Teachers' Night Before Halloween

Halloween is the one day of the entire school year that teachers dread most, and this year, the students have started celebrating a day early. Cupcake icing is smeared all over a third-grade classroom, and everyone is preparing for the annual Halloween Day parade. With princesses running a tiara trade ring in the girls' bathroom and a laser sword battle among fourth-grade space rangers, the teachers are quickly losing control of the school to Halloween spirit. When a group of fifth-grade monsters tie up two first-graders and prepare to eat them, the teachers are ready to call it quits, but the principal insists on perfect teacher attendance on October 31. It looks like this year's Halloween will be more trick than treat. It's up to the students and their parents to show the teachers a new kind of Halloween and give them a holiday treat they'll never forget. [Back Flap] Steven L. Layne serves as director of the Master of Education in Literacy program at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois, where he is also an associate professor of education and literature. Dr. Layne's collection of Pelican books includes several titles in the signature %b%iNight Before Christmas Series,%r including %b%iPreacher's Night Before Christmas, The Teachers' Night Before Christmas,%r and %b%iThe Principal's Night Before Christmas.%r He is also the author of the gift books %b%iVerses for Dad's Heart%r and %b%iVerses for Mom's Heart%r and two young-adult thrillers, %b%iThis Side of Paradise%r and %b%iMergers.%r This is Layne's second picture book collaboration with illustrator Ard Hoyt, the first being the widely successful %b%iLove the Baby.%r Layne lives with his wife and their four children in Illinois. Born in Temple, Texas, Ard Hoyt is the illustrator of nine picture books, including the %iNew York Times%r bestseller %iI'm a Manatee,%r by John Lithgow, and Steven Layne's %b%iLove the Baby.%r Hoyt lives in Arkansas with his wife and five daughters.