Do you feel like getting into the Halloween spirit with some creepy crawly, slightly spooky books? Me too!

Here’s a collection of some of our favorites from the past few years. Appropriately creepy, beautifully illustrated, and playfully haunting rhymes. Halloween books are fantastic.

 

 

 

Over in the Hollow by Rebecca Dickinson

In the same rhyme as the 19th century poem, Over in the Meadow, this is a ghoulishly fun book with pages of spider and vampire families following their parents’ instructions in a spooky village. A lot of fun to read out loud. (Not scary at all, though.)

 

 

 

 

 

A Very Brave Witch by Alison McGhee

A sweet book with an awesome message. Did you know witches are scared of humans? Mostly because they don’t have green skin (eeek!) When one little witch has a broom accident and finds herself amidst human children, she finds that they can be fun too, even if they don’t have green skin.

 

 

 

 

 

Ghost in the House by Ammi-Joan Paquette

Terrifically fun to read out loud with adorable drawings. Friendly monsters and ghosts and skeleton and mummy scare each other in a big house until they find the scariest thing of all…a human boy!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Goblins Ten by Pamela Jane

This book is also a Halloween version of Over in the Meadow, but this one takes place in the forests where little skellies and goblins mimic their parents. Beautiful and complex illustrations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Boo by Stephen Wunderli

Such a sweet, precious book! This has been the favorite this year at our house. An impatient little pumpkin seed just wants to be a scary jack o’lantern, but his boo’s just don’t scary anyone! The wind help bury him in the sand so he can turn into a sprout, and then a plant, and then a flower, and then finally…a pumpkin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween, Witch’s Cat by Harriet Muncaster

This book is light on story (a little girl tries on costumes to figure out what she wants to be for Halloween) and rather short but the images are fascinating to look at. A combination of illustration and photographs of miniatures, it’s a beautiful book and Bean asks for it every night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Then Comes Halloween by Tom Brenner

The book lyrically traces the beginnings of fall, because that’s when you know it’s Halloween! A perfect book for a kid getting into the seasons and trying to understand time.

 

 

 

 

 

The Witch Who Lives Down the Hall by Donna Guthrie

A funny book about a little boy who is convinced the friendly neighbor down the hall is a witch, no matter how much his mom finds perfectly reasonable explanations for his ‘evidence.’ Is she really doing yoga, or is she performing magic on her magic witch’s rug? Especially great for kids who go trick-or-treating in apartment buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mrs. McMurphy’s Pumpkin by Rick Walton

This is a legitimately creepy book, with a pumpkin that slowly turns into a scary jack o’lantern threatening to eat Mrs. McMurphy. She deals with it matter-of-factly but it keeps returning scarier than before. Finally, she’s forced to do the ultimate: turn him into pumpkin pie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hist whist by e.e. cummings

An illustrated book of e.e. cummings famous poem. The drawings perfectly capture the quiet mood and prickly discomfort of the twitchy tingling poem.