Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Books for Halloween

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish in which you make a list of your top 10 whatevers to fit the topic.

This week's topic is: 

My Top 10 Books for Halloween

10.  Bunnicula 

 When the Monroe family brings home a small black-and-white bunny they find in the movie theater after seeing Dracula, Chester the cat and Harold the dog are instantly suspicious. After all the vegetables in the Monroe kitchen start turning white, Chester and Harold are certain that Bunnicula is a vegetarian vampire.

by Deborah and James Howe

9.  Coraline

 Coraline's often wondered what's behind the locked door in the drawing room. It reveals only a brick wall when she finally opens it, but when she tries again later, a passageway mysteriously appears. Coraline is surprised to find a flat decorated exactly like her own, but strangely different. And when she finds her "other" parents in this alternate world, they are much more interesting despite their creepy black button eyes. When they make it clear, however, that they want to make her theirs forever, Coraline begins a nightmarish game to rescue her real parents and three children imprisoned in a mirror. With only a bored-through stone and an aloof cat to help, Coraline confronts this harrowing task of escaping these monstrous creatures.

by Neil Gaiman

8.  Juniper Berry

 Juniper's parents have not been themselves lately. In fact, they have been cold, disinterested and cruel. And lonely Juniper Berry, and her equally beset friend, Giles, are determined to figure out why.
On a cold and rainy night Juniper follows her parents as they sneak out of the house and enter the woods. What she discovers is an underworld filled with contradictions: one that is terrifying and enticing, lorded over by a creature both sinister and seductive, who can sell you all the world's secrets in a simple red balloon. For the first time, Juniper and Giles have a choice to make. And it will be up to them to confront their own fears in order to save the ones who couldn't.

by M.P. Kozlowsky

7.  The Halloweiner

Oscar is short, like all dachshunds and other dogs make fun of him. On Halloween he takes more ridicule than ever in his hot-dog costume, but one brave act makes him a hero. Color illustrations throughout. A "School Library Journal" Best of the Best of 1995.

by Dav Pilkey

6.  The Wolves in the Walls

 There are sneaking,

creeping, crumpling
noises coming from
inside the walls.
Lucy is sure there are wolves living in the walls of their house—and, as everybody says, if the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over. Her family doesn't believe her. Then one day, the wolves come out.
But it's not all over. Instead, Lucy's battle with the wolves is only just beginning.

by Neil Gaiman

5.  Wait Till Helen Comes

 Beware of Helen...

Heather is such a whiny little brat. Always getting Michael and me into trouble. But since our mother married her father, we're stuck with her...our "poor stepsister" who lost her real mother in a mysterious fire.
But now something terrible has happened. Heather has found a new friend, out in the graveyard behind our home -- a girl named Helen who died with her family in a mysterious fire over a hundred years ago. Now her ghost returns to lure children into the pond...to drown! I don't want to believe in ghosts, but I've followed Heather into the graveyard and watch her talk to Helen. And I'm terrified. Not for myself, but for Heather... 
(on a personal note, this book scared the bejesus out of me in the 4th grade)

Mary Downing Hahn

4.  Magic Tree House #30: Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve

 Jack and Annie have traveled all over the world in their magic tree house. But they've never been anywhere like this. In the distance, a haunted castle looms dark against the light of the moon. No candles burn in its windows. No laughter rings through its halls.

What has happened to the castle and the people who lived there? Merlin the magician asks Jack and Annie to find out. But are they brave enough to brush the cobwebs aside and step through the creaking doors? And are they smart enough to solve the mystery of how the castle became haunted?

by Mary Pope Osborne

3.  Cold Feet

A creepy, wry ghost story.

Willie McPhee has fallen on hard times. Finest bagpiper in all Scotland or not, if folks don't have a farthing to spare for amusement, a man could freeze.
Now, wandering near—shoeless in the dark heart of the cold woods, Willie McPhee has fallen on something else— a tree trunk, he thinks. But a closer look reveals it's a man, a DEAD man, lying in the snow. A—A—A—aaaaaah!
A poor man is a practical man, though, and that body is wearing a fine—looking pair of boots. Soon Willie's feet are warm... but who's that tapping on the door?
by Cynthia C. DeFelice

2.  Day of the Dead

Above a small town in Mexico, the sun rises like a great marigold, and one family begins preparations for an annual celebration, El día de los muertos, the Day of the Dead. Soon they will go out into the night, join their neighbors, and walk to the graveyard to welcome the spirits of their loved ones home again. Framed by decorative borders and peppered with Spanish words, Day of the Dead is a glorious introduction to a fascinating celebration. A note at the end of the book provides factual information about the holiday.

by Tony Johnston

1.  You Read to Me, I'll Read to You Very Short Scary Tales to Read Together

 Do you like your mind all jumpy?
Do you like your skin all bumpy?
If you do, then take a look At the stories in this book!

by Mary Ann Hoberman

*all synopses from Goodreads.com