Spooky Books for Little Ghouls
I have a list of 12 great Halloween books from last year, but I keep discovering wonderful Halloween books around every spooky corner. Here’s a few we’ve enjoyed this year:
A Very Brave Witch
A brave little witch goes out to explore every witch’s greatest fear: humans. I mean, they’re not even green! What she discovers is that humans aren’t nearly as bad as witches fear. (And yes, this is another one we felt compelled to buy after countless screenings of the video.)
Cinderella Skeleton
I had the absolute privelege of working with Robert San Souci on Learn to Read, and I’m always excited to discover books I haven’t read by the master of adaptation. This retelling of Cinderella is hilarious, with all things skeletal and creepy. The best part (spoiler!) is when Cinderella rushes off from the ball and accidentally leaves her foot behind. The prince skeleton must find just the right skeleton that fits with this boney foot. Oh, and David Catrow’s illustrations are gorgeous.
Runaway Mummy
Let’s go from adaptation to parody. I think anyone who read Runaway Bunny to their little one a million times like I did will enjoy this fiendish parody. The young mummy thinks of all sorts of ways he would run away, but goes to far when he imagines himself as a boy (actually a spitting image for Margaret Wise Brown’s bunnies) and his mummy can’t take it any more. There’s a wonderful illustration of her crashing through the wall of the Goodnight Moon room to rescue her little mummy.
On a Dark, Dark Night
A boy and his dog are petrified by a shadow of a witch that is looming throughout the house. It’s a nail-biting page turner as they set out to investigate around the house, only to discover that the person making the shadow is not a witch at all.
