Vampires, Witches & Skulls, Oh My: A Spooky Picture Book Round-Up
October 5, 2023 Comments Off on Vampires, Witches & Skulls, Oh My: A Spooky Picture Book Round-Up
It has been another banner year for spooky (in some cases, “spooky”) picture books, and once again, I could not pick a favorite. In fact, I might like this bunch even better than last year’s, and that is high praise! This has officially become my favorite time of year to work at a bookstore. Some people delight in dressing up; I delight in dressing up displays of Halloween books. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: kids today don’t know how good they have it! (I hope that if you’re local, you’ll come see me at Old Town Books, where I’ll be working our Spooky Town Books event on Saturday, October 21 from 10am-5pm.)
The best part? Not a single one of these books actually mentions Halloween. Which means you can choose to pack them up at the end of October…or not.
Before we get started, here’s where I tell you that I was fibbing when I said we were talking strictly picture books today. Five of these are standard picture book fare; another is a picture book for slightly older readers looking to rev up their imaginations; and still another is akin to an early chapter book in length and text. (That last one is my favorite book of the entire year, so do not miss it. Unless you’re easily frightened, in which case maybe miss it. Actually, please don’t miss it.)
The Baddies
by Julia Donaldson; illus. Axel Scheffler
Ages 4-8
From the UK team behind beloved picture books like The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom comes an instant new favorite. Very few creators can rhyme as entertainingly as Julia Donaldson, and Axel Scheffler possesses that knack for dreaming up creepy, crooked-nosed creatures who elicit more delight than dread from young audiences. Yes, The Baddies is guaranteed to draw all the giggles, as our heroine calmly outsmarts the meanest, nastiest trio in the land.
When a girl moves into a quaint country cottage, she is spotted by a troll, a witch, and a ghost, “horrible baddies all three.”
And the worst thing about the three baddies
(The troll and the witch and the ghost)
Was the fact that all three of them liked being bad,
And what’s more, they all liked to boast.
The three squabble about who will succeed in scaring the newcomer—“Before you can try, I’ll have her turned into stone!”—until a tiny mouse, who has been watching with his family from inside a tree stump, suggests that if they want to find out “who’s really the worst,” they should each attempt to steal the girl’s blue spotted hanky, from which she is never without. One by one, the troll, witch and ghost do their worst to frighten the hanky out of the girl’s hand. Each time, she bests them. Of particular fun is the maternal approach she employs with the ghost, drawing him a bath and reading him a bedtime story.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a Donaldson-Scheffler collaboration if the ending didn’t subvert our expectations. Is this your typical girl-outsmarts-baddies story, or is someone else actually pulling the strings?
The Scariest Kitten in the World
by Terrifying Kitten (with help from Kate Messner); illus. Mackenzie Haley
Ages 3-6
“WARNING: This is a very scary story. It’s so creepy and spine-tingling that it will scare you right out of your sneakers. Are you SURE you want to read this story?” So begins The Scariest Kitten in the World, a riotously funny read aloud in the vein of There’s a Monster at the End of This Book, where the narrator tries to bait the reader into believing that a ridiculously adorable, rosy-cheeked kitten and her friends are the terrifying inhabitants of a haunted house.
Despite the narrator’s ominous set-up—“When you turn the page and have to run screaming for your mama, don’t say I didn’t warn you”—the beast casting long shadows on creaky floorboards is none other than a blindingly white kitten with pink paws and a goofy grin.
With each perfectly-timed page turn, the narrator attempts to get the story back on track to terror, summoning more animals, each of whom turns out to be even cuter and sillier than the last. But wait, could there actually be a legitimately large and scary creature biding its time until the full-moon ending? Only a few more page turns will tell…
Vlad: The Fabulous Vampire
by Flavia Z. Drago
Ages 4-8
First there was Gustavo, a ghost who suffered from shyness. Then came Leila, a witch plagued by perfection. Now, in Vlad: The Fabulous Vampire, Mexican creator Flavia Z. Drago gives us Vlad, a vampire versed in high fashion with a shameful secret.
Everyone knows that paranormal vampires dress in all black—“Black was elegant. Black was fun. Black was mysterious—an all-time classic!”—but lurking beneath Vlad’s high-necked black cloak are a pair of rosy cheeks that fly in the face of convention. Vlad is aghast at the pinkness of his cheeks—“They made him look different from everyone else—so horribly alive!”—and is afraid to reveal them even to his closest friends, lest they stop liking him. So Vlad does what Vlad does best: he designs himself a new wardrobe, working “his fingers to the bone” to hide his cheeks behind his flamboyant creations.
As many of us have discovered at one time or another, hiding our true selves proves both exhausting and impossible. It also heightens our awareness of others who are doing the same thing. When Vlad discovers his pal, Shelley, has a secret of her own, the two decide to unleash their unique fabulousness on the greater beastly world, and the result is a final few spreads rich in a myriad of colorful details, old friends, and a resounding message of love and acceptance.
I Will Read to You
by Gideon Sterer; illus. illustrated by Charles Santoso
Ages 4-8
Meet your favorite new bedtime story. I Will Read to You asks its young reader to consider the travesty, broached by an intrepid boy who loves nothing more than a spooky story at bedtime, that the beasts who “bump, roar, growl, hoot, and thump” outside his window have no one to read to them. “Who tucks in beasts? Who cares for them?” the boy frets.
