October

By Bobbi Katz b. 1933 Bobbi Katz

October is

when night guzzles up

the orange sherbet sunset

and sends the day

to bed

before supper

and

October is when jack-o’-lanterns

grin in the darkness

and

strange company crunches

across the rumple of dry leaves

to ring a doorbell.

October is

when you can be ghost,

a witch,

a creature from outer space…

almost anything!

And the neighbors, fearing tricks,

give you treats.

Source: Once Around the Sun (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)

Biography

Bobbi Katz once told Contemporary Authors: "I write for children because I hope to join those writers and artists who delight, sensitize, and give hope to children." A former editor at Random House, Katz has had success publishing her own rhyming picture books for elementary school students. These range from the sublime, such as American History Poems and We, the People, to the outright ridiculous, such as A Rumpus of Rhymes: A . . .

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