We start talking Halloween costumes here in summer. I try to hold off on decorating for fall/Halloween until Labor Day, but this year, we took liberty to get in the spirit early. 2020 has been a feisty one, mmmmmkay? Another way we get ready is to start reading Halloween books early and often. Here is a collection of Halloween books to get your pumpkins in the spirit.
Don’t forget to visit this post for additional seasonal books and this post for fall-ish books.
Littles
Rebecca Colby whirls up a great tale with It’s Raining Bats & Frogs. Delia and her witch crew are looking forward to the parade but the rain sours the mood. She helps change the weather with that magic wand of hers but things turn a little wonky. Super cute and lyrical!
A Werewolf Named Oliver James by Nicholas John Frith is dynamite! Oliver James is just a regular ol’ dude like us. But something odd happens on his way home from school. This is so fun, the illustrations are total gold and it’s not creepy in the least! Best of all, even with his new werewolf-ing skills to explore, he still respects his parents’ request to be home for dinner. Mic drop!
Rachel Kolar hits a Halloween homerun with Mother Ghost! These seasonal takes on ol’ classics is super fun and not scary. The illustrations are just a tad eerie to make it feel fun! I loved this as did my smalls.
If I’m not mistaken, this book might go down as one of THE cutest board books for Halloween! If You’re Scary and You Know It by Carole Gerber is all treats and gorgeous, bright illustrations! A total win for my Hope! You sing the ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’ jingle with these words and I found myself singing it alone later in the day.
Leslie Kimmelman’s Trick Arrr Treat is such a fun twist on a Halloween picture book! And I love that! These little buccaneers venture out for trick or treating in a lil bit different way. The pictures are supes cute and I love the imagination here!
If you’re like me and like these fun takes on traditional, take a look at the Kindergarrrten Bus book as well!
Emerging Reader
Boo, Katie Woo! by Fran Manushkin is perfect for kiddos who are learning to read and are old enough to like the idea of scaring someone on Halloween. Katie is trying her hardest to scare someone in this sweet, short chapter book.
Ron Roy’s A to Z Mysteries series serves up small-fry-sized mysteries for kiddos. The Haunted Hotel is less than 100 pages and the chapters are short – perfect for kiddos who are reading independently OR for parents doing a read-aloud. God bless it with those 25 page chapters in some books – yeesh. A local hotel is being haunted by a mysterious ghost and the hotel manager hires Dink, Ruth Rose (this gal always has a good plan!) and Josh to solve the mystery. Super fun!
Finley Flowers Super Spooktacular by Jessica Young is perhaps the most perfect seasonal book for your crafty, creative kiddo. I read this book while Tiny Dancer was getting her hair done at Dry Bar (I’m certain I got some looks from the hair gals why I was reading this book…) and wanted to squish this girl in a big hug. Apparently there is a whole Finley Flowers series? Who knew!? There isn’t a lot of drama, there’s nothing scary and Finley’s bestie is a boy (so fun to see). Darling!
Goldie Blox and the Haunted House is a girls-run-the-world caper! Stacy McAnulty wrote such a perfect tale of Goldie and her pals investigating a mystery at the local inn. The writing sneaks in witty banter and some science without it being too tech-y. Brilliant!
Angela Murphy’s The Tricks and Treats of Halloween is a fun non-fiction book about the history of our beloved Halloween holiday! The illustrations are super bright (it reminds me of Puppy Dog Pals) and the info doesn’t feel too encyclopedia-ish for kiddos. What I love most about the book is in the back where Angela includes a section for ‘festivals around the world,’ how pumpkins grow and Halloween animals. This is such a gem!
Katie and Kevin Tsang write such a fun series called Sam Wu. I saw Sam Wu is Not Afraid of Spiders and knew I had to add that to my Halloween TBR list. Sam is such a likable dude. Besides being sweet to his sister and respectful to his parents (omg, my kids are cringing because these are not the reasons they liked this book), he runs with a good crowd and they find themselves in elementary-ish shenanigans.
A classroom pet tarantula visits Sam’s classroom. As it happens, Sam does not like spiders. However, he has to prove he isn’t afraid of this (super scary) classroom monster because Sam’s nemesis called him out for being a scaredy cat. A fun read for Motor and Blue!
Middle Grade
Hank Zipzer, I heart you! Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver’s Hank Zipzer – My Dog’s a Scaredy Cat is the triple threat Halloween book. It’s fun, witty and super engaging. Hank and his two pals seek revenge on their schoolmate for being a bully at the Halloween parade and decide to create a haunted house in Hank’s house. All last-minute.
I have a soft spot for Hank because he has dyslexia like my Blue. I love that this series helps educate those of us who are neurotypical on what it feels like inside a brain like Hank’s. This book is truly LOL – and I say that about very few kid books!
Cathleen Young’s The Pumpkin War is the biggest green light. It’s me miming and shout-whispering ‘go, go, go’ to get your pretty paws on this book! Billie (female) enters a pumpkin rowing race (it’s a thing) in Wisconsin every year. She’s really after that blue ribbon (and the free ice cream awarded with that winner title). She believes her bestie Sam cheated her last year and yowzers, is she still boiling mad. She’s out for pumpkin gut glory this summer.
This novel is about friendship and growing up and Wisconsin (yay – we used to live there) and the Ojibwe people and so much fun gardening knowledge. (I have found my sweet spot of learning gardening – middle grade lit. More techy than that, my eyes glaze over and I’m moonwalking away.) This book is just glorious!
Adult
This was my first Jennifer Snow novel and A Sweet Alaskan Fall was a delight! This book is part of the Wild River series and I’ve added these to my TBR list. Don’t for a second judge this book by it’s (sweet fall) cover. Sure, this is a romance, but there is some way deeper biz in here than meets the eye.
Montana is our main gal and her thrill in life is BASE jumping. Mine is organizing and using gift cards to Nordstrom and Amazon. We’d clearly be friends in real life. Montana had a bad accident with her last BASE jump and her feet need to be permanently on the ground starting…yesterday. She isn’t the wildest gal to ever have lived, but she has and enjoys testing the limits. It’s her jam.
Montana is also co-parenting a daughter with her ex-boyfriend, Tank, and started a BASE jumping instruction business with Tank’s girlfriend, Cassie. Complicated, yes. For Montana, no.
Eddie lives next to Montana and is your all-American, Mother’s dream for a daughter (or son). He’s super clean cut, respectful of the women in his life and a state patroller to boot. And he’s cut. So there’s that.
So you see that we have a trying-to-reform wild-ish gal living next to a squeaky clean rule follower. One might be thinking that this is a story of opposites attract, amirite?
Enter an incident that changes Eddie’s course dramatically. And insert Montana understanding why thrill-seeking doesn’t need to be her fix forever.
I don’t want to say too much, but this novel is a fun read in a beautiful setting during Halloween. And I love that the author created a heroine that isn’t our typical gal (damsel in distress or hard-on-her-luck young female). Dynamite!
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