Spooky Season is Near

Seven PICTURE BOOKS FOR FALL

With fall just around the corner, it's the perfect time to share several picture books that would be the perfect addition to your read alouds.  Spooky season is the perfect time to ramp up your storytelling sessions as well.  Who doesn't love to hear a little ghost story around the campfire?

She Wanted to be Haunted by Marcus Ewert.  In this picture book, the main character is Clarissa, an adorable pink cottage.  Her father is a castle with vampires and her mother is a witch's hut.  Clarissa wasn't scary at all and housed no scary creatures either.  She is loney and wishes to be haunted so she can attract guests.  She wants to change and asks her parents to help.  They encourage her to just be herself.  Even with the help from her parents to add gloomy clouds and a stench, she grows cuter and attracts dogs, birds, & bunnies... not ghosts or vampires.  In the end Clarissa accepts herself for who she is and attracts a very unique creature.  You'll have to read this book to find out!  This spooky story is told through rhyming stanzas and filled with figurative language and captivating illustrations throughout the book.

How to Build a Haunted House by Frank Tupta.   This is Mr. Tupta's debut picture book and it's sure to leave the readers satisfied with a funny and spooky read aloud.  Full of rhythm and rhyme, the crew (werewolves, an invisible man, Frankenstein, a cyclops, witches, skeletons, monsters, and a mummy) is working together to build a haunted house for a vampire family moving into town.  A fun follow up to this read aloud would be to have students draw, design, and create their own haunted house.  This is sure to be a go-to picture book in classrooms and libraries!

The Baddies by Julia Donaldson.  Julia Donaldson is most known for her picture book, Room on the Broom, which is a go-to in my classroom and library, but her latest picture book is sure to be another staple on library shelves.  Told through rhyming stanzas and complimented with the same recognizable illustrations from Axel Scheffler, the readers will delight in this spooky & silly tale.  When a little girl moves into town, the Baddies can't wait to haunt her and fight over who is the scariest baddie that will get the job done first.  A little mouse challenges the three baddies to see who can steal the little girl's blankie first.  The little girl was much braver than they thought and outsmarted each of the baddies' tricks and attempts to steal her blankie.  You'll never guess who was able to lure the blankie away from the girl!  This is a fun read aloud full of tricks and treats.

Gilbert the Ghost by Guido Van Genechten. This picture book is written in prose and the illustrations are black and white with very light shades of color that make Gilbert really stand out.  The ghosts are of course white, but Gilbert is a light shade of pink.  Immediately you can tell Gilbert is meant to be different from the others.  While in Ghost School, Gilbert discovers he cannot "BOO" like a ghost should, and he is sent to the Abandoned Tower to work on his haunting skills.  Gilbert meets Meow, a cute black kitten in the Abandoned Tower.  They become friends and begin decorating the tower together to make it a home.  When the other ghosts grow tired of haunting, they stop by for snacks and treats in the Abandoned Tower.  This book is short and sweet.  The reader will take away a message of being true to yourself, even if you're different and have other abilities from your friends and family.  

Hardly Haunted by Jessie Sima.  In this picture book, the house is personified and the reader is able to take a glimpse into the house's feelings and thoughts.  The house is worried and lonely because noone lives in her.  She thinks it may be because she's haunted!  She decides to try to be on her best behavior and not be haunted in hopes she will attract a family to move in. She's dusty and full of cobwebs.  She can't stop the creaking, squeaking, rattling, and groaning.  In the end she realizes that she likes being haunted, but she just needs to find someone who likes her the way she is, spooky.  Finally she attracts a ghost family that makes her haunted house into a haunted home.  This book is perfect for teaching figurative language, especially personification.

Boo! Haiku by Deanna Caswell and Bob Shea.  I picked this book to add to my Spooky Season read alouds because it connects spooky stories to poetry.  Haikus are told in three lines with a certain amount of syllables in each line, 5-7-5.   Each haiku that is written describes a spooky object like a witch, bat, skeleton, or ghost and leaves the reader to guess who is being described in each haiku.  A fun read aloud to share with students and have them follow up with writing their own spooky haikus. 

Haunted Amusement Parks by Rachel Anne Cantor.  In this nonfiction spooky selection, the reader will read four spooky tales about haunted amusement parks: Lake Shawnee Amusement Park, Gulliver's Kingdom, Erie Beach Amusement Park, and Camelot Theme Park.  Each of these chilling tales are full of ghosts and eerie groaning sounds.  Some readers love true stories, so mixing in real ghosts stories into your read alouds is sure to haunt your audience!

What spooky read alouds would you add to your classroom or school library?  Do you have any spooky stories and chilling tales that would create a haunted storytelling time?  Please share in the comments.  Have a spooky good day!