The best... Halloween books for young children

October 24, 9:31 PMEarly Childhood Parenting ExaminerAngele Sionna

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Scratch and Sniff: Halloween is fantastic for toddlers

Halloween's not your ordinary holiday. So check out these extraordinary books specifically for young children.

They all get little ones to use multiple senses to make the books come to life!

Scratch and Sniff: Halloween by Nicola Deschamps ($6.99, amazon.com) is one of my  2.5 year old daughter's favorite new books.

She is enjoying it so much that we're going to get the rest of the books in the series for other holidays. It's easy to understand with short sentences and big photographs.

The book comes alive when little ones scratch objects on each page and sniff in. It's a great way to get  toddlers to try to describe what they're smelling and expand their language skills.

Scratch and Sniff: Halloween  is best for little ones 9 months and up.

Funny Bones! by Charles Reasoner ($4.99, amazon.com) is not your ordinary board book. It brings a little bit of spookiness with its glowing eyes  that light up when the lights are turned down.

It's fun to "charge" the eyes with a flashlight and then read the story while your little one shines the light on the pages.

It's long enough for some giggles but short enough to keep their attention. It is very basic so older toddlers may not be too interested in more than the glowing eyes. There are several other glow in the dark books in this series too.

Funny Bones! would be a great book for newborns through 2 years old.

The Nose Knows: Spooky Night by Tish Rabe ($9.99, amazon.com) is one of my favorite books for toddlers that I've come across in all genres.

This book comes with a soft bat finger puppet that is attached to a ribbon and the book. The bat has a magnet in his nose that your tot uses to sniff out the characters in question on each page.

For more on this book, read my in depth review HERE.

Spooky Night is best for toddlers 2 and up.

My Halloween Sound Book by Editors of Kingfisher ($7.99, amazon.com) brings Halloween alive with spooky and cooky sounds. My toddler loves sound effects, so this was a big hit with her. It also brought giggles from my 11 months old. They both thought it was fun to push the button to make the sounds too.

There are five Halloween sounds that it cycles through- from a cat's howl to haunted wind. You can push them at any time on any page, so it is as interactive as the child that is playing with it.

My Halloween Sound Book is best for 6 months and up.

Pop-Up and Play Spooky Shadows by Richard Fowler ($9.99, amazon.com) comes with a mini flashlight that let's your little ones project shadows onto the book's background for a 3-D-like feel.

My 2.5 year old liked playing with the flashlight, but she's still a little young for this one. She wasn't quite sure how to use it to make the shadows dance across the background. My youngest tried to yank out all of the cool cutouts, so it's definitely not for her age range.

I'd recommend Pop-Up and Play Spooky Shadows for tots 3 and up.