Happy Halloween! Celebrate this fall holiday in October with the best
Halloween books for kids.
Celebrate Halloween in the Sunshine State of Florida with enchanting books perfect for cool autumn evenings. From haunted houses to eerie realms, these stories promise to captivate young readers and transport them to magical worlds. Join us on a delightful journey through the pages of spooky tales, where the magic of Halloween begins with the turn of a page.
Page-Turning Treats for 2023's Halloween Reads
Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories
by: Rowley Jefferson
Get ready to embark on a thrilling journey into Rowley Jefferson's wildly imaginative world. This collection of 'Spooky Stories' will have you clutching your flashlight, hiding under the covers, and laughing unexpectedly at the comically terrifying tales of zombies, vampires, ghosts, and more. But be warned, you might find yourself sleeping with the lights on!
Within these pages, you'll encounter a delightful array of supernatural elements, from friends returning as mischievous ghosts to misunderstood 'vampires' who are merely bad biters. There's even a mummy whose quest for fame goes hilariously awry and a young Victor Frankenstein, albeit in a mischievous kid version, who finds himself in a graveyard caper. The fun doesn't stop there, as you'll meet a quirky family of werewolves and experience a whimsical zombie and space alien invasion.
All these imaginative tales are presented through the lens of a 10-year-old storyteller and adorned with charming, simple pencil drawings. They're fun, lighthearted, and occasionally delightfully silly. While these stories might be a tad too edgy for parents concerned about spookily spectral and supernatural content, young readers will relish the imaginative, spine-tingling adventures.
A Super Scary Narwhalloween
By Ben Clanton
Dive into three new stories that are sure to fright and delight! Narwhal loves Halloween — it's a great excuse to dress up in a spooky and silly costume, like a ghost, a mermaid, a banana or maybe even Marlow the Mustachioed Moose. It's a skeleTON of fun! Jelly isn't dressing up, though — he's a little scared of this time of year, and would prefer to hunker down in a hidey-hole until Halloween is over. But when a scary sea monster makes an appearance and swallows Narwhal (gulp!), can Jelly, with the help of some super friends, pluck up the courage to save his best bud?
Gravity Falls:: Journal 3
This fictional journal found by the Oregon Parks Department details the events of the Gravity Falls television show, with commentary from Dripper and Mabel.
This Journal isn't technically a Halloween-themed series, as it takes place throughout the summer. However, it shares some great DNA with the other books on this list.
Throwback Tales of Halloween Past: Spooky Reads from Yesteryears:
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
It’s Halloween night, and the Peanuts gang is busy dressing up in costumes, trick-or-treating, and bobbing for apples. Meanwhile, Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin to rise from the pumpkin patch and bring toys to all the children of the world.
How to Catch a Monster
by Adam Wallace
Get ready to laugh along in this fun children's monster book as a brave young ninja heads into the closet to meet the monster that's been so scary night after night! But what if our monster isn't scary at all? Maybe our hero is about to make a friend of the strangest sort...
Pete the Cat: Trick or Pete
by James Dean
Pumpkins, candy, and costumes! With flaps that reveal fun Halloween surprises, this Pete the Cat holiday story is sure to be a sweet treat for your little trick-or-treaters.
Follow Pete as he goes trick-or-treating from house to house and discovers what is waiting behind each door.
The Gruffalo Paperback
A mouse is taking a stroll through the deep, dark wood when along comes a hungry fox, then an owl, and then a snake. The mouse is good enough to eat but smart enough to know this, so he invents . . . the gruffalo! As Mouse explains, the gruffalo is a creature with terrible claws, and terrible tusks in its terrible jaws, and knobbly knees and turned-out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of its nose. But Mouse has no worry to show. After all, there’s no such thing as a gruffalo. . . .
Bad Kitty Scaredy-Cat
by Nick Bruel
Kitty wasn't always such a scaredy-cat. She used to be brave and lionhearted and nervy. That is, until one late October day a group of terrifying monsters showed up on her doorstop and Kitty became VERY scared. Then she decided to take matters into her own paws.
Clifford's First Halloween
It's Clifford's first Halloween, and Emily Elizabeth dresses him up as the cutest little ghost ever. Clifford wants to try everything: trick-or-treating, candy apples, and homemade haunted houses. Discover Halloween with everyone's favorite red puppy!
Witch Grows Up
The kindhearted witch enthralls her friends with the story of her own very unusual childhood.
Dragon's Halloween
by Dav Pilkey
Dragon loves spooky Halloweens! But when he buys six small pumpkins that his friends tell him will never be scary, Dragon must come up with creative ways to make this Halloween just perfect. Dragon's antics are endearing and silly, and Dav Pilkey's sweet illustrations will have readers laughing aloud and reaching for this story every Halloween.
Monster Mash
by David Catrow
The "Monster Mash" gets Wolf Man, zombies, and other monsters to dance and party in this catchy, classic song. Dracula rises out of his coffin, vampires feast in the master bedroom, and the ghouls get a jolt from Boris's electrodes.
We're Off to Find the Witch's House
It's Halloween night, and as the moon rises, four children set off to find the witch's house. On their way they encounter a host of silly, spooky characters. Can they make it all the way to the witch's house? Or will their fears get the best of them?
Room on the Broom
The witch and her cat are happily flying through the sky on a broomstick when the wind picks up and blows away the witch's hat, then her bow, and then her wand! Luckily, three helpful animals find the missing items, and all they want in return is a ride on the broom.
The Good, the Bad, and the Spooky
by Jory John
Halloween is the Bad Seed’s favorite holiday of the year. But what’s a seed to do when he can’t find a show-stopping costume for the big night? Postpone trick-or-treating for everyone, of course!
Can he get a costume together in time? Or will this seed return to his baaaaaaaaad ways?
Halloween
by: Marsh, Laura F. National Geographic kids reader Introduces the traditions associated with Halloween, from visiting pumpkin patches and bobbing for apples to picking out costumes and trick-or-treating.
Pig the monster
By: Blabey, Aaron
Pig is the world's greediest pug, and on Halloween, he is completely out of control, thinking up nasty tricks to play on people who do not give him the treats he thinks he deserves and never sharing with Trevor the sausage dog--until too much chocolate makes him sick. He finally learns the error of his ways (again).
Monster Academy
By: Yolen, Jane, author.
It is the first day of school at Monster Academy, where all the monsters go, and the lesson for the day involves counting missing teeth, and Vic the vampire is sad because he still has both fangs--until Jo, a troublemaking student who whirls like a dervish but is actually a human, gives him an apple at lunch.
Bonaparte falls apart
By: Cuyler, Margery
Bonaparte the skeleton is literally falling to pieces and needs help from his friends to pull himself together before the first day of school.
The little ghost who was a quilt
By: Nason, Riel
"Ghosts are supposed to be sheets, light as air, and able to whirl, twirl and float and soar. But the little ghost, who is a quilt, can't whirl or twirl at all, and when he flies, he gets very hot. He doesn't know why he's a quilt. His parents are both sheets, and so are all of his friends. (His great-grandmother was a lace curtain, but that doesn't help cheer him up.) He feels sad and left out when his friends zoom around, and he can't keep up. But one Halloween, everything changes. The little ghost who was a quilt has an experience that no other ghost could have, an experience that only happens because he's a quilt... and he realizes that it's OK to be different."
