30 Kids Books to Get Excited for Halloween
It's almost Halloween and excitement is building—from little ones interested in pumpkins, costumes, and candy to older kids who like a little bit of a scare now and then, these Halloween books will help set a festive mood for the spooky holiday. Many of these selections are also available as e-books so you can be reading them tucked under the covers tonight!
Picture Books
A Spoonful of Frogs
by Casey Lyall; illustrated by Vera Brosgol
A witch’s favorite treat is frog soup. Luckily, it’s healthy and easy to make. To give it that extra kick and a pop of color, the key ingredient is a spoonful of frogs. But how do you keep the frogs on the spoon? They hop, they leap, they hide...and they escape. What is a poor witch to do?
If Your Babysitter Is a Bruja
by Ana Siqueira; illustrated by Irena Freitas
In this bouncy, bilingual picture book, a little girl is determined to prove her new babysitter is a bruja by using her imagination and plenty of tricks to have the best night-before-Halloween ever.
One Good Night 'Til Halloween
by Frank Berrios; illustrated by Debby Rahmalia
The day is almost here! It's only "one more good night" until Halloween. As a child goes to sleep, they can't wait for all the fun that comes with celebrating their favorite holiday with their loved ones. They know the next day will be filled with the best Halloween decorations, treats, and costumes.
The Crayons Trick or Treat
by Drew Daywalt; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
The Crayons want to go trick-or-treating, but they're not sure what to say! In a humorous Halloween story, Purple Crayon teaches the rest of the crayon box the magic words to say when they ring their neighbors' doorbells.
A Costume for Charly
by CK Malone; illustrated by Alejandra Barajas
Charly thinks outside the box to find a Halloween costume that represents their feminine and masculine identities equally.Los Gatos Black on Halloween
by Marisa Montes; illustrated by Yuyi Morales
When the monsters decide to throw a ball in the Haunted House, the witches, skeletons, and black cats happily decide to attend, in a fun holiday book enhanced with Spanish words and festively spooky illustrations.
Poultrygeist
by Eric Geron; illustrated by Pete Oswald
After meeting his demise crossing the road, Chicken comes back as a noisy troublemaking ghost, and knowing that scaring people is bad, decides to transform himself into a friendly ghost.
Gilbert the Ghost
by Guido Van Genechten
Gilbert goes to ghost school like all the other ghosts, but he's a special ghost: he doesn't like to screech in a scary way, he doesn't want to haunt, and was always polite. What will happen to Gilbert when he's sent by the principal to the Abandoned Tower?
Samurai Scarecrow: A Very Ninja Halloween
by Rubin Pingk
It is Halloween, and Yukio is excited to celebrate! But whatever Yukio does, his younger sister Kashi follows. When Yukio carves a pumpkin, Kashi carves a similar one. When Yukio maps out his trick-or-treat route, Kashi maps the same one. But when Kashi goes too far, Yukio says some things he doesn’t really mean. Can Yukio make it up to his adoring little sister?
The Little Kitten
by Nicola Killen
Dressing up in her kitty costume and heading outdoors with her cat, Pumpkin, on a beautiful autumn day, little Ollie discovers a shivering kitten that someone has advertised on a “Lost Kitten” poster before playfully returning it home and receiving an unexpected Halloween-themed reward.
Kids
The Cardboard Kingdom: Roar of the Beast
art by Chad Sell; story by Chad Sell, Vid Alliger, Manuel Betancourt, Michael Cole, David DeMeo, Jay Fuller, Cloud Jacobs, Barbara Perez Marquez, Molly Muldoon, and Katie Schenkel.
It's nearly Halloween in The Cardboard Kingdom, and one thing is for sure: a mystery is afoot. When a mysterious monster wreaks havoc in their neighborhood, the newly minted Monster Mashers will go to any lengths to protect the Cardboard Kingdom and solve this mystery.
Nina Soni: Halloween Queen
by Kashmira Sheth; illustrated by Jenn Kocsmiersky
When Halloween brings out Nina Soni’s competitive spirit, she decides to create an impressively scary haunted house for which she can charge admission, but things go hilariously wrong for this Halloween Queen.
Crimson Twill: Witch in the City
by Kallie George; illustrated by Birgitta Sif
Unlike any other witch, Crimson Twill, who loves polka dots and puppies and wears a big crimson bow on her hat, goes on a big-city shopping adventure to Broomingdale’s—a store that may not be prepared for her uniqueness.
