Nakatsu by JNA Designs

While looking for ideas for a Halloween advent calendar I came across this unique idea of a {halloween book countdown} by Kierste of brown paper packages of fun (and not too scary!) Halloween books for the 3-8yo set to count down the 31 days to Halloween–starting with October 1st.

Last night over here we read Halloween Motel by Sean Diviny and illustrated by Joe Rocco, which might be a little scary for younger, more sensitive kiddos.

Kierste’s 2010 List:
1. Too Many Pumpkins, Linda White
2. Pumpkin Soup, Helen Cooper
3. The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, Steven Kroll
4. Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden, George Levenson
5. How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?, Margaret McNamara
6. Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Jeanne Titherington
7. In the Haunted House, Eve Bunting
8. Room on the Broom, Julie Donaldson
9. The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything, Linda Williams
10. The Night Before Halloween, Natasha Wing
11. The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat, Stan & Jan Berenstain
12. The Big Pumpkin, Erica Silverman
13. The Vanishing Pumpkin, Tomie dePaola
14. Humbug Witch, Lorna Balian
15. Bug That Go Bump in the Night, David A. Carter
16. Five Little Pumpkins, Iris Van Rynbach
17. Scary, Scary, Halloween, Eve Bunting
18. Peek-A-Booooo!, Marie Torres Cimarusti
19. Mrs. McMurphy’s Pumpkin, Rick Walton
20. It’s Halloween!, Jack Prelutsky
21. Thirteen Nights of Halloween, Rebecca Dickinson
22. Miss Fiona’s Stupendous Pumpkin Pies, Mark Kimball Moulton
23. Ten Timid Ghosts, Jennifer O’ Connell
24. The Bumpy Little Pumpkin, Margery Cuyler
25. Halloween Night, Arden Druce
26. Haunted Castle on Hallows’ Eve, Mary Pope Osborne
27. All Hallow’s Eve – The Story of the Halloween Fairy, Lisa S. Johnson
28. Pumpkin Hill, Elizabeth Spurr
29. Skeleton Hiccups, Margery Cuyler
30. The Ugly Pumpkin, Dave Horowitz
31. Trick or Treat Countdown, Patricia Hubbard

Bonus suggestions via comments:
32. “The Hallo-Wiener” by Dav Pilkey, about a dachshund
33. “Where’s my Mummy” by Carolyn Crimeny, about a little mummy playing hide and seek with his mummy just before bedtime
34. “Black Cat Creeping”
35. “TOO MANY PUMPKINS”
36. Big Pumpkin
37. Humbug Witch
38. The Little Old Woman Who was not afraid of anything!
39. The Runaway Pumpkin!
40. A Woggle of Witches by Adrienne Adams,
41. “John Pig’s Halloween”
42. Frankie Stein (Lola M Schaefer)
43. Skeleton Hiccups
44. Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman
45. Spookley the square pumpkin, by Joe Troiano!
46. Room on the Broom
47. Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble, by Judy Schachner (we read this one year-round)
48. The Widow’s Broom, by Chirs Van Allsburg
49. Moonlight: The Halloween Cat by Cynthia Rylant
50. In a Dark, Dark Wood, An Old Tale with a New Twist by David Carter (pop up ghost in the back)
Our addition(s):
51. Halloween Motel by Sean Diviny and illustrated by Joe Rocco
52.The Ghost Family Meets its Match (Story and pictures by Nicole Rubel)

Other lists I found in my travels:
Learning with Mrs. Parker

Peace, Love and Rainbows’ countdown to All Hallows Eve

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We couldnt find any of these other titles at our library, BUT I didn’t search the computer index, just the shelves. Probably need to start earlier next year?

I did find several advent calendar projects (and will post links) kiddo #1 was excited about (we get very busy this time of year and aren’t able to decorate the house as much as he’d like, and many of our crafts only survive one year.)

11/17/11 Found a bunch of spooky books in the Folklore and Fairytale section of our library we will be revisiting. The Ghost Family Meets its Match (Story and pictures by Nicole Rubel) has had multiple readings since we checked it out yesterday.

With kids about 4 years apart there have been some instances that books or videos DS #1 is interested in are still a bit too scary for DS #2. For example, Y loves Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, zombies and mummies, etc. and has since he was maybe 3yo? H at 2yo is not ready for most of Y’s faves.