If your child loves decorating for Halloween and dressing up for Trick or Treat, stories are a great way to get them even more in the spooky spirit! As well as watching some classic family friendly flicks, how about ordering some festive books from your local library? Here’s our pick of the very best children’s stories for Halloween.
Best picture books for Halloween
I Went Trick-or-Treating
By Paul Howard
Two children have been out trick-or-treating with their families. When they meet up again, they share their adventures. Each child tries to outdo the other by claiming to have scared more spooky creatures. ‘I went trick-or-treating and I scared a creepy, sleepy spider…!’ ‘…Well, I went trick-or-treating and I scared a creepy sleepy spider and…a naughty, warty, toad!’
In this spooktacular story each character repeats what the other has just said, and then they add something else (it’s a bit like the game, I went shopping and I bought… )
This charmingly creepy book, complete with glittery spiders’ webs and glow-in-the dark ghosts, comes highly recommended.
Boo! A book of spooky surprises
By Jonathan Litton and Fhiona Galloway
Who is shouting ‘BOO!’? That’s what the reader of this rhyming picture book must guess.
On the first page there’s a big picture of an owl. The owl’s eyes are holes so the reader can put their fingers through, as the question is asked: ‘Night owl, night owl was that you? Were you the one that shouted BOO?’ The owl replies, ‘It wasn’t me.’
And the mystery continues. It’s not Black Cat, Pumpkin, Little Witch, Spider or Wizard, so who is it?
The reader will have lots of fun guessing and joining in with the rhymes until the answer is revealed on the very last page!
Ten Spooky Skeletons: a peek-through picture book
By Garry Parsons
At the start of the book there’s one spooky skeleton looking for some friends. He goes down the hatch to a spooky cellar and finds himself on a pirate ship where there’s a pirate skeleton. So, now there are two skeletons.
The reader follows skeletons through a telescope, a gap in a circus tent, a magician’s hat and more. The story keeps going until there are 10 skeletons altogether.
The book ends with a glow-in-the dark spooky surprise!
Age 7+ best children’s stories for Halloween
The Worst Witch
By Jill Murphy
Mildred Hubble is a trainee witch who cannot seem to do anything right. In fact, she’s the ‘worst witch’ at Miss Cackle’s Academy. If she’s not having to use a satchel to keep her cat balanced on her broomstick, then she’s performing spells that go spectacularly wrong.
When Mildred’s arch enemy Ethel, spitefully places an enchantment on her broomstick during the Halloween broomstick display, things go from bad to worse. Mildred’s broomstick goes out of control and all the witches fall into a heap in front of everyone.
Upset and disgraced Mildred runs away from school. Then, when darkness falls, she spots a group of witches huddled over a cauldron in the forest. These witches, led by Miss Cackle’s evil twin, are plotting to take over the school by turning all the teachers and pupils into toads. Can Mildred save the day and turn her reputation round?
This classic story has been a firm favourite with children for years. Not surprisingly, it’s continuing to cast its spell over a new generation of readers.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
By J K Rowling
The first of JK Rowlings’ Harry Potter stories, this is the perfect story for getting in the Halloween mood.
When Harry is a baby his wizard parents are killed by the evil Lord Voldemort, but Harry somehow survives. Now an orphan, Harry is sent to live with his very ordinary and rather cruel Aunt and Uncle. Harry’s aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon have never approved of wizards, and they can’t stand Harry Potter. They lavish all their attention on their own son, Dudley, who is a spoilt bully.
One day Harry’s life changes completely. He’s rescued by the wizarding community, and he goes to live at Hogwarts boarding school for witches and wizards.
Hogwarts is a truly magical place where Harry makes friends for the first time in his life. It’s when he’s at Hogwarts that Harry discovers he is a very special wizard. Harry and his friends fight trolls, battle with three-headed dragons and find out who they can and cannot trust at school.
This is a book that twists and turns, gripping the reader all the way to a thrilling conclusion.
Horrid Henry Spooky Spectacular
By Francesca Simon
Our favourite anti-hero, Horrid Henry, is up to his usual tricks. Henry battles demon dinner ladies, bogey babysitters, monsters and Egyptian Mummies in this compilation of six Halloween stories.
We could have picked any one of the stories in this compilation to review, but we have chosen Horrid Henry and the Mummy’s Curse which is a delightfully mischievous story.
Henry is caught red-handed by his brother, Perfect Peter, who finds him in his bedroom playing with his Curse of the Mummy kit. To stop Perfect Peter from reporting him to mum, Harry convinces his brother that he’s only trying to protect him from the ‘mummy’s curse’.
Henry tells Peter that their own mum is really a dangerous Egyptian mummy, and after a funny conversation with his mum, Peter is persuaded. Henry ‘protects’ Peter by wrapping him in toilet roll and chanting a ‘sacred spell’.
When mum finds out what Henry has done, she grounds him for a month. However, since Peter no longer wants to play with his Curse of the Mummy kit, Henry wins anyway!
Best Halloween stories: ages 11+
If you are looking for the stories for older children we recommend 25 Spooky Mighty Girl Tales for Tweens and Teens and Horror and Supernatural Young Adult (YA) Books.
English Heritage has compiled Spooky Stories and Gruesome Tales around their historic sites. Brave souls who really want to get into the spirit of Halloween could read these tales and then visit the real-life creepy places!
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