Thanks to Holiday House, Peachtree, and Pixel+Ink for sending me these books! As always, all opinions are my own. There are affiliate links in this post.
Well it’s officially fall in Minnesota since we had our first sprinkles of snow yesterday! While I’m not ready for the winter, I know it’s coming and I love to add new books to our collection as we head into our chilly, hibernating season. I wanted to share some spooky books from Holiday House, Peachtree, and Pixel+Ink as we head towards Halloween! Plus, I’ve got a giveaway, too!
Bright orange pumpkins, glowing as jack-o-lanterns or baked into pies, are a favorite part of the autumn season— and in this simple board book, celebrated nonfiction author Gail Gibbons turns her skills to introducing them to a young audience. Detailed illustrations and easy, kid-friendly text will teach kids all about pumpkins: different kinds, how they grow, and how people use and enjoy them—especially at Thanksgiving and Halloween. Seeds turn into vines and flowers— and soon into round pumpkins, small and large, for people to sell, decorate, and cook!
Amara is hosting a potluck for friends on her farm, and her snacks won’t be complete without pumpkins. She’s searched and searched, but she’s grown so many plants that she needs help finding them. What do we know about pumpkins? They’re large, round, and orange—and, wait a minute, is that a pumpkin? No, that’s an apple. Where, oh, where could those pumpkins be? Author JaNay Brown-Wood uses simple, playful text to guide young readers through Amara’s farm, exploring the unique characteristics of the apples, cauliflower, eggplant, okra, persimmons, and more that grow there.
Curly Locks is a good-hearted girl, but she’s an awful cook. All the townspeople of Toadsuck Swamp know to steer clear of her culinary concoctions—like the batwing brownies and toad eye toffees. So when one of her dishes goes missin’ from her windowsill, word spreads like a kerosene fire about how the Scares have been terrorizin’ the town at mealtime. They shriek “Gitchey Boo, Gitchey Bon! Gitchey Goo, Gitchey Gone!” and send folk runnin’ from their dinner plates. With everyone else tremblin’ and squawkin’ about the Scares, Curly Locks gets an inklin’. Can she use her smarts and unique talents to help corral those Scares for good?
Deep in the forest lives a witch named Willow. She is a good witch who only uses good magic―until she meets Hansel and Gretel. Willow never used to worry about messy breadcrumb trails. Or entire portions of her gingerbread house being devoured. Or anyone fiddling with her spells and magic books and causing a ruckus. But Hansel and Gretel are two very naughty and very rude children, and they are trying Willow’s patience. This subversive retelling of “Hansel and Gretel” from Bethan Woollvin, award-winning creator of Little Red and Rapunzel, features striking and humorous visuals and a deliciously wicked twist ending that is sure to surprise and delight.
For Ghost, it can be pretty hard to make new friends. Some people are frightened, others don’t understand, most don’t seem to realize Ghost is even there. One day when a bright red balloon wanders Ghost’s way, the connection is instantaneous. Together they do everything Ghost had ever hoped to share with a friend, but balloons rarely stick around for long. That’s when Ghost learns that when you’re looking for a friend, a friend might find you. With A Friend for Ghost Suzanne Kaufman, New York Times Bestselling illustrator of All Are Welcome, brings her talents to bear in an utterly charming tale about friendships and the wish to find them.
Feral has everything a small town should have: Main Street, City Hall, a population just over sixteen thousand…but Feral also has secrets. Mysteries. Unexplained disappearances. In five spooky stories, an intrepid young resident invites readers to look a little closer at this scenic rural town. Are you game to investigate what’s going on in Feral? If you pay attention, you might notice something where it shouldn’t be. Be careful, though. Whatever you do, do not go into the Messner Mansion. Don’t say we didn’t warn you! With vibrant art, clever humor, and heaps of unsolved mysteries, animator Mark Fearing conjures a fearsome saga out of small-town terrors. The first entry in this inventive new series is sure to scare young readers silly.