Donning a horned monster robe and favorite book—the look recalls Maurice Sendak’s famed protagonist—the boy takes his mother’s hand and leads her through the woods behind his house. From atop the highest hill, he calls out into the night, “Worry not, my creatures dear…I am here for you.”
In rhyming verse, the boy summons an array of spookykind, from vampires to skeletons, ghosts to dragons. From far and wide, on land and through sky, the creatures make their way to the base of the hill for a proper tucking in.
Come, all Vampires, from the crypt
through the mist and shadows slip,
curl up cozy in your cloaks…
and I will read to you.
Mummies and giants alike cuddle up, as their fearless leader opens his book, flashlight in hand, and begins to read.
Only when the boy’s work is done, when the creatures sleep quietly beneath the stars, does he allow his mom to lead him back home, where he can enjoy his own turn at being sent off to dreamland on the spoken words of a bedtime story.
In the Dark
by Kate Hoefler; illus. Corinna Luyken
Ages 4-8
I’ve been a mega fan of Corinna Luyken’s art for ages (remember my interview with her?), so it came as no surprise that I immediately loved In the Dark. (I’ll take one of each spread for my walls, please.) But I am surprised at how my love for it has only grown with every reading, thanks to Kate Hoefler’s quiet, indirect storytelling. What starts as a story of witches morphs into something quite different: a celebration of community and a reminder that our snap judgments can give way to unnecessary fear and distrust.
Printed to flip vertically, the book’s spine divides the story into two parallel perspectives, with a palette and font shift to further distinguish one from the other. “They came in the dark and took the narrow path that only witches used. Everyone said that’s what they were.” Along the top, a curious girl from town regards a distant line of witchy black shadows, moving through the eerily green woods with their broomsticks. Along the bottom, in a softer purple palette, a different girl—one of these so-called witches—lies in wait in a friendly “woods full of birds,” before trailing adults carrying reams of “cloth and wooden handles.”
What is true and what is imagined? Are the broomsticks bewitched, or are they the means to something benign, even beautiful? Is the black cat that trails the witches an evil omen or a companion with a name? As the two children dare to meet, the separation between the stories begins to break down, merging the two narratives and artistically blending them into a luminous display of firelight and friendship.
Ten-Word Tiny Tales to Inspire and Unsettle
by Joseph Coelho and 21 Artist Friends
Ages 7-10
Those who love open-ended prompts, whether to spur their own creative writing or before-bed musings, are in for a treat with Ten-Word Tiny Tales, dreamed up by the current UK Children’s Laureate, Joseph Coelho, and illustrated by 21 acclaimed children’s artists. (I’ve always been a sucker for books that showcase the impressive diversity of illustration styles!) Some are whimsical, some are downright creepy, but each one of these ten-word tales is guaranteed to intrigue.
“The audience dances in rapture, but we haven’t started playing.” “The diver swims into the carnival; radio contact is lost.” “The Venus flytrap keeps edging closer to Grandma’s favorite chair.” “The wizard’s spell missed. So why is my skin scaling?” From demonic hamsters to underwater cities, each tale is visually interpreted by an illustrator, leaving enough ambiguity to serve as a catalyst to our own imagination. That’s right, kids, take it from here.
Stuck? For those trying to expand these tales by means of their own pen, the author includes two terrific exercises at the end. A book of mental gymnastics and visual wonder!
The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale
by Jon Klassen
Ages 7-10
Can we have a moment of silence for the sweetest skull in kid lit?! Jon Klassen’s The Skull, my favorite book of the entire year, won’t be for everyone, but for kids who can handle a bit of terror, it will keep them spellbound, spark their imagination, and nestle deep inside their heart. If that isn’t convincing enough, consider this: it has all the hallmarks of Alvin Schwartz’s 1984 early reader, In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories—three words: “The Green Ribbon”—which I couldn’t get enough of in my childhood, and which would go on to inspire my own daughter to learn to read some 30+ years later, simply so she could read it to everyone.
Children, like adults, embody a fascinating paradox when it comes to the macabre. Death, which most of us avoid thinking about in a literal sense, can inspire fascination and enjoyment when represented artistically. So long as it is presented with some humor—or, in this case, a kind of matter-of-factness—macabre imagery becomes a safe and healthy way for our children to contemplate some of the darker sides of life that might otherwise terrify them. A huge part of the allure of these deliciously dark stories is that they feel both illicit and safe at the same time. Like, OMG are we really doing this?! And also, KEEP READING!
Jon Klassen has always understood this childhood desire to flirt with darkness, infusing his stories with dark palettes and even darker humor. In The Skull, a retelling of a Tyrolean folktale, he goes all in to deliver an ultimately empowering friendship between an intrepid girl on the run from an unnamed threat and the talking skull that offers her refuge in an abandoned house, in hopes that she might help him abate a fear of his own. (No, I’m not saying any more than that.) Structured in five parts, across 103 illustrated pages and concluding with a fascinating Author’s Note about the story’s origin, it reads as an early chapter book, equally suited to reading aloud or independently.
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Books published, in order, by Scholastic Press, Farrar Straus Giroux, Candlewick Press, Little, Brown & Company, Alfred A. Knopf, Candlewick Press, and Candlewick Press. All opinions are my own. Links support the beautiful Old Town Books, where I am the children’s buyer (and yes, we ship!).
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