Children's Books discussion

Here is the place to discuss your favorite Halloween books for young readers. Perhaps a spooky novel or mystery series for middle grade readers, or some really adorable picture books. Have fun!

(PS I'm a total nut for holiday themed picture books, so I'll be back to post soon.)

Also, if you're seeking books with a pumpkin theme, specifically, there's already a great discussion here:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

I *know*! I thought we had one already, but apparently not! Must be my obsession with holiday themed books that made me think so--I have talked about Halloween books enough elsewhere on GoodReads, I suppose, haha!

Ooh Halloween themed books thank you thank you! Look forward to all the ideas.

The following book was mentioned in the "Banned Books" group as having been challenged. I have not read it, but I am very much against books being officially banned or censored, Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam.

Los Gatos Black on Halloween is one I really enjoyed last year.

One that my grandson and I used to love is Scary, Scary Halloween by Eve Bunting

I really like the simple Dragon's Halloween by Dav Pilkey. It's an easy reader and has 3 short Halloween stories. Six Small Pumpkins is my favorite about Dragon using 6 small pumpkins to make a very scary Jack-o-lantern. Costume Party is typical silly dragon and there's also the The Deep Dark Woods. Cute and good for small attention spans too!

Abigail wrote: "Gundula wrote: "The following book was mentioned in the "Banned Books" group as having been challenged..."

Gundula - out of curiosity, why was this one censored?


For those who are looking for le..."

I'll have to read the thread in the banned books group again, but I think it was mostly challenged due to inappropriate content. From what I have gathered, the poems included are all rather creepy, dealing with death, murder, knives etc. It does sound as though the book is more something for older children and contains some rather frightening images, but that is still no reason to try to get the book banned.

Has anybody mentioned "Little Witch" readers? They are cute and not scary.

A cute first chapter book is "The Worst Witch." It is pre-Harry Potter.

Abigail, I heartily second your suggestions of the Dorrie books, the Georgie the Ghost books and especially the Scary Stories collections by Alvin Schwartz (The Schwartz books were going to be my next suggestion). Kids like all three series, but older kids especially like the Scary Stories (my personal favorities are the first, and second - More). Kids love reading them and retelling them. For younger readers there are Schwartz's two Easy reader collections - In a Dark Dark Room and Other Scary Stories, and Ghosts! Ghosts! Ghosts!

For a children's novel, I loved The Great Ghost Rescue by Iva Ibbotson. Just the right balance of creepy and fun for me!

I also love the Dorrie the Witch books.

For picture books featuring witches, I liked:
Alice and Greta
Hoodwinked is adorable
Only a Witch Can Fly
Meredith, the Witch Who Wasn't
Room on the Broom
Winnie the Witch -- she has the cutest cat!

Other Halloween picture books:
Georgie
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
Queen of Halloween

Has anybody mentioned the "Meg and Mog" series?

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...
There are a whole bunch of Meg and Mog stories. Meg is the witch. Mog is her cat, I think. I think in the original book they turn three witches into mice....maybe???? I can't really remember.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17... This is a book in the series that I have reviewed.

Funny Halloween books are some of my favorites. I really like Arthur's Halloween by Marc Brown. I heard him read this aloud year's ago and I enjoy reading it to K & beginning readers. Space Case by Edward Marshall is fun to read aloud (I especially like the ending & the chance to do a robot mechanical alien voice). The Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey is also a favorite read-aloud - love the illustrations, too.

The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree is my sons all time favorite Halloween book. It sat in his cubby at school and I think it was a daily read. I think he even has it memorized.

Abigail wrote: "Another "feel-good" witchy tale that I have recently read, which might work for younger children, is Excuse Me... Are You a Witch?, by Emily Horn. I thought it was darling! (It helps that I have a mostly black cat myself, I suspect!) "

Awww, how cute is that cover!?!?! I love black cats!

Awww!!! ;-)

I found the Meredith books charming!

