Happy Halloween! *NSYNC's Lance Bass has written a Halloween picture book for kids called Trick or Treat on Scary Street. It's definitely spooky — in fact, it may scare some kids — but he says that's the idea.
"I wanted a little gateway book for the kids that are, you know, a little scared of Halloween," he tells ABC Audio. "This might, you know, ease them into it." But the book could have been even scarier: it originally ended in a graveyard.
"You assumed that maybe they weren't going to leave the graveyard because you saw the kids' names on the graves," he laughs. "So they were like, 'Maybe that's not the best way to end this book.'"
Ironically, Lance never gets any trick-or-treaters at his house. "I've never had one, sadly, at my house for the last 10 years," he complains. "I'm ready for it, just no one ever shows up. I do live on a hill, so maybe that's what deters people."
When Lance's twins, Violet and Alexander, go trick-or-treating, he's got an ingenious method for keeping them from eating too much candy, called the "witch switch." First, the kids choose the candy they really want. "The rest of it we give to the children's hospital," he says.
"You leave the candy out on the front porch the next day and then [the witch] takes all the candy," he says. "And then she'll leave you a little present the next day and thank you for donating the candy."
But there's some Halloween candy that Lance just can't stomach.
"I'm not a candy corn person. It just tastes like plastic to me. And I don't like Reese's Pieces. I love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups ... but Reese's Pieces are one of my least favorite candies," he laughs.