Would you like to plan a different kind of Halloween party this year? How about having a Halloween Read-Aloud? It’s the perfect time to tell some frightening and suspenseful tales. Invite all of your bookish friends, dress up as creepy literary characters, and share scary stories in the dark. You can ask everyone to bring along their favorite spooky story, poem, urban legend, or excerpt from a longer novel. The original greatest scares and terrors of all time can be found in classic literature. They might even write their own.
Putting on a Halloween theatrical show can also be fun, especially if you dress up in costume. For example, you can act out a scary scene from a Shakespearean drama. Many of his plays are brimming with dark castles, ghosts, witches, fairies, supernatural omens, dastardly deeds, the stuff of dreams and nightmares. A few good choices would be “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Another possibility would be to do a reader’s theater rendition of the “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast script.
Although it’s not a good idea to let children spend too much time dwelling on scary stories and frightening images, let’s face it – kids love to get scared. Consider the campfire tale that is designed to both frighten and delight, as the kids scare themselves again and again. Besides being entertaining, scary stories can actually help children face their own fears and master them. Note: Please exercise care when reading scary stories to young children. Read the story yourself first, to determine if it is appropriate.
Anthologies
“A Halloween Reader: Poems, Stories, and Plays from Halloweens Past,” by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne.
“Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm.
“Scared Silly: A Halloween Book for the Brave,” by Marc Brown.
“Scary Stories,” by Peter Glassman and Barry Moser.
“Scary Stories and Songs,” by Diane Goode.
“Tales of Terror,” by Edgar Allan Poe.
Novels
“Dracula,” by Bram Stoker.
“Frankenstein,” by Mary Shelley.
“The Halloween Tree,” by Ray Bradbury.
“Hound of the Baskervilles,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
“Something Wicked This Way Comes,” by Ray Bradbury.
Short Stories
“A Ghost Story,” by Mark Twain.
“Feathertop: A Moralized Legend,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
“Ken's Mystery,” aka "The Grave of Ethelind Fionguala," by Julian Hawthorne.
“The Canterville Ghost,” by Oscar Wilde.
“The Child That Went With the Fairies,” by J.S. Le Fanu.
“The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” by Washington Irving.
“The Monkey’s Paw,” by W.W. Jacobs.
Plays
“Hamlet, “Macbeth,” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” by William Shakespeare.
“War of the Worlds” 1938 Radio Broadcast, by the Mercury Theatre.
Poems
“The Bat,” by Theodore Roethke.
“The Old Wife and the Ghost,” by James Reeves.
“The Raven,” by Edgar Allan Poe.
“The Ride-by-Nights” and “Someone,” by Walter de la Mare.
“The Witch of Willowby Wood,” by Rowena Bennett.
“The Witches Song,” by William Shakespeare.
“Who’s Afraid,” by L. Frank Baum.
Picture Books and Easy Readers
“A Beastly Story,” by Bill Martin and Steven Kellogg.
“Bony-Legs,” by Joanna Cole.
“Boo! Stories to Make You Jump,” by Laura Cecil.
“Go Away, Big Green Monster!” by Ed Emberley.
“Inside a House That Is Haunted,” by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and Tedd Arnold.
“Monster Night at Grandma's House,” by Richard Peck and Don Freeman.
“The Ghost on Saturday Night,” by Sid Fleischman.
“The Ghost-Eye Tree,” by Bill Martin.
“The Teeny Tiny Woman,” by Paul Galdone.
“What Was I Scared Of?” by Dr. Seuss.
Reading some spooky books? Make a Creepy Snake Bookmark to hold your place. You will need an ice cream stick with wide ends (found in Haagen-Dazs bars); tempura paint or permanent marker (black, green, or orange); a 1" piece of thin red ribbon; scissors; glue; and a pair of wiggle eyes. Paint the ice cream stick and let it dry. At one end of the ribbon, cut out a tiny triangle to form a forked tongue. Glue the two wiggle eyes onto one end of the ice cream stick. Glue the ribbon to the underside of that same end so the forked tongue is sticking out.
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