10 Fa-boo-lous Read Alouds for Halloween and Fall-Grades PreK-2

Last updated on October 15th, 2023 at 09:16 pm

1. Mouse’s First Halloween by Lauren Thompson-This is a fun book to read to students! I love how it flows in a predictable pattern and it’s a guessing game. It, also, makes use of onomatopoeia and has creative text placement to illustrate some of the words.

2. Where’s My Mummy? by Carolyn Crimi-This book reminds me of Are You My Mother? with a Halloween twist. My students always enjoy when I read this one. In this book, Little Baby Mummy starts a game of hide-and-seek with Mama Mummy. When Little Baby Mummy gets tired of waiting to be found, he goes in search of Mama Mummy. With the use of onomatopoeia, readers get to guess what creature Little Baby Mummy will run into. Of course, in the end Little Baby Mummy is reunited with Mama Mummy and he goes to bed.

3. 10 Trick-or-Treaters by Janet Schulman-This book is good to read before a math lesson on subtracting one. The book counts down from 10-0 using a word that rhymes with each number for students to predict what number comes next. The illustrations are cute and colorful. The end of the book illustrates the numbers 0-10 with candy and numerals for students.

4. The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano-This books seems to have become a Halloween classic and there was a short movie made about it. In the story, Spookley is made fun of for being a square pumpkin, until a storm comes and then being square isn’t so bad!

5. Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler-The witch has lost some of her belongings while flying on her broom. Some animals help find the missing belongings and want to ride on the witch’s broom. She somehow makes room for all of the animals, until the broom breaks. Then, the witch is caught by a dragon and her new friends save her. In the end, the witch is able to create a new broom with room for them all! This book has, also, been made into a short movie.

6. Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds-Jasper Rabbit enjoys eating carrots! He loves to eat carrots from one patch in particular until…the “creepy” carrots come alive and start turning up everywhere. In the end, Jasper builds a fence and more to keep the carrots in and the carrots are very satisfied with that. This author has written some other excellent books, too!

7. Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert-This is an excellent nonfiction read for your students! It’s the story of how a maple tree grows and eventually gets planted in the child narrator’s yard. The end of the book shares more information about the parts of a tree and how to plant a tree.

9. We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger-In this book three friends go on a leaf hunt following the pattern of “Going on a Bear Hunt.” While on their hunt the children collect leaves from different types of trees. Instead of running into a bear, the friends run into a…skunk and run all the way home! This book makes use of rhyme and onomatopoeia to give the words a nice rhythm. After reading this book, you can take your students on a leaf hunt of their own!

10. Happy Halloween Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt- This is a book in the Stinky Face series. Stinky Face is a worrier and always asks his mother “what if” questions. And his mother always lovingly and patiently answers each question he asks. This book could easily be used as a mentor text for students to write their own “what if” stories.

Bonus Book 11. The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming- This is another cute book for fall! In it squirrel’s leaf is missing! He searches for the leaf and finds out what is really happening to the leaves. This book, also, describes more changes that happen during the fall at the end of the book.

It was hard to put this list of fa-boo-lous read alouds together because there are so many wonderful Halloween and fall books for children! The books I selected for this list are books that I have read to my students mixed in with a couple of well-known books. I, also, chose these books because you can easily use them to integrate reading with math, science, writing, or social skills lessons!