Spooky picture books for Halloween
Get in the Halloween spirit with these spooky reads!🦇
With stories about magic, bravery and friendship, as well as things that go bump in the night, these books are captivating reads for little ones with an interest in the eerie.
Grandma Murphy's Pussycat by Maura Finn, illustrated by Lucinda Gifford
At midnight's strike as all lay sleeping, comes a figure, crawling, creeping . . .
It's Grandma Murphy's pussycat!
Where is this mysterious black cat going in the deep, dark night? And what adventures might he have along the way?
The Skull by Jon Klassen
In a big abandoned house, on a barren hill, lives a skull. A brave girl named Otilla has escaped from terrible danger and run away, and when she finds herself lost in the dark forest, the lonely house beckons.
Her host, the skull, is afraid of something too, something that comes every night. Can brave Otilla save them both?
Gotcha! by Clotilde Perrin, translated by Daniel Hahn
Quick, hide! Chased by monsters, each hairier and stinkier than the one before, a child finds shelter in the most famous fairytale houses – the three little pigs’ brick home, Sleeping Beauty’s palace and Hansel and Gretel’s gingerbread mansion. Each house is full of hiding places for the reader to explore, with flaps big and small and curious places to discover.
This is a villianously funny hide-and-seek game in a fairytale world.
There's a Ghost in this House by Oliver Jeffers
Hello, come in. Maybe you can help me?  Â
A young girl lives in a haunted house, but has never seen a ghost. Are they white with holes for eyes? Are they hard to see? She’d love to know!
Step inside and turn the transparent pages to help her on an entertaining ghost hunt, from behind the sofa, right up to the attic.
Meg and Mog by Helen Nicoll & Jan Pieńkowski
Meg the witch and Mog her cat go off to a wild Hallowe'en party with all the other witches. The spell they cast goes off with a BANG!
An anniversary edition of this bestselling classic, the original story about Meg the witch, Mog the cat and Owl.
Too Scared to Sleep! A Tale of Two Snails by Shaun Micallef, illustrated by Jonathan Bentley
Tucked up inside their tree-trunk house, two small snails are too scared to sleep – and their father is running out of patience! But is it just the wind spooking them . . . or is there something lurking outside?
With gorgeous, silly-spooky illustrations from award-winning illustrator Jonathan Bentley, this Halloween picture book will surprise and delight the whole family.
Funnybones by Janet Ahlberg & Allan Ahlberg
This is the first book in the Funnybones series and introduces the skeletons – a big skeleton, a little skeleton and a dog skeleton.
The skeletons venture out of their cellar one night to find someone to scare, but everyone is in bed! So, they amuse themselves by scaring each other and playing with the skeleton animals that live in the zoo.
If I had a vampire bat by Gabby Dawnay, illustrated by Alex Barrow
I really want a spooky pet that flaps around and hangs. A toothy type of swoopy pet with shiny pointed fangs . . . Imagine if I had a . . . vampire bat!
This charming addition to the popular If I had a . . . series is timed perfectly for Halloween, and features a sharp-toothed but adorable vampire bat as its main star. Taking inspiration from the Addams Family, it imagines what it would be like to live a nocturnal lifestyle and the funny scenarios one might encounter trick-or-treating or at the funfair with a vampire bat as your pal.
The Dark by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Jon Klassen
Laszlo is afraid of the dark. The dark lives in the same house as Laszlo but mostly it spends its time in the basement. It doesn’t visit Laszlo in his room. Until one night it does.
Join a brave boy on his journey to meet the dark, and see why it will never bother him again.
The Witch in the Cherry Tree by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Jessica Twohill
It's a damp and dull day, but in the kitchen, it's warm and cosy. David and his mother are baking, and the delicious smells bring a greedy witch to their garden. Witches love to steal freshly baked cakes!
She is going to use every magic trick she knows to steal their scrumptious treats, but can David outsmart her?
