Halloween Reading

Picture Books | Younger Fiction | Intermediate Fiction
Young Adult Fiction | Nonfiction

Picture Books
Suggested grade level listed with each entry

Trick-or-Treat, Smell My Feet! written and illustrated by Lisa Desimini (Blue Sky/Scholastic)
Mean spirited witches get a taste of their own medicine when a spell gone wrong turns them into cute babies in pink pajamas. Grade level: K-3. 40 pages.

Three Little Ghosties written by Pippa Goodhart, illustrated by AnnaLaura Cantone (Bloomsbury)
Three ghosts brag about the tricks they’ve played, scaring witches and even an ogre, but get their own fright when they target boys and girls. Grade level: Preschool–3. 32 pages.

Mommy? illustrated by Maurice Sendak, paper engineering by Matthew Reinhart, scenario by Arthur Yorinks (di Capua/Scholastic)
A little boy looks for his mother in a mad scientist’s laboratory and persists through encounters with paper-engineered ghouls sporting comically exaggerated features. Grade level: Preschool–2. 12 pages.

Leonardo the Terrible Monster written and illustrated by Mo Willems (Hyperion)
Leonardo the monster is too cute to scare anyone, so he goes to find “the most scaredy-cat kid in the whole world,” with unexpected results. Grade level: Preschool. 48 pages.

Younger Fiction
Suggested grade level for each entry: K–3

Andy Shane and the Pumpkin Trick written by Jennifer Richard Jacobson, illus. by Abby Carter (Candlewick)
New friends Andy and Dolores devise a plan to prevent Halloween vandals from smashing pumpkins on Dolores’ front porch. 58 pages.

Intermediate Fiction
Suggested grade level for each entry: 4–6

The God of Mischief written by Paul Bajoria, illustrated by Bret Bertholf (Little)
This juicy gothic melodrama, a sequel to The Printer’s Devil, details reunited twins Mog and Nick’s adventures in a secret-filled 1820s English country mansion. Grade level: 4–8. 389 pages.

Revenge of the Witch; Curse of the Bane; Night of the Soul Stealer (Greenwillow)
The Last Apprentice written by Joseph Delaney, illustrated by Patrick Arrasmith
Evil-fighting apprentice Tom Ward defeats various bone-chilling villains while learning more about his mysterious master's secrets.

Passion and Poison: Tales of Shape-Shifters, Ghosts, and Spirited Women written by Janice M. del Negro, illustrated by Vince Natale (Cavendish)
Spooky twists and turns, dramatic timing, a deceptively informal tone, and the challenge to figure out “what really happened” draw readers into these seven heavily folkloric tales. Grade level: 4–8. 64 pages.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow written by Washington Irving, illustrated by Gris Grimly (Atheneum)
The tale of the headless horseman, slightly condensed into a graphic novel format but with language and ambiguities intact, is accompanied by Halloween-hued illustrations whose comically caricaturized figures mute the scare factor for young readers. Grade level: 4–6.40 pages.

Three Good Deeds written by Vivian Vande Velde (Harcourt)
When Howard steals eggs from a witch, he ends up transformed into a goose and forced to perform three good deeds to regain his human form. 147 pages.

Young Adult Fiction
Suggested grade level for each entry: 7 and up

The Minister’s Daughter by Julie Hearn (Atheneum)
The minister’s two daughters accuse the village healer’s granddaughter of witchcraft in this rich novel of magic and suspense. 264 pages.

Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan (Knopf)
Ten stories delve into the crevices of nightmare, temptation, and helplessness with a mixture of earthy dialect and inventiveness that makes this sometimes horrifying, occasionally funny, and always mesmerizing. Grade level: 7 and up. 162 pages.

Gothic!: Ten Original Dark Tales edited by Deborah Noyes (Candlewick)
Ten tales guaranteed to raise the hairs on your neck. Authors include Neil Gaiman, M. T. Anderson, Joan Aiken, and Garth Nix. 241 pages.

The Restless Dead: Ten Original Stories of the Supernatural edited by Deborah Noyes (Candlewick)
Ten deliciously spooky tales of the undead run the gamut from a Poe-inspired tale of a heart-transplant patient’s burdens to an old-fashioned house haunting to a richly allegorical tale of a Revolutionary War deserter, providing plenty of chills as well as a strong current of real human emotion. Grade level: 7 and up. 253 pages.

All Hallows’ Eve: 13 Stories by Vivian Vande Velde (Harcourt)
A teen-focused collection of unsettling and often terrifying short stories that balance familiar situations with supernatural menace. Grade level: 7 and up. 225 pages.

The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding (Orchard/Scholastic)
A alternate-history tale of Gothic London, complete with a possessed amnesiac girl, a young demon-hunter, and the countless terrifying creatures who haunt the night. 292 pages.

The Bone Collector’s Son by Paul Yee (Cavendish)
An unusual ghost story blends East with West against the backdrop of anti-Asian protests in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Vancouver. 139 pages.

Nonfiction
Suggested grade level listed with each entry

Outside and Inside Mummies by Sandra Markle (Walker)
An absorbing scientific exploration of mummies that encourages children to look beyond the horror-movie thrill. Grade level: K-5. 40 pages.

Aliens Are Coming!: The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy (Knopf)
A compact, dramatic account of the Halloween broadcast that caused radio listeners to believe aliens had landed on Earth. 40 pages. Grade level: K–3.

More lists of Recommended Books