(*note – this originally was published in October 2022 but always a good reminder to look to books for fun costume ideas).
This week, several friends sent me a photo of a little girl dressed up as a book fairy. Her wings were made from an open hard-cover book. Her skirt was made from loose book pages. The costume was brilliant, and I wish I was going to a Halloween party just to be a book fairy. The fact that multiple friends sent me the same image made me happy…they know me well!
This got me thinking about other bookish Halloween costumes. I know I originally said I would write about ways to bring books alive, and I will cover that more soon, although I think Halloween costumes are a perfect way to make a book come alive for a child (or teen, adult, pet, anyone). Dress up as your favorite character whether they are from a movie, cartoon, book, or comic book.
If a child likes a book series, what better way to get them even more excited about reading more in the series than for them to dress up as that character? We often see Harry Potter and Hermione, and I love that children love the characters so much that they choose to dress up like them. In our house, costumes have been some very popular book characters and some more obscure. Some of my favorite book character costumes from our Halloweens past include Gerald from the Mo Willems “Elephant & Piggie” books, a borrowed Sophie Foster costume from Shannon Messenger’s “Keeper of the Lost Cities” series (and yes, we had a friend who happened to have that costume), Katniss Everdeen from Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games,” and a group costume consisting of Hermione, Harry’s Owl (carrying a copy of the Daily Prophet), and Doby.
Some characters are challenging because their costumes look like regular clothes, so how do you identify it as a costume? Fear not, it is still possible. For many of our book costumes, I made a trick-or-treat bag. I picked up a package of plain white cloth bags and printer transfer paper. Print a full-sheet book cover onto your transfer paper and iron it onto the bag. It’s simple (although read the instructions to see if you need to flip the image before printing so you don’t have a backward book cover). The easiest way to immediately identify that the child is dressed up as their favorite book character, and that bag will likely become a favorite little book tote bag.
I can’t wait to see all the costumes, especially the book-inspired ones this Halloween. If you dressed up as a book character, be sure to share a picture. I’d love to see it!