Halloween Children’s Boooooo-ks

Fueled by candy, children’s imagination runs wild at Halloween as they transform themselves into superheroes, animals, monsters, pirates, villains, and fairy tale characters. Feed your children’s imagination with some ghoulishly great books that they’ll enjoy long after they’ve eaten their fill of fun-size Snickers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. You won’t need to trick your children into reading these lively tales of ghosts, witches, vampires, monsters, witches and more.  

Vunce Upon a Time is a charming and beautifully-illustrated Halloween story that might even help banish your child’s fear of the monster who lives under the bed.  Dagmar, the vegetarian vampire, loves candy but is scared of kids. He’s a bit of an outcast. While other vampires fly out to hunt, Dagmar tends his vegetable patch by moonlight. But when Dagmar’s candy stash is down to one stale gummy worm, he ventures out into the human world to trick-or-treat and makes an unlikely friend. This book by the authors of “Olive The Other Reindeer” is bound to become a Halloween classic. Your children will love the detailed pictures, and you’ll love the endearing message about overcoming your fears and making new friends.   

Five Pesky Pumpkins: A Counting Book with Flaps and Pop-Ups! My baby is obsessed with playing peekaboo, so he loves this book. I open the flaps for him to reveal five pesky pumpkins that disappear and pop-up on every page. As baby gets older, he’ll be able to open the flaps himself and practice counting down from five. 

 Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody is a must-read for any fans of the children’s classic Goodnight Moon. Children who know Goodnight Moon by heart will love this new twist on their favorite rhymes– “Goodnight tomb. Goodnight goon. Goodnight Martians taking over the moon” — as well as the spooky (but not scary) pictures. You’ll want to read this tale about the little werewolf settling down to bed in the cold gray tomb with the black lagoon over and over again.

Boo, Bunny!: Baby laughs when I “eeek” and “squeak” and make bunny sounds while reading this endearing tale of two shy bunnies who, after meeting accidentally, have a wonderfully fun time on Halloween night. Whether you read this for the pictures of fuzzy bunnies in Halloween costumes or for its empowering message, you’ll enjoy this child-friendly tale.  

Mucumber McGee and the Lunch Lady’s Liver: Fans of Edward Gorey will enjoy the dark, moody illustrations and this tale of poor Mucumber McGee who upon arriving late to lunch finds the only thing left to eat is liver cake. The rhymes are sometimes awkward, but your picky eater might get a kick out of this book.

Frankenstein Takes the Cake: Silly rhymes and imaginative illustrations about the lives of monsters like Frankenstein, the Headless Horseman, Dracula and even author Edgar Allen Poe will have you marveling at the wit of this sequel to the bestselling book “Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich.” These short stories about Frankenstein’s nuptials and wedding reception are a novel way to introduce your children to poetry. Adults will enjoy the random pop culture references. 

On A Scary Scary Night (Can You See What I See?) This picture puzzle book by the co-creator of “I Spy” will keep your little one occupied searching for hidden objects in the spooky pictures. Just a word of warning: finding the hidden objects isn’t always easy and there’s no answer key. One mom I know spent 15 minutes searching for a hidden skeleton hand.

 Want It: All of these books are available at  Amazon.

Win It:

One lucky Mamanista reader will win a copy of Vunce Upon a Time. To enter, just check out these Halloween Activities at Chronicle Books leave a comment on this post by 11:59pm on October 14, 2008 letting us know your favorite Halloween activity.