Fifteen Frightfully Fabulous Halloween Read-Aloud Books

I Am a Witch's Cat, by Harriet Muncaster, is a new discovery for me. The narrator is a little girl who's convinced that her mother is a witch, and the evidence she presents is wonderful: kids will understand the silliness of it, but on another level, it really resonates with grown-ups (I loved the line about the mother getting together with friends: ". . . they sit in a circle and CACKLE and swap spell books"). The story is accompanied by charming, gorgeous mixed-media illustrations. This is a perfect mother-daughter gift.

Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody, by Michael Rex, is a goofy spoof of the classic Goodnight Moon that mimics its rhythm and replaces it with silly, monster-and-alien themed rhymes. This fun homage includes illustrations with marvelous details that kids will love--I've even met Goodnight Moon fans who like this one more. But a warning: if your child is prone to monster fears, you might not want to add all of these new monsters to their imagination library just yet!

Ten Timid Ghosts, by Jennifer Barrett O’Connell, is a fun one to read, and it helps kids to see that scary stuff isn’t necessarily so scary. This is also a great book for little kids because they want to count the ghosts (on every page, every time you read it) and the illustrations offer visual cues to the “mystery” of how the witch is scaring the ghosts. Getting pre-readers to really examine the pages of a book is a wonderful early literacy activity.

The Runaway Pumpkin, written by Kevin Lewis and illustrated by S.D. Schindler, is a favorite at our house because it has a great refrain that, once you conquer it (because it's a bit tongue-twistery), seems to mimic the runaway pumpkin as it rushes and bumps and tumbles down a hill. It also features the many delightful foods you can make with pumpkin, so if you’ve got a picky eater, it might encourage curiosity about trying pumpkin bread or soup or pie.

Little Boo, written by Stephen Wunderli and illustrated by Tim Zeltner, is an appealing tale of a youngster who's desperate to be a grown-up, In this case, Boo is a little pumpkin seed who wishes that he could be big and scary. Children will relate to his wistful desire to be able to be more and do more, and the illustrations are compelling enough that on my first read, I was too focused on Boo's expression to realize that he was a seed! The story follows the life cycle of a seed through to Boo's triumphant maturity as a big, scary jack-o-lantern.

The Hallow-wiener, by Dav Pilkey, is the funny and touching tale of Oscar, who is "half a dog tall and one and a half dogs long." The dachsund is teased mercilessly about looking like a hot dog, so he's mortified when his mom buys him a hot dog bun as a costume. But he overcomes embarrassment and bullies and triumphs in the end when his humiliating costume helps him to become a hero and save his friends.

The Teeny-Tiny Woman, by Paul Galdone, is an old English ghost story about a woman who takes a teeny-tiny bone to make herself a teeny-tiny bowl of soup for herself. . . until the owner of the bone wants it back! This one's got plenty of spooky tension and it's great for reading aloud in alternating voices, squeaky and tiny and deep and ghostly. The repetition encourages kids to "read" along, and they're likely to shout out loud by the end.

The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin, written by Joe Troiano and illustrated by Susan Banta, is a lovely Halloween story that's not scary at all. Spookley is teased because he's different from all the other pumpkins, but he learns that being different can be pretty wonderful, too. The rhyming verse and sweet illustrations together celebrate kindness to all and respect for what makes each individual unique.

Who's There on Halloween?, written by Susan Hagen Nipp and Pamela Conn Beall and illustrated by Charles Reasoner, is a board book that toddlers will love. Googly eyes form a guessing game of simple rhymed riddles--who's there? Kids will turning the pages to find out the who's who the first time, and they'll quickly learn the riddles so that they can "read" along and guess over and over again.

Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness, with illustrations by Gris Grimley, will change your mind if you think that your teen is too grown-up for picture books. As if Poe's stories aren't scary enough, the illustrations are ghastly, gothic, and downright creepy. If you'd like to lure an avid teen reader into classics territory, or if you have a tween who enjoys getting the pants scared off of them, check out this book or its companion, Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Death and Dementia. But be warned: you might all have to sleep with the lights on!