The week of Halloween can be a week of insanity for any parent, class room potlucks, finishing those final details on the kids costumes, sometime there is just too much to get done to have time to get your kids into the Halloween spirit. These 5 books will give you a hand in stirring up the spooks with the little ones as Halloween rapidly approaches!

1. The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey – If your young child is like mine, they love their alphabet and what better way to help teach them then with The Gashlycrumb Tinies. The book takes children on the tale of the alphabet with some quite grim tellings, such as A is for Amy who fell down the stairs, B is for Basil assaulted by Bears. Good creepy fun safe for young kids! Get a copy for yourself here!

2. Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley – Another great read for the little ones, this interactive story takes kids on the story of the scary monster and helps them put him together. Get the book and the puppet kit here!

3. Amphigorey: Fifteen Books by Edward Gorey- This book series is a great introduction for kids that includes 15 stories (in this book of the series) and includes Gorey’s incredible beautiful morbid illustrations. Gorey went on to publish several additional titles to the series. Get your copy here!

4. For the older kids look no further than the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series by Alvin Schwartz. Any kid from the 80’s and 90’s knows exactly what this series is, as most of them had this in their very own collection or at the very least at the school library. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a great series to put any kids into a Halloween mood with it’s stories often terrifying and it’s incredible art, but you have to make sure to find the write print to enjoy the terrifying art of Stephen Gammell, many re-prints have excluded the original art.

5. Goosebumps is often the introduction to horror for many kids with such a large library you can really find any story to catch you or your kids eye. With the release of the film Goosebumps that came out earlier this month, chain stores such as Target are quick to release their own “editions” of the stories with new cover art to appeal to young readers.