Halloween is a holiday filled with traditions and fun, from carving pumpkins to dressing up in Halloween costumes. As you prepare for your next Halloween party, find the perfect costume for a fun night out. There's no better place to find inspiration than in your favorite book.
No one best book exists to choose from, but select a popular series so your friends will recognize the book character costume. You can create group or couples costumes from popular book characters, purchase costumes of popular characters or make a DIY costume.
Video of the Day
Video of the Day
Harry Potter costume ideas
The Harry Potter book series, written by J.K. Rowling, is a good place for inspiration. Select just one character, or if you want to dress up with a group of friends, each of you can select a character to represent. Look to the movie series, which are based on the books, for more costume ideas.
In addition to the main character, Harry Potter, other dress up options for include:
- Ron Weasley
- Hermione Granger
- Sirius Black
- Severus Snape
- Ginny Weasley
- Lord Voldemort
- Professor Albus Dumbledore
- Lily Potter
Alice in Wonderland book character costume ideas
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, has a number of fun characters to use as inspiration for your next Halloween party costume.
Wear a dress and a pinafore to look like the main character, Alice, or consider one of the other interesting characters in the book, such as the Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the Duchess or the Queen of Hearts.
Use this book when considering group costumes since it has so many characters.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory costume ideas
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, written by Roald Dahl, offers a full cast of characters that make fun options for your next Halloween costume.
Some male characters to consider include:
- Mr. Willy Wonka. The owner of the chocolate factory
- Violet Beauregarde. The gum-chewing golden ticket winner
- Augustus Gloop. The overweight and greedy golden ticket winner
- Veruca Salt. The spoiled, demanding ticket winner
- Mike Teavee. The golden ticket winner who loves to watch television.
And don't dismiss the idea of dressing up as one of the Oompa-Loompas.
Wizard of Oz costume ideas
Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow make fun and recognizable costumes for your next Halloween party.
You can also dress up as the Wicked Witch of the East or the Wizard of Oz himself. The Wizard of Oz was written by L. Frank Baum.
The Hunger Games costume ideas
The Hunger Games is an extremely popular book trilogy written by Suzanne Collins. Dress up as the main character Katniss Everdeen.
Also consider dressing as one of the supporting characters, such as her fellow tribute, Peeta Mellark; her mentor for the Hunger Games, Haymitch Abernathy; or Katniss and Peeta's escort at the Hunger Games, Effie Trinket.
Mary Poppins book character costume ideas
Mary Poppins is not just an iconic Disney movie, it was first a children's book written by P.L. Travers.
The magical nanny and main character, Mary Poppins, makes a fun costume. Bert is a popular character played by Dick Van Dyke in the movie, but he is only a minor character in the books.
Dr. Seuss book character costume ideas
Dr. Seuss was an American author who wrote a number of popular children's books with well-known characters that make good Halloween costumes. Look at storybooks like The Cat in the Hat and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas for inspiration.
Other book character Halloween costume ideas
These books are just some ideas to get you thinking about your favorite book character and how you can turn one of them into your next costume. Countless other books have iconic characters that you can consider.
For example, consider dressing as Peter Pan from the book by the same name written by J.M. Barrie or wear a red-and-white striped shirt to dress as Waldo from the Where's Waldo? books written by Martin Handford.
Consider putting your hair in braids and dressing as Pippi Longstocking from the books written by Astrid Lindgren. To be a detective for the holiday, consider dressing as Nancy Drew from the book series written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene or as Sherlock Holmes or Watson from the Sherlock Holmes book series written by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Finally, consider a fairy tale for Halloween costume ideas. Some ideas include Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.