We’ve got a frightfully great batch of Monthly Staff Picks here at Little Village Toy & Book Store this October!

It’s a Double Creature Feature for our Adult Picks this month featuring stories that leap to life off the page and screen! First up we have ‘The Shadow Glass’ by Josh Winning; this fun fall fantasy-horror riff sees a young man return home only to find his father’s ‘80s puppet films (think Jim Henson’s fantasy classics) come from a world much more real than he ever could have imagined. And coming (very) soon is ‘Winterset Hollow’, available 10/6; Jonathan Edward Durham’s internet horror phenomenon finally gets a wide release! Journey to Addington Isle in this twisted tale that finds characters from a Beatrix Potter-esque nursery rhyme to be far darker and much more dangerous than they seem.

Brandon James Scott’s ‘The Skeleton and the Cat’ is our Picture Book pick for readers of all ages. The quiet life of a skeleton is interrupted by the knocks of a small black cat at her door in this story told through bite-sized vignettes which sees an unlikely friendship develop through the course of an unexpected day.

For Chapter Book readers we have ‘Ghoulia: Making New Friends Can Be Scary’. Join Ghoulia, a young zombie, as she sets out from her haunted manor to make friends on Halloween Night. This International favorite is a great seasonal tale about celebrating the things that might make us different.

The ‘Queens of the Crypt’ seek to save Widow’s Creek in our Young Adult selection this month. Artist and illustrator Dom&Ink makes their graphic novel debut with this eerie tale that sees a teen accidentally summons a group of undead Queens inspired by favorite horror icons.

Visit us in-store this October for 20% off all of these Monthly Staff Picks, while supplies last!

Our Monthly Staff Picks this April are perfect selections for those looking for a great springtime read!

From bestselling author Kristin Harmel comes ‘The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau’, our Monthly Staff Pick for adults this month. This decades spanning historical novel follows Colette, a one-time jewel thief helping to fund the French Resistance during WWII, as the mysteries and tragedies of the past resurface when a long lost bracelet resurfaces in a Boston Museum.

‘Beatrix Butterfly Wings It for Once’ is our Picture Book selection this month. This bright and colorful tale from Maren Morris & Karina Argow features illustrations from Kelly Anne Dalton is perfect for Spring. When Beatrix wakes up on the wrong side of her watermelon bed and is daunted by a long to-do list it’s through her friends that she learns to find a way to improve a day that gets off on the wrong foot.

For centuries, these gated woods have protected mythical creatures; and for twenty years Brandon Mull’s ‘Fablehaven’ has been delighting readers of all ages. Our selection for Middle Readers this April, join siblings Kendra and Seth as they inherit the role of Fablehaven’s caretaker. When the rules are broken and a powerful evil unleashed, they must race against the clock to save worlds both new and old in the first entry of this beloved series.

Our Young Adult pick this month, journeys into a much, much darker forest in CG Drews’s ‘Don't Let the Forest In’. This psychological horror novel follows two friends as one discovers that the other has been fighting his dark fairy tale drawings and they must band together to destroy these increasingly strong monsters before they can destroy their creator.

Join us this month for 20% off of all four of this April’s selections and for much more!