"Spooky Fun" Calls for Brains and Imagination

Spooky Fun (Barron's Educational Series, Inc.)

Price $17.99-$19.99

Make Halloween more than just an excuse to eat candy, turn it into a chance for your child to read and use his noggin. Part book and part game, Spooky Fun is an exercise in language arts, math, and—most important for Halloween—imagination.

The book brings your child right into the thick of a haunted house story—giving her the chance to become a “Spook Buster” by challenging her to puzzles she'll need to solve in order to escape the haunted house. The kit includes an adventure book and the props which go along with the story, including a magic ring, a pot of green slime, a magnifying glass, a spider and 3-D glasses.

Despite the attraction of the plastic goodies in the pack, it's the story that conjures up all the fun and excitement. The book's rich use of descriptive adjectives, like “Thunder crashes and lightening slashes the sky” are sure to help your child's vocabulary improve, but may be too advanced for your 5-year-old. A child just learning about writing techniques like metaphors and similes will benefit from hearing about hinges which “squeal as if they are in pain” and rooms which are “choking with spiderwebs.”

Mixed into the story are rhymes, riddles, tongue twisters, optical illusions, number codes and grids that serve as real brain benders and math practice.

Excited yet? Worried the content is too scary? The story is not so frightening as it is gruesome, what with eyeballs and maggots that feel a little too lifelike for comfort. Though the props are a fun way to bring kids into the story, fumbling for dragon's blood and figuring out the bat decoder disrupts the flow of the story. It would have been easier and more authentic if the items were placed in a small cloth pouch, rather than a clear plastic case.

If you and your child can integrate the props without losing momentum, this is a fun and educational way to get spooky with it this Halloween, sans sugar and corn syrup.