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Welcome to Monster Movie Month!

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and it’s true that in a horror movie you can experience in a a moment a feeling of terror you might never capture with words. With the right camera shots, music, and special effects, films do more than give a face to horror– they add new dimensions to storytelling. There are a lot of horror readers who also love horror movies (reviewer Colleen Wanglund is currently spending a lot of time at the New York Asian Film Festival)Yet there’s a divide between horror movie watchers and horror fiction readers–there are lots of people who watch horror movies who don’t read horror fiction, and there are many readers who don’t watch the movies.

This gives readers advisory librarians a special opportunity to share the horror genre with both audiences–watchers and readers. It can be hard to know what to suggest, especially if you don’t know much about the genre. In the recently published second edition to The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, author and RA librarian Becky Siegel Spratford suggested ten horror films for horror readers. Then my six year old Monster Kid asked if we would write about monster movies (he’s a big Godzilla fan). So we are declaring this July Monster Movie Month (I apologize to all those expecting Werewolf Month, but I promise we’ll still have something for you).

We created a Monster Movie Month web page where we’ll be posting reviews of some of the great movies in the horror genre, with suggested watch-alikes and read-alikes, and we’ll also have several guest blogs- you’ll want to take some time to read what Becky Siegel Spratford has to say about marketing horror, and what the podcasters from The Cutting Room horror movie podcast think about horror movies, books, and libraries.

We’ll also be sharing a variety of resources for further investigation- in addition to links on the web page, visit our Monster Movie Month board on Pinterest and you’ll find additional resources. Right now, we’ve got some great information on Lovecraftian horror movies and Godzilla, kaiju and giant monster movies, and there is more to come. Visit us often to see what new things we’ve posted to this blog and added to the Monster Movie Month web page. There is a ton of cool stuff here so take time to explore! And thanks for joining us for Monster Movie Month!

To find the resources for Monster Movie Month easily, check out the links below, and search for posts about Monster Movie Month on this blog’s tag archive under Monster Movie Month!

Monster Movie Month Web Page

Monster Movie Month Pinterest Board

Posted on July 1, 2012 by , 2 comments

Giveaway: The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin


The Darkening Dream, a dark fantasy  by Andy Gavin, which we recently reviewed here, is currently available for 99 cents as a Kindle ebook from June 25-29. Get your 99 cent copy of The Darkening Dream today on Amazon here, or read the first two sample chapters here first, if you’re feeling shy.

In addition to writing an excellent novel, Andy Gavin is the creator of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter. Look for a guest post from him in the near future!

Andy is doing a big giveaway, including a $100 gift certificate to Amazon, signed copies of his books, video games, posters, and more!

Tweet, like, follow, share, blog and grab a copy of his book to enter.

The Darkening Dream Rafflecopter Giveaway

 

Our review of The Darkening Dream:

In his sinister fantasy novel, Andy Gavin introduces a new horror to grip the town of Salem, Massachusetts during the early 1900’s; vampires. Gavin envelops the reader with his spell-binding imagery fashioning a narrative that will send chills to your very soul.

Sarah Engelmann is pious, devout, and spiritual. She leads a life of sincerity, and this dedication leaves no room for imaginary creatures.  Her life is turned upside down when she finds a young man who has been grotesquely murdered. Sarah receives visions of bloody trees and hears the haunting voice of a long dead woman as secrets from the past begin to arise. Sarah, along with her best friends, and her growing romantic interest, soon become wrapped in a 900 -year old fight in which her very life and soul are dependent.

A blood sacrifice and a battle with the Almighty’s Angel to uncover a most precious treasure lead  the four friends, a sadistic vampire, an immortal sorcerer, and a Puritan warlock on a race.  “Nothing’s ever free…” rings in Sarah’s ears as steadily as the Angel’s holy trumpet sounds, signifying millennium old secrets and visions of a wolf, a beetle, a ram and a vampire that haunt her mind day and night. Her father’s wisdom and teachings, passed down to her, enhance her knowledge of what she is to protect. By combining her faith and intelligence, Sarah attempts to conquer what others had only dreamed of doing.

Secrets are abundant and obstacles appear in as one of Sarah’s friends becomes possessed by witchcraft. It takes all of Sarah’s willpower and faith to break the curse that binds her friend to a demon determined to use her soul for his own bidding. As more deaths occur, and protective forces around Sarah fail, blood starts to flow, opening the entrance to God’s realm. From the ashes, a new Sarah emerges.

Gavin’s horrific novel blends the Puritan faith, magic, horror and a bit of romance together, producing an ominous tale in which one girl’s actions could mean life or death for so many she loves.

Review by Dave Simms

 

 

 

Posted on June 26, 2012 by , 1 comment

Monster Kid Request: Move Over, Judy Moody!

If you are a children’s librarian, or a school librarian, or anyone who works with upper elementary aged kids, you are probably familiar with Judy Moody. Judy Moody is one of the less annoying protagonists that appear in series books targeted to girls. She isn’t concerned with looks or popularity, she wants to be a doctor, and her concerns go beyond the superficial. I find her annoying anyway. She rolls her eyes and says “boring” a lot, and she’s not very nice to her younger brother, who she’s nicknamed Stink.

But Stink is now coming into his own. He has his own series of books, with witty cartoons (supposedly drawn by him) and fun stories that even manage to sneak in a little learning. These books are aimed at kids who are a little younger, and my kids, who are 4 and 6,  will sit and listen to me read a Stink book for over an hour. I can’t say I like everything about the books, but they are enjoyable and funny without having nearly as much name calling or gross humor as some other books aimed at kids this age.

What’s really interesting to me, though, is that the Stink Moody website has zoomed in on one particular book (that I haven’t read) and created a whole event kit around the theme. The book is Stink and the Midnight Zombie Walk and the event is… wait for it… Reading Is Undead. The kit even ties in last summer’s movie, Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, which, in addition to Stink’s extensive hunt for the elusive Bigfoot (which resulted in some pretty fun movie tie-in books that we do own, due to the Monster Kid’s obsession with Bigfoot and other cryptids) also has a fairly memorable zombie scene. Now, the Monster Kid is not allowed to watch zombie movies, and we try to tone the whole zombie thing down here, but there it is- another kid his age who gets into monsters, at probably the most age appropriate and non-gory way possible (yes, you may laugh at me now).

I think Stink and his friends could appeal to both girls and boys, especially because of the Judy Moody connection (the series is very popular) but, given how many books are already in the series and how many themes they address, I think it’s crazy fun that Candlewick Press is promoting reading, and the Stink Moody books, with cryptids and zombies. There are so many ways to get kids to read using this promotion, I encourage you to check it out, as well as the other Stink Moody books and resources, available here.

Posted on June 20, 2012 by , 3 comments
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