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Ruth Brown’s A Dark Dark Tale (Puffin, 1992) opens on a dark, dark moor on which sits a dark, dark forest in which there is a dark, dark house. Readers are shepherded by a black cat through this shivery story until finally – in the dark, dark box in a dark, dark cupboard – they find (!) a mouse. A fun and not-too-scary tale for preschoolers. (But it only works once.) |
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In Anne Mortimer’s Pumpkin Cat (Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins, 2011), Cat, with the help of knowledgeable friend Mouse, learns how pumpkins grow. Together they plant seeds, tend plants, harvest their pumpkin, and carve a beautiful jack-o’-lantern. Included are pumpkin-growing instructions. For ages 3-5. |
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In Cynthia Rylant’s Moonlight: The Halloween Cat (HarperCollins, 2009), a lovely little black cat prowls softly through the night, watching glowing jack-o-lanterns, trick-or-treating children, a friendly scarecrow, porch-visiting raccoons, and a big full moon. A gentle Halloween night for ages 3-6. |
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Eve Bunting’s Scary, Scary Halloween (Sandpiper, 1998), with illustrations by Jan Brett, is narrated in rhyme by a green-eyed black cat, as she and her kittens watch a skeleton, a ghost, witches, goblins, a devil, and a mummy parade down the road – all really children in Halloween costumes. (“I peer outside, there’s something there/That makes me shiver, spikes my hair./It must be Halloween.”) For ages 3-6. |
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In Arthur Howard’s Hoodwinked (Sandpiper, 2005), Mitzi, a small witch in a purple hat, likes creepy things – spiders, monster-faced bedroom slippers, skull-shaped breakfast cereal – but she can’t seem to find an appropriately creepy pet. That is, until a dismayingly cute and cuddly kitten shows up at her door. For ages 4-7. |
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In Lynne Berry’s Gorey-esque The Curious Demise of a Contrary Cat (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2006), Witch is throwing a party, and Cat is being no help whatsoever. (“Cat,” said Witch, “fetch me a hat!” But Cat was busy chasing Rat.) Finally, after just one GRRR too many from uncooperative Cat, frustrated Witch turns Cat into a toad. For ages 4-7. |
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In Martha Freeman’s Who Stole Halloween? (Holiday House, 2008 ), eleven-year-old sleuths Alex and Yasmeen solve an October mystery involving serial cat-nappings and a 100-year-old murder. (First cat to disappear is the neighbor’s aptly named Halloween.) For ages 9-12. |
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Read Edgar Allan Poe’s classic horror story “The Black Cat,” originally published in 1843, online. The text can also be found at Teacher Vision, along with a reader’s theater version of the story, a vocabulary list, and discussion questions. For ages 12 and up. |
