I’m searching for books to thrill me this Halloween. What can you recommend?
Halloween has something for everyone – witches, pumpkins, mummies rising from the dead, not to mention ghosts and ghouls and all kinds of spooky night-time wanderers. And there are stories for all ages about them.
Picture book witches including Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski’s Meg and Mog, Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul’s Winnie the Witch and the witch and her cat in Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s Room on the Broom have delighted readers for many years.
Helen Baugh and Deborah Allwright’s Witch with an Itch is a relative newcomer and she is now back for a new adventure. When this particularly un-frightening little witch and her wizard twin brother get their invitations to a fancy dress party they can’t help arguing over who will have the best outfit. And, once they have started arguing, magic inevitably follows. Princesses, clowns, pirates, knights – the twins try them all before they get really ambitious. When the Little Witch conjures up a dinosaur she is sure she will win the competition, but the Wizard has a trick up his sleeve and in next to no time appears as a ferocious dragon. They fight furiously until the Witch unleashes her itch and suddenly all of their magic has gone!
Spooky Poems by James Carter and Brian Moses are perfect for getting in the mood for Halloween. The Fear by Brian Moses will send shivers down the stiffest spine as fear itself describes as the chilling things it is. “I am the midnight visitor,/ the knock when there’s no one there./ I am the creaking ceiling/ and the soft footfall on your stair.” James Carter proposes all kinds of checks on teachers In Britain’s Got Talons Presents… How Spooky is your Teacher? “Could she be a vampire? Have you ever seen her hanging upside down from the classroom ceiling or snacking on uncooked mice from her lunch box?’:Teachers may find themselves under more scrutiny during Halloween than they are used to.
There are also poems about and spiders and ghosts and a haunted house- all perfect for the Halloween mood. Eva Ibbotson had a rare gift for bringing ghosts alive. And also for creating friendly ghosts who haunt in the nicest and least scary way possible. Humphrey the Horrible, the star of The Great Ghost Rescue, is just such a ghost. Humphrey longs to be ghastly like his brother and his cousins but the fact is, he is a very friendly skeleton with eyes that would twinkle – if he had them. Is there anything that can make Humphrey really horrible and properly ghostly?
Created from an idea of his mother’s, Toby Ibbotson’ Mountwood School for Ghosts captures the same spirit of un-frightening and largely benign ghosts. The idea of a school full of ghosts creates some very entertaining moments. Witch Switch by Sibéal Pounder with illustrations by Laura Ellen Anderson, is also far madder and funnier than it is scary. In this second title in the Witch Wars Adventure series, Tiga Whicabim is well on her way to becoming a witch. But there is much that can stand in her way including Felicity Bat and Aggie Hoof who’s intentions are far from admirable! Magic and mayhem rule in this ebullient romp of an adventure.
Got any spooky reads to recommend? Tell us on Twitter @GdnChildrensBksand by emailing childrens.books@theguardian.com and we’ll add your ideas!
Make time for a spooky story or two this Halloween! #BookDoctor How about Roald Dahl Tales of the Unexpected? https://t.co/CIVQDRLoUQ
— Hastings StoryFest (@HSFinfo) October 26, 2015
Aoife, via email
Frozen Charlotte. And the rest of the Red Eye books, but especially that one. It’s terrifying.
@GdnChildrensBks Calef Brown's "Hallowilloween."
— M. Lynx Qualey (@arablit) October 26, 2015
@HSFinfo @GdnChildrensBks and one more for the #cat lovers :) https://t.co/QYkJlDDeMe #Halloween #fantasy #horror #supernatural #kidslit
— Brooke Burgess (@brokensaint) October 26, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks 'Haunted House'- Jan Pienkowski the ultimate pop up scary delight! The saw still creaks today! Pop up=cause & effect!
— speechtherapymatters (@STMRebecca) October 26, 2015
