Literary Halloween Costumes

For only $700, this flat piece of foam designed to look like a book can be yours!
Creepy, mustachioed, shoeless man sold seperately

Halloween is soon upon us! And although I hope you already have your costume figured out,* it's never too late to get some inspiration from our favorite characters and books. After the jump, check out a few favorites I found from some quick Googling:

The Secret Adventures of Writer Girl

I'm guessing Katniss will be a popular choice, what with the movie coming out soon.
I love this version, although with only one arrow, I don't think she'll be doing much damage

Scott Westerfeld

This one is cheating a little, because it's the actual model for Deryn
for the cover of Scott Westerfeld's steampunk series.
But come on--the goggles! The tie! The leather jacket! The wind-burned pink nose!
Please someone dress up as this, please.

Halloween and Costumes Blog

I tried extremely hard to find a "sexy book" costume
(I mean, they have "sexy shower" so I figured it wasn't a long shot)
but this was the closest I could find: Sexy Scrabble Board.

SFWeekly

Why dress up as your favorite character
when you can dress up as your favorite character dressed up as a HAM?

Laugh Make Nurture Organize Play

Yes, please, to all of them.
This is why you want a magazine to style your Halloween costume.

TwilightBlog.net

I'm guessing there are lots of sparklevamps and army-coat-wearing brunettes running around on Halloween,
but I'm partial to this interpretation.

www.Coolest-homemade-costumes.com

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs!

goodcostumeideas.com

This woman is my hero.
It's now my personal goal in life to grow up to look exactly like an illustrated character.
(but where's the possum??)

AJC.com

Several Coralines popped up in my search,
but I like this one, Wellingtons and raincoat with the Other Mother
(how does she see with those buttons over her eyes? also, creepy)

What is it about dressing up as your favorite character? I think it's fun to attempt to inhabit the world your character lives in, even if just for a night. I attempted the character-costume twice: once, in first grade, when I dressed up as Madeline, although my mom really deserves credit for the construction paper creation that was my costume.

My second attempt at a literary costume came in fifth or sixth grade, when I dressed up as Kat from the Goosebumps book, It Came From Beneath the Sink! What's that you say? You don't remember Kat? That is correct, because she is in fact not a monster, she is a 12-year-old girl who discovers an evil sponge beneath her sink, otherwise known as the worst costume in existence. I dressed as...a 12-year-old girl, which is to say, myself, and I carried a sponge around in a plastic container marked "evil."

I wish I could say I was making this up. Or even doing it ironically. I am not, and I was not. I can even remember my parents' half-hearted attempts to dissuade me from wearing my "costume", but I would not be deterred!

And so my parents, in their wisdom, dropped me off at the Embassy Suites for a very fancy kids' Halloween party. What followed were some of the worst hours of my life, having to constantly answer the question, "Oh, where's your costume?" while the blonde, pageant-winning hostess changed into not one but TWO 12-year-old-sexy-Disney-princess costumes.

Eventually I made up some bullshit that I had another costume that hadn't arrived yet and borrowed someone's black lipstick to put under my eyes so I could at least PRETEND I was dressed up (as "a person who hasn't gotten much sleep." Still not making it up!).

All of which goes to say, when choosing a literary costume, make sure that said costume is at least distinguishable from your regular clothing. But if your child insists on wearing their shitty book costume to a fancy Halloween party at one of New Jersey's finest hotels, let her go, for the lessons she learns will be innumerable.



*I do, and I'm not even doing anything Halloweeny, as the husband and I will be flying to the East Coast to babysit our 2-year-old nephew for the weekend. But in case you were curious, my plan was to be cotton candy. And in case you're even more curious, the baby will be a combination dinosaur/ladybug.