It's the spookiest time of the year, when a young man's thoughts turn to scares and gore, children beg for scraps ... 'scuse me, I mean trick-or-treat, and people everywhere unleash their inner demons. In a good way, we hope! Here's a spotlight on cool apps for all ages to enhance your Halloween fun. There are iOS and Android apps to be found here, most of the them free and all of them good fun.

For Kids

An underrated Halloween classic, The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin is the perfect story to teach kids that being different can be wonderful. Spookley, being square, is rejected by the round pumpkins for being the incorrect shape until the opportunity arises to prove himself to the rest of the pumpkin patch.

The book itself can be requested through interlibrary loan. The app, available for iOS (Apple) and Android, is an interactive storybook that reads the text aloud to kids or tap within the pages to explore the pumpkin patch.

As long as we are talking pumpkins you cannot go wrong with some spooky decorating tips straight from our shelves. If you are trying to win the neighborhood pumpkin carving contest or just want to scare the daylights out of trick-or-treaters, How to Carve Freakishly Cool Pumpkins is a good starting point. 

To supplement these books, you can find a host of apps for your gadgets that are kid-friendly. There is nothing so enjoyable and sinister as your four-year-old cackling in fiendish delight a his latest creation in Pumpkin Maker, a free pumpkin carving app available for Android and iOS. Do keep an eye over your shoulder though. I know I am.

Not all pumpkins this season will inspire dread. A mini-classic illustrated by Dan Yaccarino, Five Little Pumpkins is silly fun for toddlers and beginning readers. It is also a finger-tapping delight on iPhones that kids can follow through word or dialogue.

There's also old standbys in the form of such classics as It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. The new iOS app is a little steep but remember, we have the book and cartoon available for free!

For Teens and Adults

However, what if you are looking for something with a little more of a splatter factor? After all, Halloween is about the scares and not just cutesy kids in costumes. If zombies are your thing, we have plenty of options for your Halloween viewing and reading pleasure.

For the vampire lovers among you, there's more to the kings of the night than Dracula and Twilight. Kathryn Bigelow's modern horror classic Near Dark provides choice scares and Steve Nile's graphic novel 30 Days of Night brings vampires nastier than any found in genteel Victorian literature. A unique spin on vampire legends can also be found in American Vampire by Scott Snyder.

Lest we forget one more hoary monster of yore, there's plenty of chills to be had in the Boris Karloff classic The Mummy. Those preferring a more modern sensibility can turn to the Hammer Films offering starring Christopher Lee in the title role.

Let's not leave portable software out of the fun though! There's plenty of gore and guts to be found in smartphone apps for iOS and Android.

Whatever scary choices you make this Halloween, keep it fun and remember that sometimes, the spookiest place can sometimes be an empty library... late at night...