Literary Halloween-Season Books

Years ago, we started reading Halloween books for fun. (The silly, fun ones—not anything spooky or dark. ) When we started homeschooling, we found Everyday Reading’s Halloween calendar and reading Halloween books became a way to push through the first doldrum of the homeschool year. You know, when the excitement of starting school in August has well worn off and Christmas is still a long way off. I still have fond memories of reading the first three “Bunnicula” books my son during our special reading times, and so does he; he has the book on his shelf of books that he categorized “Mom and Me.”

As our first student moved into middle school, and our second is soon to follow, I started looking for older books that fit the Halloween genre. My daughter and I read the entire first edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales together. Man, some of those stories are spooky and didn’t phase her a bit, even at age seven. I found The Literary Life’s Podcast episode, “Why Read Fairy Tales?” to help me understand what fairy tales were all about, which lead me to “Witches, Wizards, and Magic, Oh My!!” and a better grip of the “Harry Potter” series, which is a family favorite. It’s been a really fun journey together as a family, and fall is probably our favorite reading season. I am looking forward to when my children are old enough and we can add “Dracula” and “Frankenstein.” And let’s not forget “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle!”

Year year, we added a beautifully illustrated version of Christina Rosetti’s “Goblin Market,” our first ghost story by Joanna C. Galdone and Paul Galdone, and a fairy-tale retelling of “Hansel and Gretel,” and a tyrolean folk-tale retelling—both of which led to great discussions about tellings and retellings. Who knew that what we started on a whim would lead to such an education on genres? Mysteries, fairy tales, folk tales, ghost stories, parables, parody, riddles, cautionary tales, poetry … they’re all here! We even have a Halloween joke book.

Here’s a list of our favorites.

• “Spookie Pookie” by Sandra Boynton

• “The Skull” by Jon Klassen

• “A Ghost, A Witch, and a Goblin.” Illustrated by Rosalind Fry

• “Halloween Cars and Trucks” by Richard Scarry

• “Cautionary Tales for Children” by Hillaire Belloc and illustrated by Edmund Gorey

• “Little Blue Truck’s Halloween” by Alice Schertle

• “Frankenstein” by Ludworst Bemonster

• “Skeletown: Si. No!” by Rhode Montijo

• “2 X 2 = Boo! A Set of Spooky Multiplication Stories” by Loreen Leedy

• “How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?” by Margaret McNamara

• “Room on the Broom” by Julia Donaldson

• “Poultrygeist” by Eric Geron

• “I Spy a Pumpkin” by Jean Marzollo

• “The Berenstein Bears Trick or Treat” by Stan and Jan Berenstein 

• “The Eleventh Hour” by Graeme Base 

• “I Spy Spooky Night: A Book of Picture Riddles” by Jean Marzollo

• “Hansel and Gretel” by Stephen King and illustrated by Maurice Sendak

• “The Pumpkin Patch Parable” by Liz Curtis Higgs

• “The Spider and the Fly” by Mary Howitt

• “The Tailypo” by Joanna C. Galdone and Paul Galdone

• “The Teeny-Tiny Woman” by Paul Galdone

• “Rules of the House” by Mac Barnett

• “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti