Favorite Book Character Costumes for Kids on Halloween

Favorite Book Character Costumes

Dress up as your favorite book character for Halloween and have a Happy Bookish Halloween (or World Book Day)! How about one of these book character costume ideas from the favorite children’s picture and chapter books?

Go with a classic character like Alice in Wonderland, Madeline, or Max of Where the Wild Things Are.

Or, choose a more recent favorite character like Elephant and Piggie!

Whatever you pick, it’s a celebration of reading and books, right?

And that’s something to celebrate!

I’ve linked to many costumes you can buy and some you can make.

Hopefully, this list will inspire you to find a fun book costume that works for you!

Inspired by board books, picture books, and chapter books, there are so many costume ideas here, I think you’ll find one that you can’t resist.

(Updated 8/2022; originally published in 2009.)

A to E Book Characters

Ready for the A to E book character costume list? Start with Alice, Amelia, and Artemis and continue on to Captain Underpants, Clifford, and the Cat in the Hat…

Alice in Wonderland

Cheshire Cat

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

The Mad Hatter girl child style 1 or style 2, boy child size

Queen of Hearts

White Rabbit

Amelia Bedelia

Angelina Ballerina

American Girl Doll Characters

Artemis Fowl

Arthur

Bad Kitty 

Book Fairy

Captain Underpants

Cat in the Hat (see more Dr. Seuss below)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka

Charlie Brown (DIY Charlie Brown here)

Clark the Shark

Clifford the Big Red Dog

Comic Book Character

Cow (Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type)

Crayon (The Day the Crayons Quit) / DIY Crayon Costume

Curious George  & the Man in the Yellow Hat

Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior

Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Dog Man (DIY)

Dragon (Dragons Love Tacos, Puff the Magic Dragon, How to Train Your Dragon, Eragon)

Dr. Seuss Characters:

Horton Hears A Who

The Lorax

Thing 1 and Thing 2

The Cat in the Hat child / adult

Sam I Am

Elephant and Piggie

Eloise

F to R Book Characters

Think of all the characters in fairy tale stories…There are so many good options.  But, anyone from Harry Potter is also a great costume choice. Or what about Miles Morales?

Fairy Tales: 

Sleeping Beauty / Prince Philip

Beauty and the Beast

Cinderella

Goldilocks & the Three Bears

Little Red Riding Hood

Snow White

Fancy Nancy

Fly Guy

Frankenstein

Franklin

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Harriet the Spy

Harry Potter
Kids love to dress up as their favorite book characters from the most popular book series of all time — Harry Potter.

Hermione

Ron

Luna Lovegood 

        Newt Scamander

Death Eater

Dobby

Voldemort

Dumbledore

Hagrid

Hello Kitty

The Hobbit / Lord of the Rings

Frodo

Gandalf

Legolas

Tauriel

Arwen

How to Train Your Dragon

Toothless

Hiccup

Astrid

Hunger Games

Katniss

Effie Trinket

Judy Moody

Junie B. Jones

Knight toddler, child (King Arthur, The Knight and the Dragon, St. George & the Dragon)

Ladybug Girl & Bumblebee Boy

Legends of Zita (Zita)

Little Critter

Little House on the Prairie

Madeline

Magic Tree House Jack and Annie

Max (Where the Wild Things Are)
*This might be my favorite book character costume on the list. How cute is this?

Miles Morales Spider-Man

Miss Nelson

Miss Frizzle from The Magic School Bus

Nursery Rhymes:

Mother Goose

Little Bo Peep

Humpty Dumpty

Olivia

The One and Only Ivan

Paddington

Percy Jackson

Camp Half-Blood t-shirt  Gladiator Knight Athena

Pete the Cat

Peter Pan

Captain Hook

Tinker Bell

Peter’s Escaped Shadow

Pigeon

Pinkilicious

Pippi Longstocking

Prince Caspian

Raggedy Ann

Ramona

Rainbow Fairies

Redwall, Martin the Warrior

S to Z Book Characters

The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Winnie the Pooh are two favorite book character costume ideas for babies and toddlers — talk about cute!

Sherlock Holmes

Skippyjon Jones

Splat the Cat

Strange Case of the Origami Yoda

Strega Nona

Tacky the Penguin

Three Musketeers

The Stinky Cheese Man

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Uglies: Tally

Warriors (CATS!) 

Where’s Waldo adult & kid

The Wild Robot

Winnie The Pooh

Piglet

Eeyore

Tigger

Roo Costume

Witch *see all the books about witches here

Wizard of Oz:

Dorothy

Lion

Tin Man

Scarecrow

Wicked Witch

Glinda the Good

Munchkin

Vampire Academy

Zoey and Sassafras

What other book character costume ideas do you have?

Which Halloween costume ideas are your favorite?

KEEP READING:

Favorite Halloween Books for Kids

Book Recommendations for Kids By Age

Read Aloud Book Lists

Best Book Series

Holiday Gift Guide for Kids

Book Club Book Recommendations