Halloween Picture Book Linky Party! (freebies too)

It's time for the 2nd Holiday Picture Book Linky Party! This time it's Halloween. I can't believe October is almost here, can you? Very soon I'll be getting out the witch and pumpkin decorations and my husband will be decorating the yard. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite Halloween books I just love to read to my students.

I got this one when I taught second grade a few years ago and the first Houghton Mifflin story was by Dav Pilkey. The dogs in costume are so cute, and the children always laugh at the end. It also has a nice message about not teasing.

This is a definite crowd pleaser! It could be a bit too scary for some kids, but for my students it's great. It's a story of the young boy's visit to the spooky house next door. It's written by Carl Reiner (the actor, writer, director). As the story progresses, it asks "Shall we turn the page, or is it too scary?" The kids seem to take that as a challenge and always want to keep going. It also comes with a CD of Carl Reiner reading the story with just the right spooky sound effects.

I love this sweet little story of a tiny pumpkin still left at the pumpkin patch when all the others have been taken home. All the littlest pumpkin wants is to be taken home to be made into a jack-o-lantern. She's almost given up hope when she hears the sounds of mice getting ready for their Halloween party. At the end the littlest pumpkin is the star of Halloween after all.
I put together a few freebies to go with this (and other) stories. Just click on the pictures to grab them.

Just a few more favorites:

Books where the kids can participate in the reading are always fun, don't you think? Throughout the story the little old lady meets one pair of pants that go "wiggle, wiggle",  2 shoes that go "clomp,clomp", 2 gloves that go "clap, clap", and a few other item of clothing I can't recall off the top of my head. The kids so enjoy making all the sounds that go along with the story.

I look forward to reading this sweet story every year! There are several other "The Biggest ___ Ever" books that I want to get also. Amazon has a page about the author Steven Kroll that also lists all his book. You can check it out here.

If you have some favorite Halloween books you'd like to share, please link up. I couldn't seem to get a button working this time, so I hope you'll be okay with just using this image and linking it back to this post. Thanks. I'll keep working on it. I can't wait to get some new books ideas! 

*The next Holiday Picture Books Linky Party will be for Thanksgiving. I plan to start that one in mid-October.