The Spooky Scavenger Hunt (Dinosaur Train) - Giveaway & Book Review - Glowing Nocturnal Eyes Craft

Bare trees, brisk evenings, the rustle of the dry corn stalks -- signs of fall are everywhere. This also means Halloween is just around the corner. Spooky decorations and pumpkins galore have started to adorn the front of homes in our neighborhood. What about spooky picture book reads? Now is a good time to scatter a few around the house. Here's one for Dinosaur Train fans...

The Spooky Scavenger Hunt (Dinosaur Train). Grosset & Dunlap /Penguin Young Readers (August 2011); ISBN 978044845604; 32 pages
(Review copy provided by The Jim Henson Company)

With a full moon shining above, only the brave dinos climb aboard the night train. Buddy, Mr. Pteranodon and Tiny ready themselves for a spooky scavenger hunt adventure lead by the conductor, a Troodon dinosaur. The dinosaurs quickly learn that the conductor has night vision and his eyes "glow," a rather spooky sight. The group of dinosaurs uses their sense of smell, hearing, and vision to find various things during their nighttime scavenger hunt. The dark evening walk isn't too spooky until something unexpected (but not really all that scary) pops out along the way.

I tend to bypass commercialized books because they often fail to measure up to my standards. While the writing in this one isn't stellar, I must admit The Spooky Scavenger Hunt does provide a nice springboard for talking about many scientific topics such as the senses and eyeshine or tapetum lucidum (the reason some animal's eyes glow/reflect light at night). According to scientists, Troodons most likely had nocturnal vision. Also, for those looking for spooky but not scary books without a Halloween slant, this one fits the bill. It doesn't specifically mention Halloween, candy, costumes or anything else associated with the holiday. Too bad the publishers didn't print actual glow-in-the dark eyes on the pages. While my kids generally liked the story, I think it would have been an even bigger spooky hit with glow-in-the dark Troodon eyes!

While I'm not positive, I believe this story is based on an older Dinosaur Train episode called "Night Train." See a snippet below:



Next week, the Jim Henson Company is gearing up for Halloween with two new 2011 PBS kids Halloween episodes:

Dinosaur Train Halloween Episode - "Haunted Roundhouse/Big Pond Pumpkin Patch" - premieres 10/20 on PBS Kids (check local listings, repeats the following days: 10/24, 10/28, 10/30, 10/31)

Sid the Science Kid Halloween Episode - "Spooky Science" - premieres 10/17 on PBS Kids (check local listings, repeats the following days: 10/25, 10/28, 10/30, 10/31)

My son was a dinosaur for Halloween last year so I'm sure he'd love to dress up like one of the Dinosaur Train characters. If you're still looking for costume ideas this year, take a look at PBS Kids for directions on how to make your own Dinosaur Train Buddy costume or Sid the Science Kid Halloween Costume. Dinosaur Train themed costumes are also available for purchase from California Costume.

◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ Spooky Glowing Nocturnal Eyes Craft ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉

Since the book didn't have actual "glowing" nocturnal eyes we decided to make some of our own! The kids used some glow-in-the dark fabric paint and painted sets of eyes onto dark blue paper. After the eyes dried, we went into a dark room with the pictures. Several pairs of spooky eyes looked right at us! :)

For the record, glow-in-the-dark paint is awesome, and my kids adore using it in their various craft projects. If you don't own any, I highly recommend purchasing some, especially with Halloween approaching. (We used Tulip 3D Glow-in-the-dark Natural Fashion Paint for this project.)





A Mommy's Adventures hosts the "stART" meme (Story + Art) each week. Add your kids craft post to the Kid's Get Crafty linky at Red Ted Art's Blog. Writing a post about play? Join the It's Playtime party! Find more great book tie-ins at JDaniel4's Mom Read, Explore, Learn link-up. Browse more book posts at Little Sprout Books' Feed Me Books Friday.


Add a spooky, but not too scary read to your children's book collection! The Jim Henson Company has kindly offered to give away a copy of The Spooky Scavenger Hunt Dinosaur Train book.

For a chance to win, leave a comment relative to this post or answer the following question: What's your favorite Halloween (or spooky) book or movie?

• For contact purposes, if you are a non-blogger or your email is not accessible in your blog profile, please leave a valid email address within the comment section.
• Contest is open to US only
• Contest ends on Monday, October 31st, 2011 at 11:59 PM CST.
• Winner will be chosen at random and sent an email notification.

Three ways to gain extra entries (Maximum total entries is 4; please leave a separate comment for each entry):
1st extra entry: Blog about this contest then post your link in the comment section.
2nd extra entry: Follow me on twitter (iambrimful) and tweet about the contest.
3rd extra entry: Follow Me! or subscribe by email or RSS reader

I am an Amazon affiliate and may receive a very small commission for products purchased through my Amazon links. (View my full disclosure statement for more information about my reviews.)