Blog Posts by Subject: Halloween

In the weeks leading up to Halloween we watch scary movies and we read scary stories but are we listening to enough scary music? No, probably not! Here are some suggestions to get you in the spooky spirit.

This Halloween, staff of the Word Languages Collection at Mid-Manhattan Library would like to introduce our readers to some unusual creatures from around the globe.

We went in search of some books that would be off the beaten path to the haunted house and asked our NYPL book experts to name some unusual, specific, super-cool sub-genres of horror.

October’s Open Book Night began with a 19th-century slasher story. We discussed Lizzie Borden and the fascinating tale of how she murdered her mother and father, and got away with it. Many more creepy suggestions followed.

Why did this happen and how could it have happened? You’ll have to read the accounts, the theories and stories and figure that part out for yourself. The following are recommended nonfiction and fiction books on the topic from children’s, YA and adult collections.

But the Muppet most closely associated with numbers is, of course, the Count. The Count who loves to count.

We love Halloween and want to celebrate it by sharing some great Halloween themed recordings we have in our holdings.

While the initial printing of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow contained no illustrations, the tale has since inspired many artists to create works evoking the strangely funny but frightful events in the story.

On Halloween, we pull back the curtain between real and unreal, reveling in the spooky, mysterious, and inexplicable. What better way to celebrate the holiday than communing with the spirits and ghosts who reach out to us from the pages of the Rare Book Division?

You may not normally think of Halloween as a holiday with its own stationery, but we have around 100 years worth of cards that prove otherwise.

Our Halloween favorites to read and share with kids.

Grumpy Cat, Henri, the Existential Cat, Lil Bub, Colonel Meow… Sure, cats are the stars of social media nowadays but beware of crossing them—as these tales illustrate.

There are a few weeks left before Halloween festivities... maybe you'll find a costume idea at the library.

If you are looking for a spooky Halloween read, the staff at the New York Public Library have some suggestions for you.

There is a terrific dance out there that you may not know about—the Halloween hustle. Moving and grooving to the beat of the Halloween treat.

It's that time of year again, when Halloween book and media picks are falling like harvest leaves. Here's a small, but spooky, selection.

Miss Smith and the Haunted Library by Michael Garland, 2009

How is this for a Halloween treat? Miss Smith takes her class to a dark mansion that is now a library. Librarian Virginia Creeper, complete with blue hair, reads to the class about scary creatures 

Looking for a way to get into the Halloween spirit? NYPL is here to help with a playlist of spooky videos—no tricks, just treats!

Show your Library spirit by carving NYPL’s signature lion into your holiday pumpkin:

Have a chat with Frankenstein’s Creature, the ghoulishly friendly star of our latest Biblion app for iPad:

Also check out our spellbinding collection of videos from Biblion: Frankenstein and listen to chilling dramatic readings of Mary Shelley’s novel:

Go ghost-hunting with teens as they explore the 

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