Yay, lots more wonderful suggestions. Thanks, Abigail! I'm glad you liked The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. We'll be reading that for October's Picture Book Club ;-)

Yeah just picked up my Halloween reads, got them all except pumpkin soup

Brenda wrote: "Yeah just picked up my Halloween reads, got them all except pumpkin soup"
Hooray!

And, Abigail, the new Splat book looks adorable! :-)

I just finished reading The Hallo-wiener and thought it was a cute book. It had all of the elements of Halloween and a strong message about not teasing or bullying. There is some nice play on words with the use of Oscar, frank, and his mother calling him her "little sausage link." In the end the underdog is the hero. No pun intended.

Haha!

Elizabeth Bird focused on Halloween picture books on her website today, including:

Only a Witch Can Fly by Alison McGhee;

Ghosts in the House! by Kazuno Kohara;

The Halloween Kid by Rhode Montijo;

Welcome to Monster Town by Ryan Heshka;

Vampire Boy's Good Night by Lisa Brown;

And Then Comes Halloween by Tom Brenner;

and others. Here's the link:

http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/...

Oooh, thank you! What a fun list!

Wow... lots of great titles here that I love and several I haven't seen. I'll have to check them out. Love this site!!!

I just read a cute book to my girls tonight. It's a Halloween remake of the Little Red Hen (and I must admit that I love clever remakes of favorite fairy/folk tales...) called The Little Green Witch. My daughters loved it and made the connection between it and Little Red Hen right away... This little witch grows the pumpkin herself and after all the work is through, she eats her "horrible, monstrous (burnt) pumpkin pie" all by herself. Has a small twist at the end as well.

As a child I loved the ghost stories (chapter books) by Mary Downing Hahn and Betty Ren Wright. Actually just read the newest release by Hahn yesterday The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall and while I enjoyed it, I wasn't as impressed as I was as a preteen reading her books. But I can imagine that many 9-12 year olds would love both of their books. Spooky but not terrifying.

I had fun today reading a Halloween book to my 8-year-old grandson's third grade class. We read The Experiments of Dr. Vermin by Tim Egan. I always like Egan's books - he uses animals instead of people in very amusing ways. His book Roasted Peanuts is one of my favorites.

"Dr. Vermin" worked really well for the all-boys class. The story was just scary enough to be fun. It's about a Frankenstein-like doctor, but it's hard to be too scary when the hero is a very timid pig! This is a hard age group for read-aloud picture books, especially for boys, but they all said that they liked this one a lot. (And they liked my scary laugh.)

Kudos on choosing such a popular book--and on that scary laugh ;-p

For those seeking books about monsters, this is a fun list:

http://www.amazon.com/a-monster-list/...

I find it somewhat difficult to satisfy my classes with Halloween stories. Kids will complain that the books are not scary enough, but in the same class I've got kids who afraid of even minor Halloween stuff. The littlest kids are easiest to please--they would like many of the above suggestions. I have often read The Teeny Tiny Ghost to kindergarteners because they like all the sound effects. My 2nd and 3rd graders get more difficult to please. Some of the books I've had some success with are The Bones of Fred McFee and The Night the Scarecrow Walked. They are just creepy enough to at least maintain the attention of my grumblers without freaking out the rest of the kids. I have also read Night of the Gargoyles though it is not technically a Halloween book. I usually show some real pictures of gargoyles too, including some of my own.

My daughter and I loved Two Little Witches: A Halloween Counting Story and Meredith, the Witch Who Wasn't. My daughter's name is Meredith, and she dressed up as her for Halloween one year.

Michele wrote: "My daughter and I loved Two Little Witches: A Halloween Counting Story and Meredith, the Witch Who Wasn't. My daughter's name is Meredith, and she dressed up as her for Halloween one year. "

That's so cute! ;-) I love that book.

I just read two enjoyable Halloween rhyming counting books:
Ten Timid Ghosts and Haunted Party.

Ooh, pretty, Abigail!

Shiny!!! I'm a kid at heart, what can I say?!

I have had great success with Humbug Witch. I end it with a flannel board where I undress her.

