Welcome to our monthly book recommendations post for October! We had a spooktacular time last month reading some hair-raising tales of fact and fiction. It may no longer be October, but don’t let that stop you checking out below what books we enjoyed last month!
Fiction
The Witches Of Anderson House: A Spell For Disaster – Jennie Poh and Dave Lowe (pub. DK Flip)
Enter the world of Anderson House, retirement home for witches! Meet the residents who have discarded their wands and put their broomsticks out to grass…that is until Myrtle Stormwhisper is called upon to rescue Crumpet the guinea pig.
But Myrtle gave up witching for a perfectly good reason: her last spell was a total disaster for a friendly postman.
Can Henry and Myrtle’s Anderson House neighbours convince her to try again? After all, Crumpet’s life is at stake!
A wonderfully whimsical full colour storybook for younger readers, packed with delightful characters and a large dollop of magic.
We’re really looking forward to our next visit to Anderson House!
Non-fiction
Soup’s On Around the World – Denyse Waissbluth and Chelsea O’Byrne (pub. Greystone Kids)
With winter just around the corner, our minds drift towards bowls of steaming, nourishing, tasty soup.
Soup’s On highlights the different types of soup from cultures all around the world. Hot or cold, spicy or sweet, for breakfast or after sundown, it’s a dish that is truly universal and brings people together.
With Waissbluth’s rhyming text and information panels about each of the varieties, and O’Byrne’s bold illustrations of the shared togetherness of each meal, this is an eye-opening book that shows there is nothing simple about soup.
And don’t miss their personal favourite soup recipes in the back – this is the perfect time to make them!
Ghosts in the Walls – by eleven authors and Pam Smy (pub. Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
As stated on the cover, this is a collection of spooky stories inspired by real history and what a stunning pot pourri of tales it is!
Each short story lingers long after you’ve finished it; from the eerie artwork in E.L. Norry’s ‘The Prince In the Painting’, wartime London in Catherine Johnson’s ‘Run, Rabbit, Run’ and the strange bird lady in ‘Click, Clack’ by Jim Helmore, to a school tip in Sam Sedgman’s ‘Children Of the Maze’ and an innocent sleepover in ‘The Executioner’ by Larry Hayes.
Each one of the eleven tales is a chillingly delightful journey into the past of some of the most famous royal palaces in the UK, enhanced by the atmospheric black and white illustrations of Pam Smy.
Tales Of Ghosts & Hauntings: A Real-Life Mysteries Reader – Susan Martineau and Vicky Barker (pub. b small)
Become a paranormal investigator in this new series by the team behind Real-Life Mysteries.
As the reader, you are given the original evidence, together with any corroborating facts, for some of the scariest occurrences of hauntings and unexplained encounters from across the globe, from the demon dog of Bungay to the crunching footsteps in the Cairngorm Mountains.
At the conclusion of each themed section there’s a section called ‘Let’s Investigate’, which allows the reader to evaluate the evidence and reliability of the witnesses and try to come to a conclusion as to whether what they thought they saw really exists…
With pages of tips for mystery investigators, this is a wonderful read for those fascinated by the strange and unexplained.
Don’t miss Tales Of Scary Beasts by the same brilliant team!
Curious Cryptids – Eleanor Hawken and Berat Pekmezci (pub. Templar Books)
This book might be the closest you can get to seeing a real cryptid right in front of you!
Dealing with strange and terrifying but unsubstantiated creatures, this stunning pop-up book is an adventure in itself. Open the pages and see the mighty Kraken or creepy Mothman leap into life in full colour, together with other monstrous cryptids.
Each creature has a case study, with a comic-style representation of an encounter and a factfile full of essential information, such as height, habitat, and diet.
This is an absolutely breath-taking book, and any cryptid fan will love going through the details to get a “real” sense of the monsters. We think it’s fantastic!
That’s it for October’s recommendations – join us on Threads/Instagram, Bluesky, or Twitter/X, and let us know what you’ve been reading!
If any of the books have grabbed your attention, then you can pick up a copy of them via our recommendations list below.
(Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.)
If you’re looking for more book round-ups, check out our previous reviews here.
