The household ten
The Household Shelf: Ten Halloween Books, in Order of Merit
Ten books every age in the house can read, ranked by someone who has actually read them.
By Constance Tally The Parlour · The Lists 2026-10-26
The household’s Halloween shelf, for readers from picture books up. No board rates books, and nobody has ever been asked to bring a parent to a library, so each one carries its form and its author instead. Years and authors are from the register cards where a book has one, and from its encyclopedia entry where it does not.
The shelf
- 1
The Little Vampire 1979
Novel · Angela Sommer-Bodenburg
The book the 2017 film came from. A vampire boy flies in at the bedroom window, and the window is the only door that matters.
- 2
The Graveyard Book 2008
Novel · Neil Gaiman
A boy raised by the residents of a graveyard. Excellent manners, no idea how a shop works.
- 3
The Witches 1983
Novel · Roald Dahl
The book before the hotel film. The grandmother is the only adult on file who has done the reading.
- 4
Coraline 2002
Novella · Neil Gaiman
Begun in 1990 and finished in 2002. The other mother was in no hurry either.
- 5
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 1820
Story · Washington Irving
A schoolmaster, a rival, and a rider who carries his own head. The schoolmaster leaves town. The rival marries well.
- 6
Something Wicked This Way Comes 1962
Novel · Ray Bradbury
A carnival arrives in Green Town in October. Two thirteen-year-olds are the only people who read the small print.
- 7
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 1981
Stories · Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell
Gammell’s drawings did the damage. When a 2011 edition replaced them, the readers they had frightened complained.
- 8
Room on the Broom 2001
Picture book · Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
A witch keeps offering lifts. The broom has a weight limit, and the book finds it.
- 9
The Worst Witch 1974
Novel · Jill Murphy
A girl at a school for witches, twenty-three years before the better-known school of the same kind.
- 10
The Wee Free Men 2003
Novel · Terry Pratchett
A nine-year-old with a frying pan and an army of very small, very rude men.
For later in the evening there is the late shelf, and for reading aloud, ten poems.
