Never Too Festive: Parenting with More Joy & Less Mom Guilt

28. Halloween Book Haul: Spooky Book Recommendations for the Whole Family

• Elizabeth Hambleton

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Uncover a world of enchanting Halloween tales that will ignite your child's imagination and foster a love for reading. Join me, Elizabeth Hambleton, as I guide you through a handpicked collection of captivating books, perfect for kids of all ages. Whether you're seeking whimsical board books like "Halloween Mice" for the tiniest of readers or charming stories like "Room on the Broom" and "Happy Halloween, Curious George" for early learners, there's something magical awaiting in every page. Ideal for parents eager to break the screen-time cycle, these titles promise both fun and a sprinkle of seasonal charm. 

Prepare for bedtime with not-too-spooky storybook recommendations that promise sweet dreams and cherished memories. From the delightful nocturnal adventures in "All Right, Go to Sleep, Little Creep" to the unforgettable rhythm of "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything," these tales captivate and entertain. Discover hidden gems like "Gustavo the Shy Ghost," whose stunning illustrations will add a visual treat to your collection. As our journey wraps up, I extend an invitation to embrace joy and inspiration, reminding you to spread a little extra sparkle and connect with our Never Too Festive community. Let's make this Halloween season an unforgettable reading adventure!

Speaker 1:

So I was in Barnes Noble the other day looking for some fun seasonal books because, as you can guess from the title Never Too Festive I'm all about seasonal fun and I was really underwhelmed by what they had on display. Almost every single book was the Halloween book from a TV show. So, like the Daniel Tiger Halloween book and whatever those kinds of things which there's nothing wrong with that but I was looking for something a little bit more creative and fun. So if you also have been looking for some fun Halloween books because you want to get your kids off screens and doing something else, then this is the podcast for you. I have rounded up some great Halloween books for everyone, from little tiny guys all the way up to a couple of suggestions for you, the mom. Hey there, mama, and welcome to Never Too Festive, the podcast where we celebrate the extraordinary in everyday motherhood.

Speaker 1:

I'm Elizabeth Hambleton, your host and fellow mom, on a mission to help you rediscover your sparkle, redefine your style and reclaim your sense of self in the midst of motherhood mayhem. Do you ever feel like you've lost touch with the stylish, confident woman you used to be before kids? Are you tired of living in yoga pants and feeling like you've gone from thriving to just surviving. Well, mama, it's time to reclaim joy, creativity and style, while embracing the fabulous mom you were meant to be. So, grab your iced coffee and join me as we embark on a stylish adventure together, because here, on Never Too Festive, there's no such thing as too much sparkle. On Never Too Festive, there's no such thing as too much sparkle, too much flair or too much celebration. Get ready to shine bright and live your most fabulous, joyful life, because you deserve it. So with that, let's get started.

Speaker 1:

I tried to give a mix of ones that are really popular, that you've probably heard of, or, if you are a newer mom or your kids are pretty young, maybe you haven't heard of them, so really popular but also some that aren't as well known, so that you can have some fresh ideas and remember I know that books for specific seasons can get expensive and be a lot to store and stuff, but a lot of these are probably available at your library. I personally use our library a lot. We put in the request and then we know when we go get them. Well, we know when, like, the request comes in, that they're there, so we don't end up empty handed and it saves you a lot of time. So just a reminder that the library is there for you and a lot of them will buy books if you put in a request. If they don't have it. So that's also a great option if you would like a book but don't want to buy it yourself.

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So, without further ado, we're starting from youngest people in your family, going up to your reading level, the adult, and with that I want to start with Halloween Mice. This is a board book and it's very simple. You could read it literally to an infant and it's super fun. My kids we've had this for probably a decade and we got it when my son was brand new and they still request this book, even though there's literally like four words on a page. This book, even though there's literally like four words on a page, but it has just a cute little storyline about some mice teaming up to trick Halloween cat and it's not spooky or scary. Perfect for even your youngest members of your family or a really early reader who wants to read on his or her own. So that's an option. And then, obviously, no Halloween roundup is complete without Room on the Broom If you have kids really in preschool or later. I'm almost certain that you have heard of this. There is also a cute animated version for TV. But if you are trying to get your kids to read more, this is fun. You can also show them the show first and then have them practice their reading. When they have that context clues of having watched the show and they feel a little bit more familiar and therefore a little bit more confident, then they can start reading. This is definitely a harder reading level than the one I just did Halloween Mice Way, more words on a page, but still very fun. Great for kids of all ages. If you have kind of a mix from preschool to early elementary, then this is a great one for them. Talks about friendship.

