The 31 Spooky Youth Books of Halloween!
It's just like R.L. Stine always says at the start of his Goosebumps books, "Reader beware...you're in for a scare!" For October this year I've selected thirty one books, one for each day of the month, from our Youth Services collection- ranging from board books all the way to young adult novels! Below you'll find some of my favorite books to read or read to your favorite ghosts and goblins, broken down by age range:
♦Board Books♦
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Where's The Witch? by Nosy Crow, Ingela P. Arrhenius A spooky hide-and-seek board book with felt lift-a-flaps to engage your little pumpkins! |
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Eek! Halloween! by Sandra Boyton Fan favorite author Sandra Boyton takes readers through Halloween traditions to explain the spooky goings-on to some nervous chickens! |
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If You're Spooky And You Know It by Aly Fronis, Jannie Ho A Halloween twist off "If You're Happy & You Know It." |
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Llama Llama Trick or Treat by Anna Dewdney A spooky rhyming book to introduce Halloween from the popular Llama Llama series. |
♦Picture Books/Readers♦
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Zoom On My Broom by Erica Farber & J.R. Sansevere Part of the Critter of the Night Series of books from Mercer Mayer, they were a cross between Little Critter and The Addams Family. |
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Bow-Wow's Nightmare Neighbors by Mark Newgarden & Megan Cash This wordless picture book follows Bow-Wow on the hunt for some naughty kitties that have stolen his bed and taken it into a haunted house! |
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The Berenstain Bears & The Spooky Old Tree by Stan & Jan Berenstain A classic Berenstain Bears tale about three little bears exploring a spooky old tree at night. |
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In A Dark, Dark Room & Other Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz & Dirk Zimmer Featuring seven spine-tingling tales of terror inspired by traditional folktales, including the infamous "Green Ribbon." |
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The Haunted Mansion by Buddy Baker, Xavier Atencio, & James Gilleard Even though you can't hop in a real Doom Buggy this year you can pretend with this book and cd combo that features the lyrics to the best ride at Disney!
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The Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey A favorite book and puppet show of the HMCPL librarians and written by the creator of Dog Man & Captain Underpants! |
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Featuring a pumpkin eager to celebrate Halloween and become a spooky jack o'lantern...there's just one problem, he doesn't have a stem- just a stump! |
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Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley Another HMCPL librarian book and puppet show favorite, helping kids chase away their fears one piece of a monstrous face at a time. |
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Bedtime for Monsters by Ed Vere Oh no! This monster might want a bedtime snack...and you could be on the menu! Or perhaps he has something else in mind? |
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Ghosts in the House! by Kazuno Kohara From the author of the Midnight Library comes a spooky story about a witch who takes care of the ghosts haunting her house...by putting them in the washing machine! |
♦Juvenile♦
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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz & Stephen Gammell A collection of hair-raising tales of folklore paired with terrifying illustrations that are fondly remembered and dreaded by generations of readers and inspired the recent movie! |
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The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud The first book in the Lockwood & Co series set in a world haunted by ghosts, where only kids and teens can see the spirits and are tasked with discovering and eliminating the sources of the hauntings. This is one of my absolute favorite series! |
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The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury In this Halloween classic a group of trick or treaters are taken on a journey through time and space and learn the true history of Halloween while searching for their friend Pipkin. |
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Halloween Bugs Me! by R.L. Stine The special twenty fifth installment of the Ghosts of Fear Street series. Fear Street was the sister series to Goosebumps geared towards older kids and this title features two boys that are constantly in competition with each other, and this Halloween is no different when it comes to getting candy... |
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Set in 1930's Alabama is book follows Hoodoo Hatcher as he must learn the secrets of his family's magic in order to fight off the dark designs of The Stranger. |
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In this modern fairy tale, Coraline stumbles across a strange mirror world in the boarding house she lives in with her family and quirky neighbors. But what is with her "other mother" and "other father" with their creep button eyes and white papery skin? This is also a fantastic movie! |
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A terrifying tale of three friends that love playing with their toys, until Zach's father insists he's too old to be playing with action figures. Now his friends Poppy and Alice insist they're being haunted by a cursed china doll... |
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Tales to Give You Goosebumps by R.L. Stine The first book in the start of a Goosebumps horror anthology featuring ten short stories!
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Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero's Journey Book One by D.J. Milky In this graphic novel Jack Skellington's ghost dog Zero is missing! Now Zero must find help from residents of Christmas Town to get back home. |
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Scary Godmother Omnibus by Jill Thompson This collection of several Scary Godmother stories are the inspiration for the beloved Halloween Specials! |
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What Is The Story of Dracula? by Mark Burgan & David Malan Part of the wildly popular Who Was/What Was big head book series, this tackles the origins and proliferation of the character of Dracula and how he became such a spooky pop culture icon. |
♦Young Adult♦
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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs This mysterious tale is paired with creepy vintage photographs and the first novel in the series that went on to spawn a movie. |
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The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black In a world where vampires exist, those infected are quarantined in "coldtowns" where vampires mingle with infected humans and groupies that flock to the vampiric cult of personality. |
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This has it all - a haunted house on an isolated island, creepy dolls, Ouija boards, a scarred brooding character with a disturbing past... |
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Micheline Helsing is one of the last descendants of famed vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing and has trained from a young age to hunt monsters and spirits that threaten the world. But when a routine hunt goes wrong and her friends are cursed, what will she do to save them? |
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The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton Nor is the latest in a line of witches cursed to fall in love with a descendant of the original settlers of her island home and have it end in heartbreak and loss. Nor wants nothing of this but fate has other ideas... |
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Princess Decomposia & Count Spatula by Andi Watson A graphic novel about a vampire princess stuck ruling a spooky kingdom for her father and her new hire of the royal cook who's a vampire with a sweet tooth. The two become fast friends, and then something more... |
