halloween” (my son is totally into the Froggy book collection) and even the Peanut’s classic “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”   I put them all front and center on their bookshelf in our living room, but the book they keep pulling out, time and time again, and asking mom, dad or anyone else to read them is the “Monster Mash” book I bought last year at the Hallmark store.

This “Monster Mash” book is not just based on, it’s the real lyrics from that one hit Halloween wonder of the same name by Bobby “Boris” Pickett.    The book itself features cute cartoon versions of the book/song’s characters Boris, Igor, Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man, mummies, zombies and some female counterparts – which oddly enough aren’t mentioned in the book/song.

Anyway, it’s sort of a ritual in reading this book with the kidlets.  I read the verses to them and they sing the refrain…..

They did the mash
They did the monster mash
They did the mash
It was a graveyard smash
They did the mash
It caught on in a flash
They did the mash
They did the monster mash

By the time I get to the verse about Drac being “troubled by just one thing,” I’m pretty much into the book and do my best Dracula imitation to ask “Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?”

It’s now the mash
It’s now the monster mash
The monster mash
And it’s a graveyard smash
It’s now the mash
It’s caught on in a flash
It’s now the mash
It’s now the monster mash

I’ll never forget the first time The Hubs played the song for the kids from his iPod, they went crazy dancing around singing all the words – so happy and proud they knew them all from the book.  It was a hoot to watch!

I guess it’s not bad for a relatively inexpensive holiday book that I was suckered into getting while I was buying Halloween cards. At the time I figured I wouldn’t be too heart-broken (or cash-broken) when the kidlets would quickly cast it aside after the holiday.  But the thing is, they didn’t.  My kidlets love to read this book all year round – they had me read it on Christmas, Valentine’s Day and even Independence Day!

I mean, it’s a catchy tune and all, but I don’t get why it has such a strong appeal on my kidlets…unless the book came with a mystical reading spell cast on it.  Then I guess it fits right in with Halloween!

Now it’s your turn to share. What’s your favorite Halloween book?

The Monster Mash – It’s A Reading Book Smash! by The Harried Mom, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.