Best Halloween Books for October Read Alouds

Best Halloween books for October read alouds!

 

Here are some of my favorite Halloween books! I provided the links for you to see them directly on Amazon if you want to check them out – some links are affiliate links which means I get commission if you buy from the links, it’s no extra cost for you but I just wanted to let you know!

 

Room on the Broom is a classic and favorite of many kindergarten and first grade teachers. You can find a ton of fun learning activities to go along with it because of this. It’s a cute story about a witch flying on her broom but she keeps dropping things! Every time she goes to pick up what she dropped, another creature asks if there’s room on her broom to hop on. Her broom finally snaps and a dragon snatches her up. The ending is really cute! I highly recommend this one to read aloud to your kids.

 

 

Halloween Hustle is about a skeleton dancing down the street. It’s one of those books that rhymes in such a fun flowing way that makes it really fun to read. The pictures are fantastic and engaging for young kids. It’s a silly book kids always love to hear read aloud.

 

 

 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Frank N. Stein have a son, Frankie Stein, and are shocked when he looks… normal! They try all sorts of things to make him look and act scary. I love the ending – he practices and practices in his room trying to be scary for his parents and then comes out looking like himself (a normal kid) and his parents are terrified – he’s the scariest in the family! It has a great underlying message about being yourself.

 

 

I actually love Frankie Stein Starts School even more! It has really great pictures. Frankie from the book above starts school and the other kids – vampires, witches, etc. – think he looks funny (because he looks like a normal kid). They aren’t very nice to him because he isn’t scary looking like them. Throughout the day, Frankie does cool and scary things and scares the kids and they end up loving him. It’s a great story to talk about how you should be kind to everyone even when they are different. This is definitely one of my favorite Halloween read alouds!

 

 

Dragon’s Halloween is a great book that has several stories about a silly dragon character. One of the stories he goes into the woods and hears scary growling and gets scared… but it turns out it was just his stomach! The stories are really cute and will have your kids laughing and loving Dragon.

 

 

 

 

Another dragon themed Halloween book I love is Me and My Dragon: Scared of Halloween. A little boy loves doing things with his dragon but his dragon is scared of Halloween so he dresses him up as a bunch of silly things trying to get him excited for Halloween but his costumes don’t work out which make for really funny illustrations. He ends up just being a dragon for Halloween and people are amazed at his “dragon” costume. 🙂

 

Who else needs a costume? A monster! Monster Needs a Costume is another hilarious book about a traditionally scary (but totally not) creature needing to find a Halloween costume. I love reading this one aloud! It’s a silly rhyming non-scary monster book about a monster who needs to find a Halloween costume and tries out a few options. It’s a book that definitely makes kids giggle, especially when he puts on a tutu to be a ballerina!

 

 

 

My Monster Mama Loves Me So isn’t necessarily a Halloween book but it’s about monsters so you can definitely read it in October with your Halloween books. It’s such a cute story about all the way his monster mama takes care of him with super funny plays on words like she goes to all his beastball games and makes sure he brushes his fangs. It flows really well as a read aloud and the pictures are really great. It really is so sweet – it would actually be a great bedtime story too!

 

I also love Fright Club! A group of monsters try to start a fright club but then some cute little critters want to join! The monsters turn them down and say it’s for scary monsters only. The little critters hatch a plan and scare the monsters which helps the monsters realize everyone can be scary and the more the merrier in their club! Not only is this a silly read aloud kids love with fun illustrations but it is a great book to start discussions on why it’s important to include everyone and to not leave anyone out. This is one of my favorites!

 

 

Little Baby Mummy doesn’t want to go to bed so he plays hide and go seek with his Mummy (mom) and, as he looks for her, he runs into a lot of fun Halloween characters that tell him to go to bed while he looks. I love how he runs into a lot of characters who would normally be scary but he’s not scared… until he sees a tiny little mouse. Where’s My Mummy? has great illustrations and it’s such a fun non-scary Halloween book to read aloud.

 

 

 

 

The Spooky Wheels on the Bus is a Halloween version of the famous song. You can sing it to your kids and they will LOVE it! …and probably sing a long 🙂 You can also sing-song read it which is what I do. Such a fun book for Halloween!

 

 

 

If you like singing books, you’ll love Shake Dem Halloween Bones too! I read it in a sing-song-y way but you could definitely sing it if you wanted to. It has a fun repetitiveness to it so be prepared for your kids to sing along with you! This is a favorite of many teachers and kids alike.

 

 

 

It’s also hard not to sing along to The 13 Nights of Halloween too. It is written to the tune of the popular Christmas song as it goes through Halloween things.

 

 

 

 

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat is a must read Halloween book so you can read them for each holiday. Kids just love this series. They’re a lot of fun to read aloud and see what the little old lady eats next. This book is also on my giant list of Best Bats Books where I show all my favorite bats books which are also great October read alouds.

 

 

Another favorite of many teachers and kids is The Hallo-Wiener. It’s about a sweet wiener dog named Oscar that the other dogs at obedience school make fun. His mom makes him a hot dog costume for Halloween, although he’s embarrassed and doesn’t want to wear it, he doesn’t want to hurt his mom’s feelings so he does. The other dogs make fun of him and he can’t keep up with them so he doesn’t get any treats. However, when a monster scares the other dogs, his size that they make fun of is what makes him able to save them. It has a great message about treating others who are different with kindness and not to be cheesy but I love when an underDOG saves the day. 🙂

 

Working Mummies is a fun rhyming book with wonderful illustrations that go through all the jobs mummies (play on the word “mommy”) do like teacher, doctor, waitress, librarian, etc. with fantastic illustrations of Halloween characters like the dentist mummy who replaces vampire teeth. It has so many fun pictures – it’s a great read aloud!

