It’s almost that time of year when toddlers and kids get to dress up in fun costumes, decorate pumpkins, and go to Halloween parties. There’s candy, cookies, and strange food concoctions. There are also the spook-tacular books that all young children should have on their bookshelves or borrow from the library.
Scary, Scary Halloween by Eve Bunting (Clarion Books, ISBN-10: 089919799X) gives young readers a bit off spine-tingling fun with its poetry. It is written for kindergarten to third grade, and it’s a great book to read out loud.
Written for ages four to eight, Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman (Aladdin, ISBN-10: 0689801297) is vibrant and delicious. In the story, I witch decides to bake a pumpkin pie. The pumpkin, however, has grown so big that she needs the help of her Halloween friends to get it unstuck.
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anythingby Linda Williams (HarperTrophy, ISBN-10: 0064431835) keeps young children enthralled with its fun illustrations and noisiness. The little old lady gets the scare of her life while walking through the woods one night, but she quickly, and cleverly, finds uses for each of the spooky items she comes across. For ages three to seven.
Every Halloween deserves a bit of haunted house fun. In the Haunted House by Eve Bunting (Clarion Books, ISBN-10: 0395699428), young children are treated with a walk through a spooky house. Written for ages four to eight, In the Haunted House gives children just enough spook and mystery without making them too frightened to go to bed.
Another book for children in the four to eight age group is Shake Dem Halloween Bones by W. Nikola-Lisa (Houghton Mifflin, ISBN-10: 0618070346). This is a great book to share with a group of children and for music class. The rhythm is contagious and children, as well as adults, will want to get up and shake their bones along with the book. The illustrations are also incredible.
There’s no better way to help children scared of spooky skeletons than to make them giggle. Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler (Aladdin, ISBN-10: 1416902767) is a silly story about a skeleton that can’t get rid of his hiccups. Written for ages four to eight, this book is a lot of fun and a perfect read for scaredy cats.
Finally, The Night Before Halloween by Natasha Wing (Grosset & Dunlap, ISBN-10: 0448419653) is another book that young children will fall in love with it. In a Halloween spin of Clement C. Moore's poem "The Night Before Christmas," Natasha Wing craftily shows how witches, goblins, and monsters prepare for trick-or-treaters. Written for ages four to eight.
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