Halloween Reads for Your Little Ghosts and Goblins by Fran Joyce

If you celebrate Halloween, reading Halloween stories with you kids can create some wonderful memories.

I’ve rounded up a few of my favorites from when my sons were little.

We started October 1, and read a different story every night.

Between the school library and the public library, we found some great books. We also stocked up at sales, the fall book fairs or our favorite bookstore.

The Spooky Wheels on the Bus by J. Elizabeth Mills – this is a Halloween themed version of the children’s song, “The Wheels on the Bus.” Count up from one spooky bus to 10 goofy ghosts while the bus rushes around town picking up passengers. For ages 3-5.

Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman is loosely based on “The Giant Turnip,”a Russian folktale. However, the story takes place at Halloween and a witch is struggling to pluck her giant pumpkin from the vine in time for Halloween. With Halloween only hours away, she enlists the help of a ghost, a vampire and a mummy, but nothing works until a clever bat flies by wit the perfect solution. It’s a fun book that my sons enjoyed at Halloween time with adorable illustrations by S.D. Schindler. For ages 4-8

 It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz – It’s Halloween and once again Linus is waiting in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin instead of trick or treating with his friends. For ages 4 and up

Bone Soup by Cambria Evans – A skeleton named Finnigan likes to eat and he’s ready to enjoy a Halloween feast, but the word is out and no one wants Finnigan to come to their feast because he eats too much.

Enjoy this clever version of Stone Soup as Finnigan tricks the townspeople into sharing their feast by making his special soup from a special magic bone. For ages 5-9

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving – originally contained in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., a collection of short stories which included Rip Van Winkle.

Irving’s works are examples of some of the earliest America fiction. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is  a perennial Halloween favorite. Children and adults love to be “scared” by the character of the Headless Horseman rumored to be a Hessian soldier who lost his head to a cannonball in the Revolutionary War. For ages 9 and up