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I know I just bashed TV showbooks, but I will say that the Curious George ones are very cute Again. I've actually had this one for 11 years, so that's a long time, and I bought it when I was pregnant with my son. I have the Halloween one here. Happy Halloween, curious George. They also have a Thanksgiving one, which I actually think I like even better, and they just are really nice. They're written as a poem and a lot of younger kids really love rhyming. They connect with that and it's just cute. Whether or not your kids like Curious George, they'd probably still enjoy the book and the rhyming. I really recommend the Halloween, but even more I recommend the Thanksgiving Curious George. It's really sweet.

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All right, I had to include the Crown's Trick or Treat because who is not an Oliver Jeffers fan? If you aren't familiar with Oliver Jeffers you gotta look him up. Amazing kids book writer. This one, I have to say, is not my favorite of his because it's very, very short. This could be a good one from the library. I don't know if it's worth owning. I do own it myself. When I got it it was much smaller in format and much shorter than I was expecting, which is fine.

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If your kids are already a fan of the Crown books the Day the Crowns Quit, then this is a fun seasonal take on it. Not a ton of content here, but you know, if they already like it it's fine. I will say it's hard for early readers because of the font he uses, a sort of it's not even a true script but a handwrittenwritten font, which I know can be a little harder than like a nice normal book sans serif if your kids are starting to learn to read mine still, even in second and fifth grade, have a little trouble sometimes with the letterings because you just I don't think kids learn cursive the way they used to, so this is probably more one for you to read to them. But it's cute, and if your kids love the crown ones, then you know, teach them about trick-or-treating. They also touch on politeness, which is, you know, a good theme.

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All right, go to sleep, little creep. This is a cute one if you want a bedtime story that is seasonal. The funny thing about this is that they are nocturnal in the book, so the characters in the book are actually going to sleep as the daylight breaks, versus obviously we're going to sleep as the night is starting, so that's a cute little surprise ending. You don't figure that out till the end is starting, so that's a cute little surprise ending. You don't figure that out till the end. And it's just different kind of Halloween characters, ghosts, monsters, that kind of thing, bats, and they're all telling their own kids to go to sleep. So it's cute. It's not super scary at all. A fun little bedtime read if you want something specifically sleep or bedtime related.

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Okay, this personal favorite in our family, bone Apart Falls Apart. I never see this book getting the love I think it deserves. So here we are. Bone Apart, falls Apart. A great early reader for maybe first grade. I would say you could probably read this on your own, going into second grade, depending on your kids. You know interest in reading and kind of duration ability and it's very cute. It is not scary at all.

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I started reading this to my kids in preschool. My kids are somewhat touchy about scary things and they never found this to be scary at all. It's a sweet little story about a skeleton and his bones are coming apart and there's a dog who helps him go to school without falling apart and it's just a sweet little friendship story. And there's actually another one, bone Apart Plays Ball. If your kids really like this one, you can get the whole series. We only got this one. It is Halloween type characters, but they don't actually mention Halloween. It's about a skeleton going to school. So I think just fun and relatable for kids.

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Here's a classic, an oldie but a goodie the Little Old Lady who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams. I guess I should be telling you authors this one. If you grew up in the 90s I feel like someone may have read you this one. I did not see it in person. Very often I had to order mine off Amazon, but it's quick, comes on Prime. It was only, I think, about six bucks and has a lot of just.