Maggie Sparks and the Monster Baby
by Steve Smallman; illustrated by Esther Hernando
Maggie Sparks is a mischievous little witch who's learning how to tackle school, make friends, and most confusing of all: understand her emotions!
Evie and the Truth About Witches
by John Martz
Evie, who loves to be scared, gets more than she bargains for when, despite a warning, she reads a summoning spell at the end of a book about witches that transports her to a strange land.
Take Us To Your Sugar
by Jonathan Roth
Bob and his alien friend Beep get permission from their principal to celebrate Halloween at Astro Elementary, but sugar-crazy aliens attracted by the candy invade the celebration and it is up to Bob and Beep to sort things out and save the school.
Desmond Cole: Ghost Patrol series
by Andres Miedoso; illustrated by Victor Rivas
Book 1: Fearless 8-year-old Desmond Cole runs his own ghost-hunting service to investigate monsters, spirits and other otherworldly mischief makers and is assisted by his sidekick best friend, Andres, who struggles with chronic fears.
The Happy and Heinous Halloween of Classroom 13
by Honest Lee and Matthew J. Gilbert; art by Joelle Dreidemy
Chaos ensues when the students of the 13th Classroom are cursed to transform into the characters of their Halloween costumes, unleashing wacky werewolves, vampires, zombies, and other monsters throughout the school.
The Ghoulia series
by Barbara Cantini; translated from the Italian by Anna Golding
Book 1: Spending her days playing with her albino greyhound while wishing for a friend, a little zombie who scares the other children with her pale green skin and purple-shadowed eyes decides to be entirely herself on Halloween.
The Best Halloween Ever
by Barbara Robinson
The notorious Herdman children take on Halloween, as their pranks force the Mayor to cancel trick-or-treating, but the Herdmans have other ideas, and in a comic twist turn the worst Halloween into the best Halloween
Middle Grade
Witchlings
by Claribel A. Ortega
Every year, Witchlings are placed into covens and come into their powers as full-fledged witches. Seven isn't placed in one of the five covens. She's a Spare. The three Spares will be assigned an impossible task: If they work together and succeed at it, their coven will be sealed and they'll gain their full powers. If they fail...well, the last coven to make the attempt ended up being turned into toads.
Spirit Hunters series
by Ellen Oh
Book 1: Harper doesn’t trust her new home from the moment she steps inside, and the rumors are that the Raine family’s new house is haunted. Harper isn’t sure she believes those rumors, until her younger brother, Michael, starts acting strangely.
Witches of Brooklyn series
by Sophie Escabasse
Moving to Brooklyn to live with two eccentric aunts she has never met after the tragic loss of her mother, Effie forges bonds with loyal new friends while making the amazing discovery that magic runs in her family.
The Keeper
by Guadalupe García McCall
Moving to a “perfect” new town, James and his sister begin receiving threatening letters from someone called the Keeper and must find out who is behind all this in order to stay alive.
Secrets of Eden Eld series
by Kate Alice Marshall
Thirteen: Observing strange phenomena after moving to the quiet and prosperous community of Eden Eld, Eleanor is warned by new friends to pretend she cannot see the supernatural disturbances, which are believed to be the reason that three teens go missing every 13 years
The Okay Witch series
by Emma Steinkellner
Book 1: Moth Hush loves all things witchy. When some eighth-grade bullies try to ruin her Halloween, something really strange happens. It turns out that Founder's Bluff, Massachusetts, has a centuries-old history of witch drama. And, surprise: Moth's family is at the center of it all! When Moth's new powers show up, things get totally out of control.
Ophie's Ghosts
by Justina Ireland
Discovering her ability to see ghosts when a cruel act ends her father's life and forces her to move in with relatives in 1920s Pittsburgh, young Ophelia forges a helpful bond with a spirit whose own life ended suddenly and unjustly.
Séance Tea Party
by Reimena Yee
After watching her circle of friends seemingly fade away, Lora is determined to still have fun on her own, so when a tea party leads Lora to discovering Alexa, the ghost that haunts her house, they soon become best friends.
The Halloween Moon
by Joseph Fink
When the town falls under the thrall of a mysterious presence on Halloween night, Esther and an unlikely crew must find a way to lift the curse before it’s too late and Halloween lasts forever.
The Visitors
by Greg Howard
When a group of kids explores a deserted, haunted plantation they befriend a young ghost and together uncover the dark secret of his past that led to his mysterious death.
Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.