Reading opens your imagination and introduces people to new worlds. With so many choices available, how do you know which book to choose for your child? To find out, we bypassed the publishing, the PR firms, and the mainstream media and went straight to the experts: Your Harris County Librarians!
Toddlers (Ages 1-3)
Duck & Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills
When they see their friend Thistle carrying a pumpkin, Duck and Goose each want one but they are having no luck finding any pumpkins until Thistle steers them in the right direction.
Horns, Tails, Spikes and Claws
by J. Elizabeth Mills, illustrated by Jef Czekaj
Building off the well-known song, “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” this book explores all sorts of different monsters from top to bottom – and horns and claws and fangs, and wings.
Boo to You! by Lois Ehlert
The mice are looking forward to their annual Halloween-night feast, but uninvited guest Scary Cat seems to think he’s coming anyway. What kind of trick can the mice use to outsmart Scary Cat?
Picture Books (Pre K-K)
Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Peter Brown
The Twilight Zone comes to the carrot patch in this clever picture book parable about a rabbit who fears his favorite treats are out to get him. Jasper Rabbit loves carrots, especially Crackenhopper Field carrots. He eats them on the way to school. He eats them going to Little League. He eats them walking home. Until the day the carrots start following him…or are they?
Bedtime for Monsters by Ed Vere
In this hilarious bedtime story, a monster is licking his lips . . . maybe he’s thinking about eating a bedtime snack? Gulp! He’s getting closer and closer and his tummy is rumbling really loudly. It turns out that all this monster actually wants is a sloppy monster-sized goodnight kiss.
The Insomniacs by Karina Wolf, illustrated by The Brothers Hilts
When Mr. and Mrs. Insomniac and little Mika move twelve time zones away, they have trouble staying awake during the day and make an interesting discovery about themselves and the life that exists in the darkness.
Early Readers (Grades 1-3)
Monster School: First Day Frights by Dave Keane
Norm is just plain normal — until he finds himself in a new school, where all his classmates are monsters! Suddenly Norm isn’t normal anymore.
Ready for Pumpkins by Kate Duke
A classroom guinea pig learns about gardening by growing his own pumpkin. Duke has created a funny and charming book that shows not just how seeds grow into plants, but also how one needs patience to see a long project through.
Heidi Heckelbeck in Disguise
by Wanda Coven, illustrated by Priscilla Burris
It’s Halloween in Brewster, and everyone is excited–except for Heidi Heckelbeck. Heidi hates seeing people dress up as witches, as if they know what life as a witch is truly like. When Melanie Maplethorpe decides to be a witch for Halloween, Heidi decides to dress up as Melanie to get back at her. But Heidi takes her Melanie act a little too far, saying and doing things that upset her friends. Will they ever forgive her?
Children’s Fiction & Nonfiction (Grades 4-6)
Sammy Keyes and the Night of Skulls by Wendelin Van Draanen
Junior high detective Sammy Keyes and her friends take a detour through a graveyard on Halloween night and find themselves in the middle of a mystery involving missing people, human skulls, and a ghoulish embalmer, while school presents its own set of tricks and treats.
Haunted Houses
by Robert San Souci, illustrated by Kelly Murphy and Antoine Revoy
Scare-master Robert San Souci serves up ten chilling tales about untraditional haunted houses: a mansion full of pirate treasure, a ghost trapped in a mysterious dollhouse, a boy whose vacation house comes complete with people-eating spiders, and many more.
Floors by Patrick Carman
Ten-year-old Leo’s future and the fate of the extraordinary Whippet Hotel, where his father is the maintenance man, are at stake when a series of cryptic boxes leads Leo to hidden floors, strange puzzles, and unexpected alliances.
Teen Fiction and Nonfiction (Ages 12 & up)
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
When his twin brother falls ill in the family’s chateau in the independent republic of Geneva in the eighteenth century, sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein embarks on a dangerous and uncertain quest to create the forbidden Elixir of Life described in an ancient text in the family’s secret Biblioteka Obscura.
Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue never sees the spirits her clairvoyant mother sees – until this year, when a boy speaks directly to her. The acclaimed Shiver trilogy author’s latest begins a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead readers to a place they’ve never been before.
Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr
In this new series, the “human” world of corporations secretly run by witches is connected to “the City,” a parallel world run by power hungry daimons. Once in a generation, the carnival hosts a deadly competition that allows every daimon a chance to join the ruling elite. All Mallory knows of The City is that her father-and every other witch there-fled it for a life in exile in the human world. Instead of a typical teenage life full of friends and maybe even a little romance, Mallory scans quiet streets for threats, hides herself away, and trains to be lethal.
