Halloween Books To Read With YOur Kids-Guest Post with A.J. Kormon

I’m so excited to be participating in the Halloway Hills Middle School Mysteries blog tour! Today author A.J. Kormon is going to be sharing some great Halloween books to read with your kids. Since I don’t have kids, I was super excited to have an opportunity to let a mother discuss this topic. She has a lot of fun recommendations so keep reading to check them out!

Halloween is such a fun time of year. When my kids were younger, we’d break out the Halloween books as soon as October rolled around. They are now nine and eleven years old and it’s getting harder to find Halloween books that aren’t too young (or too scary) for them.

Here are some favourites from when my kids were younger as well as some we’re currently reading. 

For Younger Kids

The following books are great for kids in the three to seven age range, although my kids enjoyed them until they were much older as well.

The Spooky Wheels on the Bus

If your kids enjoy the “Wheels on the Bus” song, they’ll love The Spooky Wheels on the Bus by J. Elizabeth Mills. You can sing this book or read it, whichever you prefer. I usually sang it to my kids because it was hard not to. 

As you can imagine, this book features all kinds of fun characters riding the bus from cats and spiders to mummies, witches, and ghosts. With its bright and colourful illustrations, this book quickly became a hit in my house.

Room on the Broom

Julia Donadlson is one of my favourite children’s book authors. Her rhymes are second to none. Thankfully, my boys love her books too. We still read Room on the Broom together. A witch and her cat are flying on her broom, but the weather just won’t cooperate. First she loses her hat in the wind, then the bow from her braid flies away.

Every time the witch and the cat land to look for her possessions, they meet a new friend that wants to ride on the broom too. Of course, this is a very accommodating witch and soon her broom is so full that it snaps in two. I won’t spoil the rest of the story for you, but there is some fun teamwork involved next. 

Even though it’s not a Halloween book, the award-winning The Gruffalo, also by Julia Donaldson, is a fun book about monsters and trickery that’s appropriate for younger children too.

One Spooky Night

One Spooky Night: A Halloween Adventure by Kate Stone is really more of a work of art than a book. I happily confess to buying this book for myself and being very nervous watching my kids read it. Oh, no! What if they rip the pages? 

The book’s pages alternate between vellum and thicker pages that have shapes cut out of them. There is only one sentence per page, and the vellum and cut-outs form as much of the story as the words. This is truly a unique and beautiful book with a fun twist at the end.

For Older Kids

At nine and eleven, my kids are old enough they are interested in books that go a little beyond what the books above do. 

Hiding Out on Halloween

I feel a little strange recommending my own book, but when I wrote it, I wanted to cover topics my kids were ready for like bullying and the death of a family member. I’ve tried to do this while incorporating humour into the book as well. 

The main character, Avery, is a seventh-grader who loves playing Minecraft. When he splashes a potion on the school bully while playing Minecraft, the bully disappears from the real world too. Avery is determined to figure out what happened to Becky the bully, but discovers he’s also being followed by a black cat. 

Goosebumps

I was much too chicken to read the Goosebumps series by R.L.Stine when I was a kid, but my brother and sister both loved them when we were growing up. There are so many books in the series to choose from, kids are sure to find one with the types of monsters or paranormal elements they enjoy. We’re starting with Have You Met My Ghoulfriend? in our house, because it seemed a little less scary to me.   

The Wizard of Oz

While The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum isn’t specifically a Halloween book, it always reminds me of Halloween because of the characters. The wicked witch, her flying monkeys, the lion, the scarecrow, the tinman, and even Glenda and the wizard feel very fantastical to me. 

This was a story that definitely scared me as a kid, even though it has a happy ending. So, I haven’t read it with my kids yet or watched the movie with them, but I feel like they are at the age where it won’t be long. The book is already on our bookshelves waiting for them.

Whether you want some books to read during this Halloween season or you enjoy reading Halloween books all year long, I hope some of the books on this list are new to you and you’ll give them a try. It’s always fun discovering new reads!

About The AUthor

As a former accountant, AJ Kormon, started writing books about money to help explain the concept to her kids. As her kids got older, they showed signs of not wanting to read, so she enlisted their help creating a series for resistant readers. This is how the Halloway Hills Middle School Mysteries were born. When AJ isn’t writing and cartooning, you’ll find her losing to her kids at Uno.