October, 2025 Reader’s Choice: Youth-Recommended Reads
Celebrations – Kimmelman Trick Arrr Treat: A Pirate Halloween by Kimmelman, Leslie
Annotation: Swashbuckling trick-or-treaters stomp and clomp through their neighborhood in search of treasure–Halloween candy–but they must be back before dark. For grades K-3.
DB104786 The Good, the Bad, and the Spooky by John, Jory
Annotation: When Bad Seed cannot find an amazing costume for Halloween night, he postpones trick-or-treating for everyone else until he finds the perfect one. For grades K-3.
DB88769 The Ghost Tree by Landry, Yvette
Annotation: A child is told the spooky tale of a deadly tree that devoured two brothers in the swamp of Catahoula, Louisana, on Halloween. For grades 2-4.
DB118257 Substitute Creacher by Gall, Chris
Annotation: Mr. Creacher, a multi-tentacled substitute teacher, warns his prankish students not to misbehave, recounting rhyming cautionary tales of the weird, spooky, and unexpected. For grades 2-4.
DB95703 A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting by Ballarini, Joe
Annotation: When Kelly Ferguson’s Halloween plans switch from partygoing to babysitting, she is mostly concerned about the death of her social life. But then Baby Jacob is kidnapped by the monsters under the bed! For grades 3-6.
DB89638 The Last Kids on Earth by Brallier, Max
Annotation: After a monster apocalypse hits the town of Wakefield, orphan thirteen-year-old Jack Sullivan builds a team of friends to help slay the eerily intelligent monster known as Blarg. For grades 3-6.
DB83690 The Door by the Staircase by Marsh, Katherine
Annotation: Happy to be adopted at last and away from the bleak Buffalo Asylum for Young Ladies, twelve-year-old orphan Mary Hayes soon learns a terrifying secret about her new mother, the mysterious Madame Z. For grades 4-7.
DB89087 The Apprentice Witch by Nicol, James
Annotation: Sent away in disgrace after failing her witch’s assessment, Arianwyn learns that the remote community where she works as a magic apprentice is under the shadow of a dark hex infestation. For grades 4-7.
DB84735 Pennyroyal Academy by Larson, M.A.
Annotation: A girl with no memory enlists at Pennyroyal Academy, where princesses and knights are trained to battle witches and dragons. Under a harsh regimen, the girl, renamed Evie, begins to understand what it really means to be a princess. For grades 5-8.
BRG01841 Revenge of the Witch by Delaney, Joseph
Annotation: Young Tom, the seventh son of a seventh son, starts work as an apprentice for the village spook, whose job is to protect ordinary folk from “ghouls, boggarts, and all manner of wicked beasties.” Grades 5-8.
DB83377 Truthwitch by Dennard, Susan.
Annotation: Safiya, a Truthwitch, can discern the truth from a lie, and her best friend, Iseult, sees emotional threads. When a truce between empires comes to an end, the two flee, chased by enemies in pursuit of Safi’s skills. For young adult readers.
DB90251 Truly Devious by Johnson, Maureen
Annotation: When Stevie Bell, a brilliant amateur detective, begins her first year at Ellingham Academy in Vermont, she hatches a plan to solve the cold case involving the kidnapping of the founder’s wife and daughter shortly after the school opened in 1936. For young adult readers.