 

 

 

The Littlest Pumpkin at the pumpkin patch has big dreams to be a beautiful jack-o’-lantern but people keep coming to the pumpkin patch and not picking her. All the pumpkins get chosen one by one but her. The patch closes and she’s sad and alone… but after the stand closes, all the mice come out and have a Halloween party and turn her into a Jack-o’-lantern and she’s so happy. Such a sweet story! You can use it to talk about how the other people didn’t pick her because she was small but how she was absolutely the perfect size for the mice. Another book with a great message!

 

 

 

Splat the Cat: What Was That? is a fun one – kids love Splat! Splat the Cat and his friend are trick or treating and they have one house left… the spooky old house! I always love the fun illustrations from the Splat the Cat books!

 

 

 

 

Scaredy Cat, Splat! is another fun Splat the Cat Halloween book to read to your kids!

 

 

 

 

 

If you have kids who love dinosaurs (what kid doesn’t?), they’ll love this cute story, T. Rex Trick-or-Treats! T. Rex wants to be something scary for Halloween. He keeps saying everything isn’t scary enough until he realizes he can just be himself. It’s a fun read aloud! This is also on my Fun Books for Teaching R Blends list! 🙂

 

 

 

 

The Night Before Halloween is a fun book to read the day of Halloween in class (or at home) if you have school that day. There are a lot of books in this series so I like having these in my collection to add a familiar rhyming book to read the night before holidays.

 

 

 

 

Wee Witches’ Halloween is a non-scary book about witches. In fact, they want to be scary and aren’t very good at it. 🙂 I love this simple rhyming book for its detailed pictures and adorable storyline. The young witches go to witch school to learn how to scare but they’re not very scary and even win a costume contest for their “witch costumes.”

 

 

 

Another fun witch book is A Very Brave Witch. All the witches are terrified of humans because they’re different from them. Sweet and funny story about how the brave witch ends up making a human friend and finds out they’re not so scary after all. I absolutely love the sassy kitty character in Alison McGhee books and kids love finding the cat and pointing him out on all the pages.

 

 

Crankenstein looks like a Halloween book so it’d fit in for October read alouds but it’s more of a book about being cranky but it’s fun to read this time of year. Kids love it as a read aloud and it’s good to start a discussion about how to act when you’re cranky. For a HUGE list of books BY behavior for a lot of great classroom discussions, check out my Giant List of Books By Behavior!

 

 

 

Skeleton Meets the Mummy stars Sammy the skeleton. He is so excited to go trick or treating but his mom has him go on an errand to drop off soup to his Grandma Bones first. On the way, he hears spooky noises then he runs into a mummy! All the sound words the author uses makes it really fun to read aloud and the illustrations are cutesy not scary.

 

 

 

 

Monster Mischief is about some monster friends who get together to make monster stew on Halloween but they tip it over by accident! This book has a fun rhyming scheme and is silly like when one of the monsters rips his pants. It’s a fun read aloud to add to your collection if you need more.

 

 

 

 

A Halloween Scare at my House is a fun read rhyming aloud where a lot of monsters come to town to give people a fright! They end up giving the boy the prize for best costume for being a scary kid. 🙂 Kids love this one!

 

 

 

Bad Kitty is one of my favorite children’s book characters so I had to include Bad Kitty Scaredy-Cat! If you don’t have Bad Kitty books for your library, you need to get some ASAP! They are hilarious, kids love them, and it’s hard not to fall in love with the bad kitty! The series has a few great picture books that make great read alouds as well as easy chapter books that are perfect for kids just starting on chapter books.

 

 

 

 

Kids, especially boys, also LOVE Fly Guy so Fly Guy and the Frankenfly is a great book to have in your collection for your boys. As always with Fly Guy books, the illustrations and story are funny and great!

 

 

 

 

I love having all the Froggy books for every holiday so, of course, Froggy’s Halloween is one of them!

 

 

 

 

For your kids who love Click, Clack, Moo, Click, Clack, Boo! is a fun Halloween version about how Farmer Brown doesn’t like the spooky sounds of Halloween but his farm animals have a different plan! They throw a Halloween party in the barn.

 

 

 

 

 

For your girls who love the Pinkalicious books, get Pinkalicious: Pink or Treat for more Pinkalicious fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lot of little girls also love the Fancy Nancy series so I included Fancy Nancy: Halloween… or Bust! in this list.

 

 

 

 

I really hope you’ve enjoyed this list of my favorite Halloween books! Hopefully you have found some new ones to add to your collection.

 

Don’t forget to check out my Best Bats Books list for more October reading fun!

 

I love children’s books and making lists so I have a lot more book lists coming! Follow me on Facebook and Instagram to keep up as well as check back here. 🙂

 

To check out some more of the lists I’ve already made, check out:

Best Back to School Read Alouds

Best Books by Behavior (great for teaching specific behaviors like tattling, sharing, etc.!)

Back to School Books for Kindergarten

Flexible Seating Classroom Options and Ideas

Classroom Must Haves

Reading Must Haves

Math Must Haves

Huge List of Classroom Jobs

How to Organize Classroom Jobs

8 Reasons Why Kids Need Recess