Reading ghost stories is a great way to bond with your children, whether they're into the picture book ghost story or a nightly ongoing chapter book. Instilling a love of reading within your children early on is crucial to encouraging your kids to have a passion for learning and self-education later in life. If you take the steps now to reinforce nightly reading, then your child will get smarter each day. The motif of Halloween is a great motivator since there are so many fascinating books about ghosts, ghost hunters, monsters and the supernatural. Whether your son or daughter is in pre-k or tenth grade, there's a huge selection of classic tales to inspire their interest in reading.

If you have little ones, then you'll want to get them in the mood for Halloween fun, yet you don't want to scare them silly with stories about ghosts. Theatrical storyteller Mary Jo Maichack plays guitar and fiddle on her audio CD, while combining folklore and "howlarious" Halloween jokes. She'll offer kids a variety of voices, from a Hungarian ghost to a goofy vampire to comprise a funny version of Halloween. The "Ghosthunters series," by Cornelia Funke, combines humor, illustrations and gross stuff for seven-to-nine-year-olds to enjoy.

"Fungus the Bogeyman," by Raymond Briggs, is a good picture book stuffed with puns and illustrations that'll have your little ones roaring with laughter as they follow a monster through his daily routine. "It's Halloween!," by Jack Prelutsky, includes thirteen separate poems about Halloween and isn't really a ghost story, but will certainly gets the kids in the mood. There is also a great collection of audio books and stories at www.surfnetkids.com/audiobooks/short_stories/ that may be suitable for your children.

For teen and adult reading, S.E. Schlosser's "The Spooky Series," as featured on www.americanfolklore.net, is a collection of books detailing ghost stories specific to a particular state. You can read about Bloody Mary who is in the Pennsylvania series, learn about the Headless Horseman and the Lincoln Death Train in the New York edition, read about a Bigfoot sighting in California or an eight-foot skeleton wandering the Arizona desert. To get a feel for these creepy, ghostly stories, you can read excerpts on the website and even listen to spooky podcasts. There's just something so terrifying about the local ghost story. The Spooky Campfire Stories give you podcasts for wee little ones who just want some Halloween fun, podcasts for kids who aren't so easily scared and serious Halloween horror that may even raise the hairs on the necks of adults.

Ghost stories don't necessarily have to be in paperback format to scare us. Halloween horror can also come in the form of stories told via a motion picture. For young kids, there's the most obvious ghost story of all -- "Casper," but they'll also love "Monsters Inc," "Clifford's Big Halloween," "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown," "Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie," "Bedknobs and Broomsticks," "The Adventures of Icabod and Mr. Toad," "Rugrats Halloween" and "Sponge Bob Squarepants Halloween." For kids over 12, "Beetlejuice," and Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas," "Hocus Pocus," and Roald Dahl's "The Witches" are classic spooky tales. For adults in need of a serious scare, there's always horror classics like "The Exorcist," "Psycho," "It's Alive," "Night of the Living Dead," "Halloween," "Nightmare on Elm Street," "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Poltergeist," as well as the lesser known "Carnival of Souls," "Don't Look Now," "Suspiria," "Repulsion" and "Eraserhead."

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