10 Spooktacular Halloween Picture Books for Children

There are so many fantastic picture books about Halloween, however some can be quite scary especially for the more sensitive child.  With that in mind we have compiled our favourite spooky stories for younger children from our vast collection of books!

Our Top 10 Halloween Picture Books

1. The Night Before Halloween – Natasha Wing & Cynthia Fisher: A spooktacular take of the Christmas favourite!  A fun, colourful book, packed with cheerful, child friendly pictures.
2. Mouse’s First Halloween – Lauren Thompson & Buket Erdogan: A beautifully written and illustrated adventure of a little mouse sneaking around on Halloween.
3. Angelina’s Halloween – Katherine Holabird & Helen Craig:  Join Angelina Ballerina and her friends and family as they celebrate Halloween.  I particularly love the detailed illustrations in this book.
4. 10 Trick-or-Treaters – A Halloween Counting Book – Janet Schulman & Linda Davick:  This is such a fun and colourful rhyming book!  You will have lots of fun reading this rhyme and practising number skills.  We love to add sound effects and funny voices when reading this one, creating spooky voices for vampires and ghosts etc.
5. ABCs of Halloween – Patricia Reeder Eubank: another fantastic Halloween rhyming book, this time using the letters of the alphabet to explore all aspects of Halloween from attics to bats and unicorns to vampires.
6. Halloween Night – Marjorie Dennis Murray & Brandon Dorman: This wonderfully illustrated book may be a little spookier than the others on our list.  While my 5 year old loves to pore over the pictures in it he has remarked that some of the drawings are a little scary (only a tiny bit though!!!!).  Books that rhyme are fantastic for capturing a child’s imagination and engaging them in a story and this book is a wonderful example of one that does this successfully.  A fantastic story of ghouls and goblins and all things spooky!
7. Ghost – Guido Van Genechten: This is a cute and engaging book pondering what would you do if you were a ghost.  A lovely simple little story about imagining what it would be like to be a ghost and the adventures that could be had!
8. Scaredy Boo! – Claire Freedman & Russell Julian: This is  a firm favourite of ours.  My little boy loves to read this book over and over again and has spent alot of time drawing his own illustrations of the little monster characters.  A lovely story about overcoming fears and venturing out of one’s comfort zone to explore the world and make new friends and have lots of fun in the process.
9. Pumpkin Soup – Helen Cooper: While not a story about Halloween the colours and illustrations in this book are perfect for this time of the year.  A really super story about three friends learning the importance of sharing and being open to new ideas.Stunning illustrations throughout.
10. Max’s Halloween – Rosemary Wells: My little girl loves Max and Ruby so I couldn’t complete this list without including her favourite Halloween book.  Max’s Halloween is a board book about Max and Ruby’s adventures trick-or-treating.  Colour, simple and fun, it is perfect for toddlers who may be trick-or-treating for the first time!

We have also listed our favourite  Non Fiction Books about Autumn and Halloween for Younger Kids and 5 Gorgeous Autumn Picture Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers! For lots more Autumn/Fall and Halloween book ideas take a look at our Pinterest boards below! What Halloween books does your family love to read? Enjoy! Ciara x

Further Reading:

• 🎃 10 Seasonal Foods and Treats for Halloween Night
• 🕯️ 10 Forgotten Halloween Games to Bring Back This Year
• 👻 15 Quirky Halloween Crafts Using Things You Already Have at Home
• 🍂 13 Irish Halloween Traditions
• 🦇 12 Quirky Halloween Superstitions and Where They Come From
• 🎃 20 Halloween Traditions to Start with Your Family
• 📽️ 15 Spooky (But Not Too Scary) Movies for a Family Halloween Night
• 📝 25 Halloween Activities for Families and Teens
• 🏠 10 Cosy Ways to Celebrate Halloween at Home

👉 You can also browse all seasonal posts in one place over on the Autumn blog archive.