Vestavia Hills Library hosts Spooktacular with stories, snacks, crafts and disco

The Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest hosted Halloween-loving kids and their families during special hours on Friday, Oct. 28, for its fifth annual Library Spooktacular.

The event featured Halloween crafts in the library’s treehouse, fun science activities in Dr. Frankenstein’s Lab, shadow puppets in the children’s department hallway, the Monster Mash Disco on the third-floor plaza and a screening of the classic animated TV special, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown in the community room.

There was also a snack bar featuring foamy treats made with orange soda and vanilla ice cream.

However, the spooky stories told in the community room by children’s head librarian and event organizer April Moon seemed to have been the biggest hit of all.

“We were loving the storytelling,” said Jim Powell, who was holding his daughter Ever, age 3.

Clayton Hollinhead said that his kids “seemed to be pretty enthralled” with Moon’s stories.

Hollinhead and his wife, Elise, attended the Spooktacular with their three children, ranging in age from 1 to 5.

The Hollinheads were also pleased by the event overall. “It’s a good variety of events for the kids,” Clayton said.

Brian Williams of Vestavia attended with his son Griffin, age 3, dressed as Spiderman, and daughter Madeline, age 9, Cat Woman.

They enjoyed the Spooktacular and are fans of the Vestavia Library year-round, according to Williams.

“Even when it’s not a holiday situation, the kids and I periodically come up here on a Saturday morning and play games, read stories, read books,” he said.

“They have books you can read, and it’s educational,” Madeline added.

Many parents enjoy bringing their kids to the Spooktacular as an alternative to having them go trick or treating door to door, according to Moon. “It’s a good, safe place to be,” she said.

The Spooktacular is also popular with some parents and smaller children because it is scary without going to extremes, according to Moon, who said that the event typically draws at least 200 people, sometimes as many as 500.

“They want something scary but not something haunted-house scary, because little kids really don’t want to be that scared, and so we try to do something that’s family-oriented that the little kids can enjoy but that the (older) kids will also still enjoy,” Moon said.

While the Spooktacular originally had activities happening both inside and outside the library, this year’s event was held inside due to an unfinished ramp.

“We like to have it on the trail, and we’ve done that in the past, but with the ramp being built, we couldn’t really go out there, so hopefully next year we will be back on the trail,” Moon said. “We love being on the trail. That’s our big thing is to have the event out there and tell the stories out there, because it’s scarier.”

Moon said organizers like to take advantage of the library’s “unique” setting on a heavily wooded lot.

For more information about the Children’s Department, call 978-0158 or go to vestavialibrary.org.