While listening, plan to smile AND get more than a few goose bumps! A storyteller from the back woods spins her own tales around historical facts, original songs, and adaptations of traditional ghost stories from around the world. “Sure as beans” the creative narrative and sound effects will chill your bones and warm your spirits! CREDITS: Parents’ Choice Gold Award Dr. Toy’s Top Ten Best Audio Recordings for Children - 1999 NAPPA Gold Award - (National Parenting Publications Association) Children’s Music Web Award REVIEWS: NEW YORK BIG APPLE PARENT’S MAGAZINE by Ruth Block Children ages 6-12 will be thrilled by Katherine Dines’ new release, HUNK-TA-BUNK-TA SPOOKY! This collection of traditional and original stories is just perfect for both Halloween and sleepovers. Katherine does a terrific job with her voice characterizations as storyteller and narroator, introducing each song and tale. Spooky sound effects, combined with the use of stereo, add to the fun and atmosphere. “Ooey Gooey Stew” will appeal to this age group’s taste for the grotesque. Other musical highlights include: “Mr. Jones’ Bones” with a surprise ending; and the calssic “Dem Bones.” Katherine’s stories include “Dark Dark Night” which will inspire children to join in; a West African tale, “The Giant Pumpkin”, which explains how the stars reached the sky; and Japanese story “Snow” and a Spanish tale “The Tinker and the Giant”, in which a tinker spends the night alone in a haunted castle and conquers a ghost. While giving children’s imaginations plenty of exercise, Hunk-Ta-Bunk-Ta SPOOKY! will (hopefully) empower them to face some of their own fears- both imaginary and real. LOS ANGELES TIMES by Lynn Heffley "Exceptional children's artist, Katherine Dines serves up a delightful Halloween treat: atmospheric songs and stories filled with shivers and smiles. With Shakespeare, Poe and her own love of language as inspiration, Dines conjures up chilling fun in such offerings as “Nobody’s Home But Miser Jones’ Bones,” “The Giant Pumpkin,” “ooey Gooey Stew” and “The Coffin,” all interwoven with commentary from Dines’ persona as a mysterious old Southern storyteller..." PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY "Dines brews up stories, songs and character sketches in this Halloween-flavored hodgepodge. A creaky voiced narrator invites listeners to “pull up a chair and set by the fire a spell” so she can regale them with an array of spooktacular tales, tunes and recollections. From a girl who has an imaginary goblin friend named Spooky Tooth (“Hob-Nobbin’ with a Goblin”) to a rock/rap rendition of the traditional African American song “Dem Bones,” Dines conjures enough thrills and chills to kep listeners on the edges of their seats. Images of death, ghosts, graveyards and coffins are far from gruesome, but are also not appropriate for young children who may scare easily. While the narrator’s down-home 9though regionally nondescript) dialect sometimes fells overdone, the device allows Dines to offer introductory notes about the origins of the folktales that she’s included here. Dines sings and tells sories with equal ease and skill. Her voice rises from whisper to cackle to shout as the opportunity arises, and here energy never flags. Not limited to the Halloween season, this title is likely to find its way to slumber parties and other times when mild shivers are in order." EWA PUBLICATIONS: "Tales of dark dark nights and witches’ brews have entertained children for a long time, and most kids enjoy a little bone-chilling fun as long as the stories aren’t too scary. Now, popular recording artist Katherine Dines has collected traditional and original stories and songs from around the world, to chill the bone and warm the spirits of children ages 6 to 12 on her new recording, “Hunk-Ta-Bunk-Ta SPOOKY,” available for Halloween or sleepover fun anytime. Like all of Dines’ Hunk-Ta-Bunk-Ta recordings, the 13 songs and stories on Hunk-Ta-Bunk-Ta SPOOKY feature quirky fun puns and rhymes with interesting music and sound effects. The stories are inspired by such masters of the macabre as Shakespeare (“Macbeth”) and Edgar Allen Poe." CHICAGO PARENT by Fred Koch "...Created for children 6 to 12 and theri families, this CD of “Tune and Tales To Chill YOur Bones and Warm YOur Spirits” also includes a readalong booklet. Each song and/or story is introduced and narrated by a warmand crusty stroyteller (Dines). She guides listeners in and out of each piece with a generous helpin of down-home colloquialisms. The introduction sets the tone for what’s to come: “The mem’ries all come flyin’ back like leaves tryin’ to wrastle the wind/Oh shore as beans, it can skeer ya, but it only lasts a little while.” Kids will enjoy these adaptations and original songs because they are fun but not too scary. “Nobody’s Home But Mister Jones’ Bones” tells the story of two children who gather the courage to go trick or treating at a neighborhood haunted house. They get up the nerve to go into the house, where they aare greeted by eerie sounds, a ghost who is passing out treats and a skeleton who is exposed as the trickter when her mask falls off. (It turns out it’s just their big sister.) Other Halloween songs include “Dem Bones” and “Hob-nobbin’ with a Goblin.” Stories include the ever-popular “Dark Dark Night,” an African folk tale, “The Giant Pumpkin,” an adaptation of a Japanese story “Snow,” the rewardign tale of “The Tinker and The Ghost,” and the sily yarn “The Coffin.” Dines has a pleasant singing voice and Suzanne Vega-type presence, and her storytelling is convincing. The old woman is a fun character who pulls the whole package together." PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY "Dines conjures up enough thrills and chills to keep listeners on the edges of their seats...Dines sings and tells stories with equal ease and skill. Her voice rises from whisper to cackle to shout as the opportunity arises, and her energy never flags." NASHVILLE PARENT "... once again delivers an outstanding recording...a clever combination.. this is Dines at her best both vocally and as a storyteller..." BIG APPLE PARENT'S PRESS "Katherine does a terrific job with her voice characterizations as storyteller and narrator." CHICAGO PARENT "Suzanne-Vega-type presence...storytelling is convincing."