Bewitching in Readiness for Halloween

I am getting the library ready for Halloween. This is a time when my young students are quite excited about reading what is on display as they are busy planning their costumes and parties for Halloween. We saturate the library with witches, wizards, monsters, trolls, ghosts, goblins, ghouls, pumpkins, bats and spiders.

My Year 2 and some Year 1 students very quickly get hooked into a new series of novels that they haven't yet read. Even my Kindergarten students get very excited when they realise they can read Sally Rippin's School of Monsters books. 

I was reading a note from a teacher online about what series to recommend to this age group so here are my suggestions. Most have some pictures, some have colour, large font, are plot driven and the list is in roughly increasing reading difficulty and /or length. The number in brackets is how many titles there are currently in the series.

• Titchy Witch by Rose Impey and Katherine McEwen (12)

• Little Witch by Deborah Hautzig (6+)

• Witch in Training  by Maeve Friel (8)

• Woozy Wizard by Ella Woollard and Al Murphy (3)

• The Witch's Dog by Frank Rodgers (8)

• Heidi Hecklebeck by Wanda Coven and Priscilla Burris (witch) (30+)

• Isadora Moon by Harriet Muncaster (half vampire, half fairy) (14)

• Mirabelle by Harriet Muncaster (witch and fairy) (6+)

• Mona the Vampire  by Hiawyn Oram (5)

• Vampire School by Peter Bently (vampires) (6)

• The Haunted Library by Dori Hillestad Butler (ghosts) (10)

• Dorrie by Patricia Coombs (witch) (4+)

• Lottie Luna by Vivian French and Nathan Reed (werewolf) (4)

• The Goblin Princess by Jenny O'Connor (2)

• Wizzbag Wizard by Scoular Anderson (wizard) (3)

• Oliver Moon by Sue Mongredien (wizard) (12)

• Grunt and Grouch by Tracey Corderoy (monsters) (4)

• Undead Pets by Sam Hay (animal zombies) (8)

• Gargoylz by Janet Burchett and Sara Vogler (gargoyles, monsters) (16)

• Hubble Bubble by Tracey Corderoy (witch granny) (3pb 5cb)

• The Goblins  by David Melling (5)

• Winnie the Witch by Laura Owen (witch and her cat) (12+ and lots of picture books by Valerie Thomas)

• Rumblewick's Diary My Unwilling Witch by Hiawyn Oram (witch and her cat) (2pb 8cb)

• Araminta Spook by Angie Sage (haunted house and ghosts) (7)

• Witch Baby and Me by Debi Gliori (4)

• Polly and Buster  by Sally Rippin (witch and monster) (3)

• Amelia Fang by Laura Ellen Anderson (vampiress) (7)

• Bella Donna  by Ruth Symes (witch) (6)

• Fred Wizard by Simon Philip (3)

• An Awfully Beastly Business  by The Beastly Boys (werewolves, vampires, trolls etc)(6)

• Monstrous Maud by A.B. Saddlewick (witches and wizards)(6)

• The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy (witches, boarding school) (8)

• Diary of an Accidental Witch by Conor and Perdita Cargill(4)

• The Dragon in the Library by Luis Stowell (all the librarians are wizards) (3)

• Knitbone Pepper Ghost Dog  by Claire Barker and Ross Collins (ghost dog) (5)

• Goth Girl  by Chris Riddell (4) (spooky mysteries)

18th October Vampire series for beginning readers

Well just as I thought I was doing a good job of encouraging the children to borrow all the witch and wizard series in the library, I got 'but where are the vampire books?' Ten years ago this age group did not know about vampires or werewolves, but now these two are sometimes asked for. Is it television or older siblings?

Well luckily after a quick search I came up with two series:
• Mona the Vampire by Hiawyn Oram. This series is old, out of print currently, and mine have two different covers depending on whether they were published before or after it was a television series, but they are still borrowed and read as 'readers' for Year 1 students. we have four titles.

• Vampire School  by Peter Bently.  These are newer, about the same length and there are six books in the series. They are set in a school called St Orlok's which you have to be a vampire to attend. Lee, Bella and Billy are students in Miss Gargoyle's class. We appear to have a mixture of covers from two different issues of this series as well.

Then recently I purchased a new series of books about Isadora Moon which are written and illustrated by Harriet Muncaster. Isadora is half fairy and half vampire because her mother was a fairy and her father a vampire. These four stories are attractive beginning chapter books from Oxford and like many of the new books for newly fluent readers these feature one colour and here it is pink. They stayed on the shelf this morning for less than ten minutes! So far they are popular, let's see if they continue to walk out the door with very little upselling.

I also have
• Three Little Vampires by Georgie Adams
• Daisy and the Trouble With Vampires by Kes Gray
• Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire  by Francesca Simon
• Jake Cake The Visiting Vampire by Michael Broad