I also enjoy Johnston's Witch's Hat. Where a witch drops her hat into her "magic cauldron" & has to chase it down when it turns into a hat, rat & cat.

A new favorite I found for Halloween is:
Hampire! and Quackenstein Hatches a Family. They aren't themed with Halloween but fit perfectly with the holiday.

David wrote: "Abigail, I heartily second your suggestions of the Dorrie books, the Georgie the Ghost books and especially the Scary Stories collections by Alvin Schwartz (The Schwartz books were going to be my n..."

The In a Dark, Dark Room is very popular here & I usually dress up as Jenny & tell the story for Halloween parties.

Abigail wrote: "My favorite holiday of the year approaches once again! Yes, it's getting toward Halloween time, and yours truly is getting very excited! Can't wait to make my Halloween cookies this year, carve my ..."

I had some luck with Van Allsburg's book The Widow's Broom with 3rd graders.

I also liked Kate Culhane: A Ghost Story, but my copy walked out of the library a year or so back and I haven't replaced it yet.

I like The Widow's Broom too! (done by our 4th/2nd grades buddies group...I'm outta luck there)

I chose to "read" snippets from a "non-fiction" book about "real" Chicago ghosts to my 3rd, 4th and 5th graders: Creepy Chicago: A Ghosthunter's Tales of the City's Scariest Sites. I wouldn't say that is a great book, but it did give me a chance to elaborate on the idea that non-fiction is always "true books" (really?) and the news report style of the stories meant that they were not truly scary to listen to, but were weird enough since they are "actual" ghost stories. It was a hit anyway.

June wrote: "I have had great success with Humbug Witch. I end it with a flannel board where I undress her."

What a cute idea!

Abigail wrote: "Samantha wrote: "A new favorite I found for Halloween is:
Hampire! and Quackenstein Hatches a Family. They aren't themed with Halloween but fit perfectly with the hol..."
They are cute! Yes, I think they would be okay for timid little kids. The book is definitely made to be funny. The story line makes you think it is going to be scary but it ends way different than you think. Especially the Hampire! book.

Abigail wrote: "Michele wrote: "I find it somewhat difficult to satisfy my classes with Halloween stories. Kids will complain that the books are not scary enough, but in the same class I've got kids who afraid of..."

This title is out of print now. Too bad I did not have one in the collection. I am purchasing new reads for the library for our Halloween selections.

I appreciate all the suggestions for classroom read alouds, a part of why I joined the group.

Yes, Abigail, I'm a librarian and use the flannelboard, which I copied from my first boss, every October for storytime & for any younger class visits or outreach.

Unfortunately, my system doesn't have Teeny, Tiny Witches. I'll keep my eye out or maybe put it on my wish list.

Was looking for school stories for the beginning of this new school year and stumbled across this cute Halloween picture book:
Attack of the 50-Foot Teacher The strict teacher gives homework on Halloween night. But then events occur that help her remember what it was like to be a kid and she tells them that their homework is to have fun. Fun pictures and a fun story. My girls (ages 9 and 7) really liked this one.

Christmas decorations will be out before you know it. gag

I just bought a kinda cute book not exactly Halloween, but in the mood: Creepy Carrots!. I think it is entertaining. Little rabbit boy takes carrots everyday from a field and then begins to think they are following him. Sometimes the pictures make it look like they are, other times it looks like it is his imagination. The faces on the carrots are "creepy." In the end he builds a big fence around the carrots (so they cannot chase him) and then the next page shows the carrots thrilled about how successful they were!

The Monsters' Monster just saw this over on a parenting blog. I haven't read it but would like to.

This book is not strictly Halloween, but fits within the theme: Frank'n'Stan. It is fully of cheeky winks to Mary Shelley's classic novel, and a good introduction for kids to learn about that story as a work of literature and a piece of pop culture.

Crystal wrote: "The Monsters' Monster just saw this over on a parenting blog. I haven't read it but would like to."

The cover looks really cute Crystal. I recently read
it follows the theme of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" but with a bit of a twist. It was cute.