Students love the rhyming text and playful creatures of this Halloween themed book. With just enough fun and fright for young children, Here They Come! is a Halloween classic. Students get a kick out of the surprise ending.

Students will use a variety of forms or genres when writing for different audiences.

Directions

Label the chart paper "Ghosts and Ghouls Party Menu." As a group, create a list of the foods featured in the book, writing them on the chart paper. (The list should include: apples, pumpkins, cinnamon rolls, marshmallows, corn, pumpkin pie, candy corn, and squished fish casserole.)  Give students time to create their own menus, complete with foods and prices. They can use the construction paper for Halloween themed artwork.

Lesson Extensions

Have students create a recipe for "Squished Fish Casserole."

Related Resources

While Mr. Costello currently does not have a website, the following biography should be of interest:

David Costello was born in upstate New York and began drawing as soon as he could hold a crayon. He drew constantly, filling reams of paper with characters of his own making. His favorites became the subjects of ongoing stories that David wrote and illustrated. One of his early recurring characters was “The Math Wizard,” who lived on the upper-right-hand corner of his eighth-grade math assignments and whose adventures were of continuing interest to the entire class. In high school, David’s interests branched out. He attended the Hartford Academy of Performing Arts, where he studied acting, and then went on to major in theater and visual arts at Bard College. After graduating, David worked on the sets of plays and movies, including Hello, Dolly! on Broadway and the films Angels in America and Spider-Man. He also painted, created puppets for theater productions, and spent a year living in Indonesia. David now lives in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, where he writes children’s stories, songs, and plays; goes hiking and cross-country skiing; and continues to fill reams of paper with the characters and images that populate his imagination.