Our Favorite Halloween Books for Kids
Every October, my kids and I love to pick out some great Halloween children's books from the library to read together. Here are some of our favorites that we've enjoyed over the years. All of these books should be available at public libraries throughout Marin County. You can look to see if your local library has these titles available at marinlibrary.org. Get some great Halloween books and snuggle up on the couch for a spooky storytime!
Babies & Toddlers
The Itsy Bitsy Pumpkin by Sonali Fry: A little pumpkin is trying to find his way back home! And with a little help from a friendly witch, he is soon safe and sound, back on his porch! Little ones will love this Halloween spin on a classic nursery rhyme.
Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson and Buket Erdogan: Join Mouse on a spooky autumn night, where he learns that Halloween isn't really so scary after all.
Spooky Pookie by Sandra Boynton: Toddlers will love following along as Pookie tries to decide what she'll be for Halloween this year. It's so hard to choose!
Little Owl's Night by Divya Srinivasan: This twist on a bedtime board book follows Little Owl as he wakes up from his sleep and enjoys the night.
Little Blue Truck's Halloween by Alice Schertle: Little Blue Truck is picking up his animal friends for a costume party. Lift the flaps in this board book to find out who’s dressed up in each costume!
Preschool & Kindergarten
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson: In this delightful book by the author of The Gruffalo, a generous witch allows helpful animals to ride along on her broomstick on Halloween night. It's all fun until a big red dragon shows up.
Halloween Hustle by Charlotte Gunnufson: Skeleton is dancing his way to a Halloween party—but as he grooves across town, he keeps stumbling, tumbling, and falling apart! Can he make it to the party in one piece?
Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman: Will there be any pumpkin pie for Halloween? The witch has grown her biggest pumpkin ever, but neither she nor the ghost nor the vampire, nor the mummy can move it. The little bat, however, has an idea to save the day. Can he get the pumpkin off the vine?
Halloween Night by Marjorie Dennis Murray: It's Halloween night and all are preparing for a wickedly wonderful evening of scaring. With zombies and banshees and mummies galore, read this book once and you'll come back for more!
How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow? by Wendell Minor: Award-winning artist Wendell Minor imagines larger-than-life pumpkins decorating some of America’s favorite monumental places, like the Capitol dome, Mount Rushmore, the Brooklyn Bridge, even the Grand Canyon! This celebration of famous landmarks and landscapes plays with concepts of size and scale and is full of fun facts.
Duck & Goose: Honk! Quack! Boo! by Tad Hills: Duck and Goose, dressed for Halloween as a ghost and a superhero, respectively, go trick-or-treating in the forest, but they are careful to follow Thistle's warning to look out for a scary swamp monster.
Hardly Haunted by Jessie Sima: When a house believes she is haunted, she tries everything in her power to stop it in order to get people to move in--until she realizes that she is fine just the way she is.
Gradeschool & Up
Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper: Cat, Squirrel, and Duck make their pumpkin soup the same way every day. But one day the Duck wants to shake things up a little and a disagreement ensues. He leaves in a huff, but it isn't long before the Cat and the Squirrel start to worry about their friend and begin a search.
Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds: In this Caldecott Honor-winning picture book, The Twilight Zone comes to the carrot patch as a rabbit fears his favorite treats are out to get him.
The Hallo-wiener by Dav Pilkey: Oscar the dachshund is a shortie, like all "wiener dogs," and the other pups always make fun of him. His hot dog costume doesn't help his popularity any, but a brave act makes him a Halloween hero.
Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth: Addy, Michael, and Karl are done trick-or-treating, their bags brimming with treats. But the fun isn't over—their good friend Stillwater the panda tells them a spooky and unusual story based on a Zen koan.
Bone Soup by Cambria Evans: When Finnigin finds himself in a new town on Halloween, he hopes to join in a great feast, but not a body or soul will share any of their food with thim. Armed only with his wits and a special secret ingredient, Finnigin stirs up a cauldron’s worth of Halloween magic!
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz: This classic book features stories of ghosts and witches, as well as "jump" stories, spooky urban legends, and scary songs–all perfect for reading aloud in the dark.
Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier: In this graphic novel, Catrina and her family move to a small, foggy, beach town on the Northern California coast for the sake of her sister's health, and find that it's inhabited by ghosts—real ones!
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: Older grade-schoolers will love Irving's classic tale of the encounter between timid schoolmaster Ichabod Crane and the menacing Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman: Tired of life with her own family, Coraline discovers a mysterious secret passage in her new apartment that leads to another home just like her own. Life there with a new mother and father is better—or is it? Coraline must find her way back home and rescue the lost souls of other children who have come before her.
The Little Leftover Witch by Florence Laughlin: In this classic children's tale, Felina the little witch gets stranded with the Doon family after breaking her broom on Halloween. Over the course of a year, she learns to live with the Doons and their black cat, Itchabody.
The Witches by Roald Dahl: Witches are real, and there's nothing they hate more than children! In this classic novel by Roald Dahl, a young boy and his grandmother foil a fiendish plot by the Grand High Witch to turn the world's children into mice.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: This Newbury-award-winning novel for middle grade kids tells the story of Nobody Owens, a normal boy, who has been raised by ghosts and other graveyard denizens. graveyard.
1, 2, 3 Scream! by R.U. Ginns: This book features 10 humorously terrifying tales including a villainous vending machine that eats kids like candy, a birthday-party crashing robot, and an evil app that can predict exactly how anyone who uses it will die.