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It's a fun story, has a lot of words that your kids can get into when they're reading it, kind of a rhythmic like clomp, clomp, wiggle, wiggle, shake, shake that kind of thing. So it makes for a fun read for early readers if they want to try to work on putting more enthusiasm and a natural cadence into their reading, which I know my kids have worked with their teachers on. Because you know you kind of sound the words out is the first level of reading. But then when you're building fluency, you want it to feel more natural. So this is a great one for fluency. Fluency, you want it to feel more natural, so this is a great one for fluency.

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And it's also something that you could totally read to a younger audience. You could read this to a preschooler. Or again, if you have kids who range a little bit in ages like you have some younger kids but you also have through elementary this is one that's fun. My son is in fifth grade and he sat through it. Fine, I mean he read it to himself, but he doesn't mind listening to me read it to my daughter, who's a little younger, and she can also read this to herself. So a lot of different ages that this is fine. It can be kind of a classic, might even take you back to your own childhood.

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Okay, next we have we're Going on a Goon Hunt a petrifying parody by Michael Rex, and probably most of you will already know that this is a parody of Going on a Bear Hunt, which is a super classic, very popular board book that I know many of us probably got at our baby showers. I certainly did so. If you are a fan of going on a bear hunt, then going on a goon hunt is a fun way to keep the tradition going and have a seasonal twist. It's fairly self-explanatory. I'm sure you can figure out kind of the idea. It has some of the same like can't go over it, can't go under it type of wording, but fun for the season. Again, I think a kid in first or second could probably easily read this to themselves, but you could read it aloud to a younger audience. I also have Trick or Treat on Scary Street by Lance Bass. So I just thought it was funny. Again, I was born in 85, grew up in the 90s.

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If you want to just take yourself back, then what's better than a Halloween book written by someone from NSYNC who even knew that was available? It's pretty cute. It's a very easy read. I would say the illustrations are probably the scariest of any of the ones that I've recommended so far. So if your kids are a little more sensitive to illustration, you might just want to check it out. It's a little spookier. I would not say it's scary, I would just say it's probably the most scary of the ones we've tried so far. So if you want to push the Halloween theme a little further, check it out. Trick or Treat on Scary Street and you could also play your kids some NSYNC to horrify them and bring them back to your own childhood.

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And then I think no Halloween roundup is complete without Gustavo the Shy Ghost by Flavia Z Drago. I don't know that I said that correctly, but if you just look up Gustavo book you're going to find it. This is a series and very well loved. I would say this is one of the more popular books on this roundup and I do just love the illustrations on this one. They are very pretty and the whole book is pretty. It looks beautiful on a shelf. If you are kind of into like styling yourselves or having cute seasonal books out sitting out, then Gustavo is cute. I also love a series because if you find some your kid likes then you know what to get them next. And Gustavo does have some other options in the series so you can check that out. Try one and see if you like. The other ones Also should be readily available at libraries around you because this is definitely popular.

Speaker 1:

Moving on to a slightly higher reading level, early chapter books, those were all sort of picture books which I think for a seasonal book, a picture book makes a lot of sense. But I did want to recommend Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue. This is not actually a Halloween book, but I included it because it's about black cats and the coloring of the book is all orange and black, so it has a very Halloween vibe, but not scary at all. She is a little girl who can communicate with cats. Her mother has superpowers and so does she. It's a little bit of a mother-daughter story which is fun, and again, it is a series, so if your child likes it, she can read more, which is nice. My daughter's in second grade and she did not have trouble reading this to herself. There are a few harder vocabulary words I will say in here that she had to ask about, but she got through all 112 pages on her own.

Speaker 1:

If your kid is maybe not quite as much of an independent reader, I think you could definitely read this on your own, maybe in like late second or going even into third grade, because it is over 100 pages. It's not like millions of words per page, but it is an early chapter book and you know there's some bigger words like maybe terrifying haddock was in here the fish, so she asked about that. So it's definitely one that you can also read together and you know, just work with your kid about comprehension and understanding the story. We are actually reading this with a group of girls and doing a little like mommy daughter book club. That's black cat themed, so that's a really fun option. If you want something seasonal or you want to get a couple people together, perfect for lower elementary girls, I would say. I mean the hero is a girl. Obviously, a boy could read it if he liked cats, but the hero is a girl. So if you want a little black cat theme but zero scariness, this is a fun one. Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue, all right.

