10 best Halloween reads

October 26, 7:39 PMDC Books ExaminerCamille Tuutti-Winkler

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Diabolic-looking pumpkins will add that extra touch to your home this Halloween.

Cover design by Lynne Yeamans

Haunted houses, ghoulish tales and carved pumpkins are essential ingredients in the upcoming spooktacular holiday of All Hallows Eve. To make the best of this celebration that originated in pre-Christian Celtic times, pick up one or two of the following books and get tips on how to go all out with decorating your house, dressing up or making ghoulish goodies.

Monster Eyeballs, Spiderweb Cookies, Buried Alive Cupcakes, and Screaming Red Punch are so much more interesting to eat than the old pastries you have served up for years. In Sharon Bowers's Ghoulish Goodies: Creature Feature Cupcakes, Monster Eyeballs, Bat Wings, Funny Bones, Witches' Knuckles, and Much More! (Storey Publishing, LLC) you will learn how to make these Halloween-themed treats as well as other creations, including Choco-Bat Cookies, I'Scream Cake and Spidery Cupcakes.

If you are hosting a Halloween party this year, it is time to up the ante and make sure your house will make a lasting impression on your guests. Better Homes & Gardens' "Halloween Tricks and Treats" (Wiley) will teach you how to make your home "the spookiest place on the block." Furry spiders, scary sculls and spellbinding soup are just a few decorations that will add a personal touch to your party and celebration.

Is there anything cuter than a sheepish-looking pet in a Halloween costume? Of course not, and that is why "Dog Trick or Cat Treat: Pets Dress Up for Halloween" (Ecw Press) is the best coffee table book to lay out for your guests. With 60 photos of four-legged friends dressed like Darth Vader, bumblebees and Little Red Riding Hood, this book will surely draw laughter and some "awwws" from your guests.

This Halloween, forget dressing up in socially relevant costumes (Ballon Boy, anyone?) and go back to the classic Halloween undeads, such as vampires, zombies and other ghouls. If you are the crafty type, you ought to make your own outfit. Bridie Clark and Ashley Dodd's "The Halloween Handbook: 447 Costumes" (Workman Publishing Company) offers ideas and instructions for easy-to-make costumes, ranging from angels and devils to Satan and mummies.

If you thought "Amityville" was one scary movie, you will probably appreciate Peter Haining's "The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories" (Running Press), which is an anthology of more than 40 ghostly hauntings. Featuring poltergeists, spirits or paranormal phenomena, all the stories are works of fiction, but many are based on real-life hauntings.

If you ever wanted to carve a vicious-looking pumpkin, but never knew how to, this is one book you have to get: Tom Nardone's "Extreme Pumpkins: Diabolical Do-It-Yourself Designs to Amuse Your Friends and Scare Your Neighbors" (HP Trade) will give you step-by-step instructions on how to make any pumpkin look diabolic. Spanning from Drowning Pumpkin, Crime Scene Pumpkin and Cannibal Pumpkin to Electrocuted Pumpkin, there is a design every pumpkin carver will appreciate.

Do you know why ghosts, skeletons, jack-o'-lanterns and vampires are associated with Oct. 31? If not, it is time to find out! Silver RavenWolf's (appropriate name for this celebration) "Halloween: Customs, Recipes & Spells" (Llewellyn Publications) chronicles the evolution of Halloween and even teaches you to foresee the future in different ways by using pumpkin seeds, nuts or tap water. Included are also spells for protection, love, prosperity and much more.

James D. Adams's "Creepy Campfire Tales Vol. One Halloween Camp Out" (Owl Creek Media) may be intended for children between the ages of 9 and 12, but adults will enjoy reading these scary stories as well. Included are 11 original horror stories that take place during the Halloween and fall season in New England and Ohio state parks, although some are at even more secluded camp sites or cabins. Featured are monsters, demonic spirits, scarecrows gone wild, zombies, a vampire, an evil radio station, hideous creatures in the woods, and much more.

While most kids see Halloween as no more than a candy extravaganza, some of the more curious ones will have questions about the festivities.Will you be able to answer them all? If not, Deborah Heiligman's "Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Halloween" (National Geographic Children's Books) helps you explain what Halloween is all about and how it is celebrated in other countries such as Japan, Ireland and France.

Halloween is the time to party, and in the memoir "The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance" (Dutton Adult) Elna Baker finds herself at the New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance, dressed in a Queen Bee costume with a black funnel attached to her behind for a stinger. Although Halloween may not be the sole focus in this tome, this memoir juxtaposes the conservative Mormon lifestyle with big-city living in Manhattan and results in a hilarious coming-of-age tale.