Nelle Faulkner is a preteen private detective who solves cases from her mother’s garden shed. She also lives in a city where the mayor has prohibited candy and kid-led candy gangs are thriving. So when notorious candy gangster Eddie de Menthe asks for her help finding a missing teddy bear, Nelle Faulkner is on the case. But when the teddy turns up, Eddie himself goes missing, and Nelle and her friends quickly find themselves swept up in a shady underworld of sweets smugglers, back alley deals, and storefront firebombs. If Nelle has any hope of tracking down her missing client, she’ll first have to unmask the true faces behind the smuggling ring. Can she and her friends find a way to take the cake? Or will they come to a sticky end?
Halloween brings out Nina Soni’s competitive spirit. Her friend Jay has a great costume planned, so–of course–Nina has to come up with an even better idea. A bunch of old boxes in the basement inspires her to create an impressively scary haunted house, for which she can charge admission. So what could possibly go wrong for the Halloween Queen? In Nina Soni, celebrated author Kashmira Sheth has created an endearing heroine and charming stories of family, friendship, and her efforts to manage her life with lists, definitions, and more. A fun read for STEAM enthusiasts!
You never know what’s out to get you. Though you might think you’re safe from monsters and menaces, everyday objects can turn against you, too. A mysterious microwave. A threatening board game. A snowman that refuses to melt. Even your own heartbeat has its secrets. Thu-thump. Thu-thump. When you stop to listen, each beat sounds more menacing than the last. Master storyteller Josh Allen brings thirteen nightmare scenarios to life in this page-turning collection that’s perfect for budding horror junkies. In his wondrous world, danger waits behind every doorway . . . even in the most ordinary places. Eerie illustrations by award-winning artist Sarah Coleman accompany the stories, packaged in a stunning hardcover edition complete with glow-in-the-dark jacket. Readers will sleep with one eye open!
After reading Dash’s journal from the previous summer—the summer he doesn’t remember—the kids piece together that Dash’s new ghost girl friends were really puppets of a darker evil that collects the identities of its victims. And now that evil has come to call. Kelsey and Casey visited Black Sand Beach in the 90s, back when it was a legit beach town with boogie boards, ice cream, T-shirt shops. But they weren’t on a summer escape. They were tagging along on their dad’s monster-hunting mission. They found one. And it ate them. Now, back in the present, Dash and his crew must put this face-stealing monster to rest. Before the Darkness, and all the evil of Black Sand Beach takes Dash…forever.
It’s 1898 in New York City and ghosts exist among humans. When an unusual spirit takes up residence at the Roosevelt house, thirteen-year-old Eleanor and fourteen-year-old Alice are suspicious. The cousins don’t get along, but they know something is not right. This ghost is more than a pesky nuisance. The authorities claim he’s safe to be around, even as his mischievous behavior grows stranger and more menacing. It’s almost like he wants to scare the Roosevelts out of their home – and no one seems to care! Meanwhile, Eleanor and Alice discover a dangerous ghost in the house where Alice was born and her mother died. Is someone else haunting the family? Introverted Eleanor and unruly Alice develop an unlikely friendship as they explore the family’s dark, complicated history. It’s up to them to destroy both ghosts and come to terms with their family’s losses. Told from alternating perspectives, thrills and chills abound in Dianne K. Salerni’s imaginative novel about a legendary family and the ghosts that haunt their secrets.
Eleven-year-old Tom was bit by a vampire, a werewolf, and a zombie right before the first day of middle school. It was a weird and crazy day. And he didn’t even get excused from sixth grade! Now Tom is stuck navigating normal middle-school conundrums as the world’s only Vam-Wolf-Zom. And ever since he accidentally caused some drama between the vampire and the werewolf who bit him, he’s got to avoid trouble with them, too. Luckily the zombie who bit him turns out to be a super nice guy. (Go figure!) Even the nicest monster can’t help when it comes to figuring out the rules for sixth grade, though. Looks like Tom is on his own as he deals with band arguments, a suddenly-friendly-but-formerly-mean bully, and even a first kiss.
