The 13 Days of Halloween

by Carol Greene

A Halloween version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" features such seasonal gifts as bats, goblins, spiders, worms, and ghosts.

Genres: Halloween, Picture Books, Childrens, Holiday, Poetry, Music, Humor

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Has degrees in English Literature and musicology. She has worked in international exchange programs, as an editor, and as a teacher of writing. Lives in Webster Groves, Missouri.

Reviews

[Elle Markov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Move over "12 Days of Christmas" and make room for a new instant classic! We all know the song "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me ..." well in this new reimagined tune, we get an extra day and some nicely wretched gifts to celebrate the most wicked of holidays.

Children love the little monsters and ghouls and the love singing along, even if a little off-key. The language is not difficult so those little ones learning to read on their own can read with little difficulty.

Rating 5 out of 5
Read@Book

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This spooky, silly sing along would be great for a group participation story time.

The ending was a little odd, but you can insert your own joke there.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

HALLOWEEN IS ALMOST HERE! Another great book to put you in a SPOOKTACULAR mood for the season!

[CILLYart CILLYart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful, magical book just in time for Halloween! I found this book years ago in the public library when my own 6 children were young! The book had been done with fun illustrations of two witch friends. Though the new illustrations are colorful and delightful in this new rendition of Carol Greene's fun picture book, I miss the depicted end result of the original illustrations.

Over the years, I have "singingly" read this favorite Halloween story to my children, my young students (K - grade 3) and now my own grandchildren! I highly recommend this delightfully fun book for parents, teachers, caregivers and children of all ages! I just read this to my 7 year old grandson this past week!

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one and might have to get it for our school collection simply for the illustrations. Little ones are ALWAYS asking me for scary or zombie books ... and this is about as close as we'll get (it's not really scary ;]).


My favorite part is the skeleton poodle with pink puffy hair that is always trying to bite the male ... what is he. Ghoul? Ogre? Green ghost?


Though I have to say the end is a little frustrating. But just a little. And perfect, actually, for lessons on predicting.

[TS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome story! My daughter and I sang this story to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas. Can't get the song out of my head!
Great for beginning readers, repeated text, and great for independent reading! Loved it, definitely worth 5 stars!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny and clever spin-off of the Tweleve days of Christmas. Always a big hit at grade-school Halloween Parties. It simply isn't Halloween if my kids don't beg me to sing it at least 25 times! :)

[melanie (lit*chick) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enter the giveaway tonight (10/21) by midnight here:

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[Darcy Wishard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book with beautiful illustrations! A great way to celebrate Halloween for kids...sung to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Funny!

[Jean Oram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun to read out loud story based on the 12 Days of Christmas. Only it's Halloween and someone is going to get frightened...or not.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a Halloween take on "The 12 Days of Christmas." I love the adaptation of the song ("... and a vulture in a dead tree")! The illustrations are fantastic. This book is a Halloween must.

[Marci · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter LOVED this book...we read it every day in October and of course to the tune of 12 Days of Christmas. I got pretty sick of it, but luckily her dad never tired of it :)

[Netanella · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great find for a Halloween children's book! The illustrations are awesome, and the sing-a-long words are giggle-worthy. Highly recommended for Halloween-loving families with young kids.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable illustrations and written in the 12 Days of Christmas style. Very cute and fun for the spooky season.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the book was fun but the ending confused both myself and my kids..we kept looking for the punch line...I must be slow or missing something obvious.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book but I gave it 5 stars because my kids loved it. My 4 year old son sings it all the time and makes up his own lyrics sometimes too.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found myself singing along to this delightful Hallowe'en version of a favorite Christmas carol, so I bet kids will too! By far though, the best part about this book for me are the illustrations.

[Stephanie Guthrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book because it reminded me of the 12 days of Christmas sing along! I think it would be an awesome activity for students to sing along and even have a storytelling with it.

[Rachel Schuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really fun read. I love how it took a familiar song and gave it a new spin on a different holiday.

[kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

super cute, fail on the ending though

[IvyInThePages · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5 leaves out of 5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 5/5
Story: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Genre: Children
Type: Book
Worth?: Yes

[Set · Rating 3 out of 5]

The theme of this book is based on the 13 Day of Christmas and it's changed to be about Halloween instead. The rhymes are cute and the drawings are Halloweeny. It's spooky but not as festive in comparison to the original Christmas song. The drawings are okay and I recommend to read for a group of children to sing along.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, but thought the ending was weird.

[Bree READERISFP · Rating 3 out of 5]

what the heck did he bring at the end

[Christine Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The library patrons were starting to check out Halloween books, so I wanted to include this one for my assignment. This was a fun surprise because it subverts the 12 Days of Christmas song into a visually humorous, lyrical poem.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute book. It includes the sheet music for the song at the back.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

12 Days of Christmas, Halloween style. This is the best version I've read so far. Lots of repetition and some great illustrations, we'll see how my preschoolers like it for story time.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super cute Halloween version of the 12 Days of Christmas (plus the infamous 13th Day)!

[Heather Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun take on the traditional Christmas Carol. Really great illustrations and clever count of what my good friend gave to me!

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE this take on the 12 Days of Christmas song. Fun illustrations enliven the prose.