Once Upon A Fright: Halloween Tales for Every Age

Are you ready to join us for this Halloween literary special? This is your ultimate spooky season reading guide... but as with all things Tea, Tales, and Tomes, this is no ordinary episode. Come sit with us around our glowing campfire as we guide you through spooky books for readers of all ages, from gentle picture books to nightmare-inducing horror classics. We journey from campfire to haunted forest, exploring tales that flicker like lanterns in the darkness.

• Little Blue Truck's Halloween and There's a Monster in Your Book offer gentle frights for the tiniest trick-or-treaters
• Room on a Broom and The Quacken blend adventure with reassuring messages about friendship and overcoming fears
• There's a Ghost in This House and Gustav the Shy Ghost provide slightly spookier tales for young independent readers
• Middle-grade adventures like Jumanji, The Skull, and The House with a Clock in Its Walls deliver genuine chills while maintaining age-appropriate boundaries
• The Graveyard Book follows Nobody Owens, a boy raised by ghosts, in a tale both chilling and tender
• Teen and adult readers can explore Lockwood & Co., Dracula, Thornhill, and Maxwell Dark for genuine literary frights

May your nights be spooky, your books hauntingly good, and your heart always full of wonder. Happy Halloween!

The music and sound effects for this episode is ALL from Pixabay. 

Find us on Instagram @teatalesandtomes and don't forget to join us next time for more bookish wonder.

Podcast music by Lundstroem (Episode 1 onwards) and Audionautix (TTAT Trailer). Podcast edited by Timothy Wiggill.

Chapters

• 0:00 Gathering Around the Campfire
• 1:59 Books for the Littlest Trick-or-Treaters
• 4:30 Ghostly Tales for Young Readers
• 6:32 Middle Grade Spooky Adventures
• 11:30 Chilling Stories for Older Readers
• 14:27 Farewell from the Forest