Speaker 1:

Moving into older grades, I don't have tons of Halloween recommendations because I don't know, we don't my son's not as into it and I don't we don't want to go too scary, like we don't do, like obviously things like goosebumps and stuff are still around. If you want stuff that's a little scarier, we don't do that too much. But I did want to recommend harry potter and I know some of you are thinking harry potter is not a halloween story and I agree with you. But I introduced it to my children in october a couple years ago because it is about witches and wizards and they wear in the movies. They kind of wear a lot of black and in some of them they have, like it looks more witchy than in others where they wear street clothes. But it is. I saw it years ago on a roundup of family movies that were Halloween themed and I thought, oh, you know I never would have thought about Harry Potter, but I guess that makes sense because of the witch element. So it's a cool, it's a good time of year to introduce Harry Potter is, I guess, what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

If you feel like your kids are ready for this, if they're not ready to read it but you think they would enjoy this story, you can also start with the Audible. If they're not ready to read it but you think they would enjoy this story, you can also start with the Audible. That is actually what we did. We listened to the first one on Audible on a family road trip in the fall and then we kind of got hooked and my son read all of them. My daughter has not yet read them. She's second grade. I think it's still a little bit long for second grade. This is probably more like third, maybe even fourth for some people. I think my son read it maybe like summer after second grade, but he is a huge reader. So anywhere in elementary I would say kids can start enjoying this. And I reread them and I'm in my 30s and when my kids did and I remembered how enjoyable they are. So you can also do a fun kind of family reading night around Harry Potter with like witch hats or witch themes or cauldrons or potions.

Speaker 1:

So there's a lot around the concept of Harry Potter that you can make even more Halloween-y and it's a fun. You can obviously watch the movie. I'm not, you know, against that, but it is fun to actually read the books as well, especially because some of the movies get scary. So and then, last but not least, for the moms, I'm a huge reader. Again, I don't do true horror myself. I don't even do too much dark thriller, but if you want to just sort of dip your toes into the Halloween-y vibes, I did want to recommend Verity by Colleen Hoover. If you haven't read that one, it's a little bit more thriller and a little bit more spooky. If you normally do romance but you want something a little like a tiny touch spooky, then Verity is a good book for you because it's just kind of touching in that direction.

Speaker 1:

I also want to recommend a book I picked up over the summer at an independent bookshop in California and at the time I was not familiar with it, though I have seen it recently on like book talk and stuff, so maybe you already know about it. But if you don't, the dead romantics by Ashley Poston I think that's how we say her name. Um, the dead romantics is fun because it does have a ghost element. Um, her family runs a funeral parlor and she can see ghosts, and so there is definitely a little bit of a spooky or other world type vibe, but the overall theme is definitely romance and it's just cute, it's an easy read. All of Ashley Poston's books do have a little bit of a other world or time travel or mystery or magic Maybe not mystery, more magic, a magical element to it. So if you like this one, there are a couple other ones like Seven Years Slip, I would say Dead Romantics is the most Halloween-y because they go to graveyards and things like that.

Speaker 1:

But again, not spooky, definitely not going to give you nightmares or anything, mostly a romance. So a fun way to just dip your toe into the season without going all the way. So I hope that was fun and got you thinking about some reads for your family. I love books. We read all the time in my family and I think that they are a great way to just add a little something extra to the seasons and to add a little bit of fun and creativity to your day. Get your kids off screens, get yourself off screens and curl up with a warm cup of coffee or hot chocolate or whatever you're into tea and a cozy blanket and enjoy some fall reads and I will see you soon.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining me today on Never Too Festive. I hope you are leaving feeling inspired and refreshed. If you've loved what you've heard, don't keep it to yourself. Share this podcast with a friend who could use a little extra sparkle in her life. And hey, while you're at it, why not leave a review on your favorite podcast platform? Your feedback helps us continue to grow and inspire more women like you. Have questions or feedback you want to share directly with me? Simply click the link in the show notes to send me a text. I'd love to hear from you. Until next time, remember all we have is today, so let's choose to live our most fabulous, joyful life together.