Best Books for a Scary Storytime

Another T-shirt designed by my 8-year-old niece Megan. Didn't she do a wonderful job drawing a skeleton! (c 2006)

Todder Read-Alouds
Dark, Dark Tale by Ruth Brown
Dress Up Peekaboo by Charles Gardner
Five Little Pumpkins by Ben Mantle
In A Scary Old House by Harriet Ziefert
Mommy by Maurice Sendak
Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson
Peek-A-Booo! by Marie Torres Cimarusti
Pumpkin Cat by Anne Mortimer
Scaredy Cat by Cyndy Szkeres
This is the Bear and the Scary Night by Sarah Hayes
This is Not A Pumpkin by Bob Staake
Where Is Baby's Pumpkin? by Karen Katz
Woo! The Not-So-Scary Ghost by Ana Larranaga

Preschool Read-Alouds
Beasty Story by Bill Martin Jr
Boo to You! by Lois Ehlert
Brave Squish Rabbit by Katherine Battersby
Ferocious Wild Beasts by Chris Wormell
Ghosts in the House by Kazuno Kohara
Halloween Night by Elizabeth Hatch
Hilda Hen's Scary Night by Mary Wormell
In A Dark, Dark Wood by David Carter
Little Goblins Ten by Pamela Jane
Little Green Witch by Barbara McGrath
Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
No Ghost Under My Bed by Guido Van Genechten
Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler
Tale of Two Mice by Ruth Brown
Teeny-Tiny Woman by Paul Galdone
Ten Trick-or-Treaters by Janet Schulman
There Was An Old Monster by Rebecca Emberley
T-Rex Trick-or-Treats by Lois Grambling
What Am I?  Halloween by Anne Margaret Lewis -- fun guessing game
Woods by Paul Hoppe

School Age Read-Alouds
13 Days of Halloween by Carol Greene
13 Nights of Halloween by Guy Vasilovich
Big Lips and Hairy Arms by Jean Jackson
Black Dog by Levi Pinfold
Boo Book by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer
Do Not Build A Frankenstein! by Neil Numberman
Frankenstein Makes A Sandwich by Adam Rex
House That Drac Built by Judy Sierra
I'm Not Afraid of This Haunted House by Laurie Friedman
I'm Not Scared by Todd Parr
Meaner Than Meanest by Kevin Somers
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
Sipping Spiders Through A Straw by Kelly DiPucchio
We're Off to Find the Witch's House by Richard Kreib
Witch Casts A Spell by Suzanne Williams

Flannels, Songs and Story Extensions

Flannel/Puppet Story Scripts/Patterns
Five Little Pumpkins by Ben Mantle
Pumpkin Cat by Anne Mortimer
Go Away, Big Orange Monster
If You're Happy and You Know It ~ With Pumpkins
Two Little Black Bats

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, What Do You See?
Pumpkin, Pumpkin, what do you see?
I see a Jack'O Lantern looking at me!

Jack'O Lantern, Jack O'Lantern, what do you see?
I see a Brown Owl looking at me!

Brown Owl, Brown Owl, what do you see?
I see a Purple Bat looking at me!

Purple Bat, Purple Bat, what do you see?
I see a Black Cat looking at me!

Black Cat, Black Cat, what do you see?
I see a White Ghost looking at me!

Whooooooo.....

Scary version of "If You're Happy & You Know It"
If you're a skeleton and you know it, rattle your bones
If you're a skeleton and you know it, rattle your bones
If you're a skeleton and you know it
Then your bones will surely show it
If you're a skeleton and you know it, rattle your bones

Repeat with:
If you're a cat and you know it, say “Meow...”
If you're a bat and you know it, flap your wings...
If you're a wolf and you know it, give a howl...
If you're a ghost and you know it, just say, “BOO!”

Ghost Named Matt flannel script (source unknown)
Once there was a little blue ghost. His name was Matthew but everyone called him Matt. Matt was short and fat, and he lived with the other ghosts in the Old Ghost Hotel.

Once night, Matt decided that he didn't like being a blue ghost, so he set out to find himself a new color. Matt looked up and saw a yellow moon. There's the color for me, he thought. And he said, “I'm a ghost named Matt, I'm short and fat, and I can change my color - just like that!”

Matt flew back to the Old Ghost Hotel to show the other ghosts his new color. They looked at Matt and said, “Ho, ho, ho. Hee, hee, hee. You're the silliest ghost we ever did see!”

Matt decided that he didn't like being a yellow ghost, so he set out to find himself a new color. This time he saw an orange pumpkin. There's the color for me, he thought. And he said, “I'm a ghost named Matt, I'm short and fat, and I can change my color - just like that!”

Matt flew back to the Old Ghost Hotel to show the other ghosts his new color. They looked at Matt and said, “Ho, ho, ho. Hee, hee, hee. You're the silliest ghost we ever did see!”

Matt decided that he didn't like being an orange ghost, so he set out to find himself a new color. This time he saw a brown owl. There's the color for me, he thought. And he said, “I'm a ghost named Matt, I'm short and fat, and I can change my color - just like that!”

Matt flew back to the Old Ghost Hotel to show the other ghosts his new color. They looked at Matt and said, “Ho, ho, ho. Hee, hee, hee. You're the silliest ghost we ever did see!”

Matt decided that he didn't like being a brown ghost, so he set out to find himself a new color. He flew around and around. "I don't want to be a yellow ghost. I don't want to be an orange ghost. I don't want to be a brown ghost. I just want to be me--I want to be a blue ghost."

And so he said, “I'm a ghost named Matt, I'm short and fat, and I can change my color - just like that!”

Matt flew back to the Old Ghost Hotel. This time the other ghosts didn't laugh. They said, "Good - you’re back to normal again. Come on, let's go ghosting."

Now Matt was happy to be a blue ghost and away he went.