Kids are under plenty of stress these days, absorbing grownups’ various real-world anxieties, not to mention wearing masks long before picking out their Halloween costumes.
Children’s author and illustrator Jorge Lacera and Common Sense Media’s Senior TV Editor Polly Conway offer a selection of their favorite new books and TV shows, with varying degrees of spookiness.
The Muppets have tried a bunch of different things in the last few years, and not everything has stuck.
Based on the Adam Gidwitz book series of the same name, A Tale Dark and Grimm is an irreverent, darkly humorous retelling of classic Brothers Grimm stories starring such comedians as Ron Funches, Nicole Byer and Scott Adsit.
Conway calls this new series “something for the younger kids who want to feel a little bit scared, but maybe are not quite ready for the big stuff.” Eternally optimistic Molly is a teenager whose family has finally moved into their forever home.
“This is like an X-Files for kids,” says Conway.
“You’re told that, ‘Oh, please come in and check this place, you know, come in from the cold.
Another haunted house tour, in There’s a Ghost in This House “the narrator is convinced that their house is haunted.
He has this relationship with a ghost who is very much present in the story and sort of has this cool, spooky edge to it.
Like a zombie that just won’t die, the track “Spooky Scary Skeletons” has risen from the dead multiple times: A YouTuber paired Gold’s original version with a 1929 Disney cartoon, and the Undead Tombstone Remix spawned a gazillion TikTok videos including one by Will Smith.