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These are the Best Halloween Books for Kids and Tweens

These are the Best Halloween Books for Kids and Tweens

These spooky (and not so spooky) books will get kids of all ages excited about Halloween.


Make getting in the spooky spirit easy this year with these Halloween books for kids that we (and Common Sense Media) love. We combed the lists of children's books and hand-picked our favorite spooky stories for toddlers and preschoolers, kids, and tweens to read for a little extra Halloween flair. Plus, we couldn't help but include a few of our old standbys. But don’t worry, most of them are not too spooky!

Halloween Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Halloween Books for Kids
Halloween Books for Tweens

RELATED: Enter Your Creation in Our Pumpkin Carving & Design Contest

Halloween Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers

 

Carl’s Halloween by Alexandra Day

For the moms and dads who grew up with the lovable Rottweiler from Good Dog, Carl, Carl’s Halloween is a chance to introduce the next generation to Madeleine’s caretaker. See what they get up to on Halloween, when Mom has to help Grandma.

 

Eek! Halloween! by Sandra Boynton

For those kids who can’t get enough Sandra Boynton—who here hasn’t memorized at least one of her books from reading it. Every. Night. (Moo, Baa, La La La and Hippos Go Berserk! for me)—Eek! Halloween! is about a flock of chickens that see weird things and don’t know what it means. “Relax, silly chickens! It’s Halloween!”

 

Little Blue Truck’s Halloween by Alice Schertle

The latest installment in the series, Little Blue Truck’s Halloween follows Blue as he picks up friends for the Halloween party. Lift the flaps to see who’s dressed in each costume. Beep, beep, beep!

 

10 Busy Brooms by Carole Gerber

When a counting book is combined with our kids’ favorite holiday, it’s sure to be a hit. 10 Busy Brooms follows 10 witches flying in the night sky. Count with them as they zoom past skeletons, mummies, and werewolves. Plus little readers can play a game of I Spy and find the cat and owl on each page.

 

This is the House that Monsters Built by Steven Metzger

Modeled after “This is the House that Jack Built,” This is the House that Monsters Built is a building-verse story follows a handful of monsters—things skeletons, werewolves, mummies, and spiders—that built a spooky house.

Clifford’s First Halloween by Norman Bridwell

This Clifford classic about Emily Elizabeth and her Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell teaches preschoolers and tots about Halloween through fun pictures and easy-to-read accompanying text. Get each 8x8 book new from Amazon for less than $12.

The Super Smelly Alien: A Scratcy, Sniffy, Stinky, Smelly Book! by Nicky Lander

Meet Alvin the alien who loves super-stinky smells. This scratch-and-sniff tale follows Alvin on his supersonic ship on a quest to make new friends throughout the galaxy. Hidden throughout the book's pages are stinky scratch-and-sniff patches that will have your kids cringing their noses and giggling at Alvin's stinky and yucky quest to find friends who equally enjoy gross and disgusting smells.

Max & Ruby's Trick or Treat: A Coloring and Activity Book by Rosemary Wells

With press-out figures and stickers to use to dress up Max and Ruby for Halloween, young readers can create their own tale with a couple of their favorite Nick Jr. characters. Plus kids can practice writing words, match shapes, connect the dots, and more fun activities.

Click, Clack, Boo!: A Tricky Treat by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin

This fun and lighthearted Halloween store stems from the Caldecott Honor Book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. Silly illustrations show the cows and other barnyard friends from the series in costumes and hiding from scary sounds in bed.

Ladybug Girl and the Dress-up Dilemma by Jacky Davis

This picture book follows Lulu as she decides what to be for Halloween when her brother advises her not to be Ladybug Girl again.

The Monsters’ Monster by Patrick McDonnell

Three little monsters argue over who is the “biggest baddest monster” of the three. They then go on to create who they think will be the biggest baddest monster, who ends up teaching them all about gratitude.

Vampirina Ballerina by Anne Marie Pace

This little vampire girl wants to do ballet and is learning all of the things she should or shouldn’t do in class, like showing her fangs, turning into a bat, and always getting a good day’s sleep. Vampirina teaches readers how to work hard towards a goal and the basics about vampires.

Bad Kitty Scaredy- Cat by Nick Bruel

This story of a bad kitty teaches kids about getting through scary situations through fun alliteration.

Otter Loves Halloween by Sam Garton

Otter is a Halloween expert (and its her favorite holiday!). She’ll prepare by picking up a pumpkin, decorating the house, and making fun costumes. However, when trick-or-treaters finally come, she’s scared and hides under her bed. Otter Keeper helps her figure out how to not be scared.

Bone Soup by Cambria Evans

Finnigin (who is always hungry) comes to town and the monsters hide with their food. However, Finnigin finds a way to trick them all into helping him make a soup for them all to enjoy.

RELATED: NYC Halloween Events for Kids This Year

Halloween Books for Kids

 

Arthur’s Halloween by Marc Brown

In this adventure, Arthur must find the courage to save D.W. after she wanders into the scariest house on the street.

 

Halloween Good Night by Doug Cushman

Truck-lovers have Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, animal-lovers have Good Night, Gorilla, and now Halloween-lovers have Halloween Good Night in which skeletons, mummies, warewolves, and more creatures tuck their little ones into bed and reveal how they say good night.

 

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schultz

The book form of our can’t-miss animated TV special (seriously, it wouldn’t be Halloween season without watching it at least once), follows the Peanut gang as they get ready for and celebrate Halloween. Will Linus finally see the Great Pumpkin this year?

 

Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marisa Montes

A bilingual poem about monsters throwing a ball in Haunted Hall, will teach children an array of Halloween-related words in Spanish.

