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Halloween is a beloved and treasured time of year at our house. We love updating the everyday decor to include pumpkins, bats, ghosts, and other spooky creatures. I look forward to the trek to the library to check out some of my Halloween favorites!

Halloween Books for Kids

Goodnight Goon: a Petrifying Parody by Michael Rex.
A very cute take on the old favorite Goodnight Moon, this time with an underworld spooky twist. If your kids love the original story as my boys do, they’ll love this creepy version!

H is for Haunted House: A Halloween Alphabet Book by Tanya Lee Stone.
This is currently my 3-year-old son’s favorite Halloween book. This is an alphabet book that categorizes everything spooky and Halloween with little-kid-friendly illustrations.

Rotten Ralph’s Trick or Treat! by Jack Gantos
Sarah’s rotten cat, Ralph, goes to a Halloween costume party disguised as Sarah and creates horrible mischief.

The Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey.
I used to read this with my first graders because it is one of those stories that has the “don’t judge a book by its cover” moral to it without being too obvious. In this book, Oscar gets made fun of by the other dogs for being short, buts winds up the hero in the end.

Where’s my Mummy? by Carolyn Crimi.
Little kids will love the spooky-but-not-too-scary creatures in this bedtime story about a young mummy playing hide-and-seek with his mommy.

The Night Before Halloween by Natasha Wing.
I love Natasha Wing’s “Night Before” series of books for building excitement with little kids. This story is a parody of the Christmas poem “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement C. Moore. Kids will enjoy hearing the Halloween version!

Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler.
I’ve never met a little kid who doesn’t enjoy a tale about someone or something who can’t get rid of an annoying case of the hiccups. This story of a skeleton’s efforts to abandon his hiccups will amuse your youngest readers.

Elmo’s Monster Mash by Naomi Kleinberg.
It wouldn’t be Halloween at our house without a few readings of Elmo’s Monster Mash. Okay, it doesn’t even have to be Halloween season at our house! Little ones will enjoy reading about Elmo and pumpkins, even if the story is a little lacking in a plot!

Arthur’s Halloween by Marc Brown.
Who doesn’t love Arthur? In this story, Arthur is afraid of so many things, but especially the creepy old house on the corner. Who lives there? What spooky things are inside? Find out along with Arthur as he learns to overcome his fears

Runaway Mummy: a Petrifying Parody by Michael Rex.
We are fans of Michael Rex’s rhyming picture books (Truck Duck, Dunk Skunk) for young readers but this is the first of the parody books that we have gotten. Runaway Mummy is a spooky parody on the classic Runaway Bunny. My son loved it. He laughed through the whole thing when I asked him why? The Monsters! I think it could be a little scary (especially if you already have monster fears) for kids 3 and under.
What Halloween books would you like to have seen on this list? What are your family’s favorite spooky reads this time of year? Share your thoughts below with Little Lake County!
Find more Halloween Fun in Lake County.

by Dawn T. (Volo)
Dawn is a former 1st grade and early childhood teacher turned to stay at home mom to 2 boys Dawn and her boys love journeying around Lake County and the Chicago suburbs to check out new places to play, restaurants, farms, gardens, museums, or anything that might be of interest to families with young children.
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