Transcript

Natasha: 0:05

Gather close, bookish friends. Closer still. I am delighted to have you here with me tonight. This is certainly a great time for stories. But not just any stories. Tales and tomes that feel like lanterns guiding us through Halloween shadows. Some are small lanterns, gentle enough for the littlest pumpkins. Others burn hot, sharp, and dangerous. The forest is awaiting. Lock beyond the crooked branches where the moonlight struggles to reach the ground. The air is down, heavy with shadows. Something stirs in the undergrowth. But yeah, ah yeah, there is a light. A fire burns, small but steady. Sparks leap into the night. Chased by whisperers you can white yar. Draw closer. Set beside the flame. Get your heart to drink. Listen. For tonight, the books themselves have gathered. Their pages rustle in the dark, eager to slip into your dreams. These are no ordinary tales. These are the haunted, the ghostly, the deliciously strange. Stories for every age, from the tiniest trick-or-treaters to the boldest midnight wanderers. The only question is, which one will call your name? First we begin softly, sweetly. The tiniest of readers may ride along in Little Blue Truck's Halloween, brilliantly written by Alice Shertle. A friendly truck beeps hello to animals dressed in Halloween costumes. Peekaboo! Reveal your costume, little blue, but don't be fooled. Even little ghosts enjoy a friendly scare in the dark. And then beware, there's a monster in your book. Created by Tom Fletcher. Yes, your book. A fuzzy, cheeky monster that wriggles and roars, daring little hands to shake, tilt, and tickle the pages. The monster may be silly, yes, but laughter always sounds a louder when the night is quiet. The witch's broom is waiting too. Julia Donaldson swoops in on Room and a Broom, a kindly witch , a cat and a growing band of animal friends soar across the sky, only to meet a fiery dragon. But when friends stick together, even the scariest threats can be outwitted. And how about a splash of absurdity? Beware. Yes, I said the Quacken, not Kraken. A duck, or is it a monster? This delightfully odd picture book that takes place in a campground, much like ours tonight, but mix es giggles with the spooky, showing how sometimes the scariest things are not what they seem. Creeping a little closer now, chick-a-chick-ka-chick-a-treat, a classic by Bill Martin Jr., reimagined by Michael Sampson. Picture this, the alphabet, all dressed up for Halloween, climbing the familiar coconut tree. But when too many letters crowd together, crash! A trick or treat in chaos ensues. The younger ones mumble and rearrange their sleeping spots. We let them drift while the coals deepen. Now, listen as the shadows lengthen. The books we will tell about next are for readers who want the tiniest bite to their candy. A door creeks open. And we glimpse Oliver Jeffers. There's a ghost in this house. The translucent pages reveal playful phantoms peeking around every corner under every bed. A little girl, it could be you, it could be me, explores an old haunted mansion with a torch. Spooky but still safe. And then say hello to Gustav the Shy Ghost by Flavia Z Drago. Poor Gustav the ghost longs to be brave but hides from the living. His journey's a gentle, tender one. A reminder that sometimes even spirits get stage frights. Bang! Crash! There's no such thing as ghosts. In No Such Thing, a wonderful tale written by Jackie French Coller. Georgia, a little girl, and Suscos aren't real. Even as they tip teapots and slide furniture behind her back. It's a hilarious introduction to the idea that maybe, just maybe, some things can't be explained, hey? Alright. Listen now, dearest reader. The younger children are asleep. The forest is quieter now. The next books are different. Heavier lanterns, flickering lighter. These are for middle grade adventurers, the ones who want their hearts to pound and their skin to prickle. Do you dare open Jumanji? Sure, it looks like an ordinary board game. Until the dice fall and the vines split, lions prowl the carpet, and the jungle swallows the household. The adventure here is wild and unstoppable. Then there's the scariest story you've ever heard. It begins playfully, like a dare whispered under the blankets. But the deeper you read, the darker it grows. Sometimes the scariest story is the one in your imagination. But what's that clattering like teeth across the floor? In rolls the skull, an atmospheric tale from the dark mind of John Carson. A runaway girl, a lonely skull, and a house perched on the edge of danger. It's spare, unsettling, and beautiful. A tale that leaves silence in its wake. Silence, too, fills the house of Madame M. This book by Clotilde Perrin has no words at all, just corridors that stretch, staircases that groan, and rooms that wait. You'll turn the pages slowly, heart thumping, afraid of what the pictures will reveal, and it will leave you feeling a little flamed. Of course, not all spirits are sinister. Sir Simon Super Scarer from the genius mind of Cale Atkinson tries hard at haunting, but ends up teaching us that friendship is its own kind of magic. What's this at the edge of my campfire? A library appears, out of the darkness. Not any library, no, no, no. Hillstad Butler's the haunted library pairs a ghost boy with a girl detective. Together they solve mysteries that prove not all hauntings are harmful. But sometimes even books may have ghosts. Let's come back to the green and mossy forest. Let me introduce you to Claire, the undead fox of Deadwood Forest, a dark folk tale steeped in moss and moonlight. The fox is neither living nor dead, a creature who lingers in the space between, haunting the edges of campfire lore, helping the dead reach the other side. But what about Claire's own story? Open the book to find out. And when the trees lean close, whispering in the wind, you'll hear the Night Gardener. Two siblings, a crumbling house, and a tree that feeds on secrets. Every confession makes the branches grow. It is gothic, lyrical, and heavy with dread. You might want to read this one with the light on. Tick, tock, tick, tock. In John Belair's The House with the Clock in Its Walls, an orphan boy uncovers a sinister secret. A clock counting down to the end of the world. Gothic, funny, and spine tingling. The dread ticks louder still, a heartbeat that's mechanical. Each take a countdown towards catastrophe. Quickly, close the book before it wraps us into the tale. But the graveyard waits beyond the house. Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book follows Nobody Owens, a boy raised by ghosts. His guardians teach him courage, cunning, and kindness. Yet danger stalks him still from the living and the dead alike. It is chilling and tender all at once. A story that lingers like moonlight on headstones. For those who seek something quieter, more personal, there's Masks by Margaret Rae. A graphic novel that's going to ask you to let your heart open, keep the tissues close by. The masks children wear may hide them, but sometimes courage comes in daring to take those masks off. The night has deepened, curious reader. The coal burns low. If you're still awake, still listening, these final tales are yours, but only if you're brave enough. These are for the oldest trigger treaters. Let's throw another log on our fire to keep the chimes at bay. The creatures waiting to hear our next tales. Let's keep them on the edges of our moonlight Halloween escapade. London chokes with spirits and Jonathan Strouds, Lockwood and Co. The screaming staircase. Teen Ghost Hunters in London, Iron Swords, salt Bombs, Quick Banter, Quicker Danger. The staircases here don't just creak, they scream when you climb them. But older than all of them, cloaked in red eyes and shadow, is Bram Stoker's Dracula, the father of vampire tales, still dripping with dread. For older teens ready to face the dark itself. The name alone, Dracula, taste of iron. Letters and diaries build a web of dread until the vampire steps across the threshold. The patience of this book is its terror. The shadow is always closer than you think. But horror doesn't always roar. Sometimes it whispers. Thornhill blends diary entries with graphic storytelling, peeling back the story of an abandoned orphanage and the ghost who lingers there. Its silence is deafening. And finally, for those ready to stare nightmares straight in the face, there is Maxwell Dark Nightmare Hunter. Here the monsters aren't just under the bed. They creep inside your dreams. Maxwell hunts them with courage sharpened into a weapon. But the question remains, can you ever defeat the dark inside yourself? Oh look, my tea's all finished. Is yours? The fire is dying now. The woods grow darker. Around us the trees lean closer, listening. Did you hear that? A giggle? A footstep? Or was it only the echo of the stories we've told? Perhaps tonight you'll dream of a friendly ghost, or a house where clocks tick backward, or a staircase that screams when you dare to climb it. Keep your lantern close, your blanket closer, and your bookshelf closest of all. For the forest has many doors, and stories have ways of following you home. Until next time, brave reader, may your nights be spooky, your books hauntingly good, and your heart always full of wonder. Happy Halloween.