 

 

What Was I Scared Of? by Dr. Seuss

A glow-in-the-dark story, this book tells the tale of a narrator scared of a pair of empty green pants (that happen to be equally scared of the narrator). This silly story also teaches a lesson on tolerance.

Meet the Spookles by Colleen Wenn

While many Halloween books rely on thrill and scare devices or focus on monsters, vampires, and ghouls as separate entities, the Spookleville series does something unique. Author and mother of two, Colleen Wenn humanizes the cast of characters to make a world of relatable monsters with real-life problems. Spookleville is a world of its own where the Spookles live, of course, and its resident monsters are responsible for organizing Halloween each year. The series consists of 12 books, each focusing on a different character who is facing a challenge, like Hal, who has trouble focusing, or Harry, who has little energy on the playground because he eats junk food. There's also Willard, the elderly spider who can't quite spin a good web anymore until his fellow Spookle friends help out. These books, each with a caring message, are just the right length for a bedtime story, and since there are 12, they're the perfect way to countdown to Halloween night.

Undead Ed and the Demon Freakshow by Rotterly Ghoulstone

Ed Bagley is a zombie, and he has a problem: His body is rotting right before his eyes. Plus, an undead and angry circus clown, Kambo Cheapteeth, has sent a horde of demons to chase Ed. Read how Ed survives (or does he?) with the help of his werewolf buddy as they band together to fight the ultimate vortex of evil.

Monster Juice: Fear the Barfitron by M.D. Payne

When Chris Taylor discovers that the residents of the retirement home where he volunteers are monsters and have stolen what appears to be his spirit, he recruits his friends to help fight back. When he returns to the retirement home, he is caught fighting a vomit-inducing war against some of the grossest monsters in the world.

Gustav Gloom and the Four Terrors by Adam-Troy Castro

Ener Gloom Mansion, where things are not always what they seem. Little boy Gustav Gloom enlists new neighbors Fernie What and Pearlie to help save his father from the Dark Country, when things go horribly wrong. There is a prison break from the Hall of Shadow Criminals. Now it's up to Fernie to save her family and Gustav before it's too late.

The Creature from The Seventh Grade: Sink or Swim by Bob Balaban

Twelve-year-old Charlie Drinkwater is an eight-and-a-half-foot tall mutant dinosaur, and with a mysterious thief in town, all signs point to Charlie. Charlie and his friends need to clear his name by catching the real criminal. But when they find out who the actual thief is, Charlie's problems get a whole lot bigger, slimier, scalier, and smellier.

Monster Juice: Fartsunami by M.D. Payne

In this second installment of Monster Juice, Chris and his friends are sent on an unexpected field trip to a remote tropical island where they find new monstrous creatures made out of dead skin waiting for them. Will the boys come up with a way to defeat the monster?

Pinkalicious: Pink or Treat! by Victoria Kann

A big storm takes out the power in Pinkville, putting Halloween parties and trick or treating on hold for all the kids living in town–or so it seems. Pinkalicious takes matters into her own hands and transforms into Pinkagirl to save Halloween, which includes a trip to the local radio station and visiting the town's mayor. Read her adventure unfold and then create your own storyboard using the book's pinktastic stickers.

There’s a Zombie in My Bathtub: Here’s Hank, Book 5 by Henry Winkler, Lin Oliver

Hank’s friends encourage him to watch a zombie movie the night before Halloween, and this really scares him! This book is a great way to talk to your kids about scary movies and stories.

Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marisa Montes

This English and Spanish rhyming book will teach kids about the spookiness and not-so-spookiness of Halloween while even exposing them to a few Spanish vocabulary words.

Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex and Mordecai Richler

This book shows kids how humor can make scary things less scary.

Halloween Books for Tweens

 

Curse of the Boggin by D.J. MacHale

Written by the co-creator of Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark (you know it’s going to be good!), Curse of the Boggin is about a boy who ventures into a mysterious library where ghosts go to write their unfinished stories.

 

Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods by Hal Johnson

An illustrated—including eight images printed in glow-in-the-dark ink—compilation of 20 folktales about the most dangerous and fantastical beasts, this book is for the tween that loves a good scare.

 

Frightlopedia: An Encyclopedia of Everything Scary, Creepy, and Spine-Chilling, from Arachnids to Zombies by Julie Winterbottom

A book for tweens who love the thrill of the fright, Frightlopedia is an illustrated A-to-Z collection of some of the most frightening places, scariest stories, and grossest creatures, real and mythical, from around the world.

 

The Gathering (Shadow House, Book 1) by Dan Poblocki

Warning: This book is for the most daring of thrill seekers. The Gathering follows five kids that have been mysteriously summoned for Shadow House, where doorways disappear, hallways move, and ghosts appear.

 

Goosebumps by R.L. Stine

With the sheer volume of Goosebumps books that R.L. Stine has written, it’s hard to choose just one to read—though if I had to choose, it would be Say Cheese and Die. Each of Stine’s books is a thrilling adventure.

 

School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari

School of Fear: The Final Exam, by Manhattan author Gitty Daneshvari, features returning characters Madeleine Masterson, Theodore Bartholomew, Lulu Punchalower, and Garrison Feldman, who are joined in this installment by new student Hyacinth Hicklebee-Riyatulle. The five tweens attend the School of Fear, where everyone is afraid of something (Madeleine, for example, is an arachnophobe, which means she is deathly afraid of spiders), and in this adventure they must save their school's secret from being exposed and overcome their fear of failure along the way.

 

 


Here at NYMetroParents, we've got everything you need to have a safefun, and festive fall and Halloween season.  Whether it is pumpkin or apple picking, getting lost in a corn maze, making Halloween crafts or finding costumes and decorations, we're here to help. 

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