San Solano, Texas, is a quaint town known for its charm, hospitality, and history of murder. Twice now, twelve men have been brutally killed, and no one knows who did it. A shadowy witch? A copycat killer? Or a man-hating murderess? Eighteen-year-old Natalie Colter is sure that the rumors about her great-great-grandmother’s cult of wronged women are just gossip, but that doesn’t stop the true-crime writers and dark tourism bloggers from capitalizing on the town’s reputation. It’s an urban legend that’s hard to ignore, and it gets harder when Nat learns that the sisterhood is real. And magical. And they want her to join. The more Nat learns of the Wardens’ supernatural history, the more she wonders about the real culprits behind the town’s ritualistic murders. Are the Wardens protecting San Solano from even darker forces? There are shadows in the woods, bones on the outskirts of town, and questions Nat needs answered. But everything becomes more urgent when people start getting “marked” as new victims–including Levi Langford, the boy whose kiss haunted Nat for a year. With Levi in danger, doing nothing would be harder than fighting back. Nat knows that no one is safe. Can she and the sisterhood stop the true evil from claiming their town?
Until now, eighteen-year-old Ruby’s penchant for poison has been a secret. No one knows that she uses her mind-reading abilities to target men who prey on vulnerable women, men who escape the clutches of Chicago “justice.” When she meets a brilliant boy working at the morgue, his knack for forensic detail threatens to uncover her dark hobby. Even more unfortunately: sharp, independent Ruby has fallen in love with him. Waltzing between a supernaturally enhanced romance, the battle to take down a gentleman’s club, and loyal friendships worth their weight in diamonds, Ruby brings defiant charm to every page of Murder for the Modern Girl—not to mention killer fashion. An irresistible caper perfect for fans of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, in an exquisite hardcover package with rose-gold foil.
Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him—the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can’t get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with. But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader, Nick, is gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot, and he knows Benji’s darkest secret: the cult’s bioweapon is mutating him into a monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all. Still, Nick offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens, as long as Benji can control the monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick’s terms…until he discovers the ALC’s mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own.
Sent to stay with her aunt in Prague and witness the humble life of an artist, Ilana Lopez—a biracial Jewish girl—finds herself torn between her dream of becoming a violinist and her immigrant parents’ desire for her to pursue a more stable career. When she discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery behind her aunt’s cottage, she meets the ghost of a kindhearted boy named Benjamin, who died over a century ago. As Ilana restores Benjamin’s grave, he introduces her to the enchanted side of Prague, where ghosts walk the streets and their kisses have warmth. But Benjamin isn’t the only one interested in Ilana. Rudolph Wassermann, a man with no shadow, has become fascinated with her and the music she plays. He offers to share his magic, so Ilana can be with Benjamin and pursue her passion for violin. But after Ilana discovers the truth about Wassermann and how Benjamin became bound to the city, she resolves to save the boy she loves, even if it means losing him—forever.
Win it: One lucky reader will take home a prize pack including all 15 of these books! This is a US giveaway ending 11/7. Enter using the form below, and good luck!
Hi there! I’m Amber, a 34 year old wife and mom of two from central Minnesota. I love to be outside with my family anywhere the weather is warm (which means I spend half the year freezing). We’re a homeschooling family that loves to travel as often as possible! When I have a spare free moment, I love to read, take photos, and scrapbook. I’m interested in anything that makes life more fun; I also love socializing and sharing about my favorite products!
I have a good selection of books for young kids but there are so many books on this list that would be great for older kids to enjoy reading. Many of them, I would like to ready myself.
These look like some great books! Reading with a young child is so important. I read to our girls a lot when they were little, now they’re in their 20’s and are both avid readers.
Mia E.
gloria patterson
Julie Waldron
Peggy Nunn
Helga
Such a wonderful assortment of books! My nephew has quite a book collection and these would be perfect for him!