One of my core memories is of walking into a school book fair and spotting a fall display table. Every book cover displayed fall scenes in warm oranges, yellows, browns, and reds. There were stories about pumpkin patches, piles of leaves, trick-or-treating, and thanksgiving feasts.

It made my little kindergarten heart soar. Already, fall was my favorite time of the year. I was so young, I’m not sure I understood that it was even possible to create a collection of books that were all about your favorite thing, but after that moment I knew.

Every holiday after, I would scour my bookcase for the “relevant” books, and spend an afternoon reading them all as part of my personal holiday traditions.

Charlie is currently 4 months old, but I believe it’s never too early to introduce a little one to not only all the joys of autumn, but to the joys of seasonal reading.

We’ve been reading Halloween books for the past couple of months now, and I thought it would be nice to share some ideas for “A Little One’s First Fall Library”—books perfect for babies under one year old all about autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.

I’ve tried to focus on books with bright colors, short and simple text, and interactive elements (like touch and feel or lift-a-flap). It’s obviously not a complete list of seasonal picture books, but the great thing about starting a collection this early is that there’s nothing but time to build it up.

If you want to create a fall display shelf or shelves for your little one—even if they may not be old enough to appreciate it yet—here are some decoration recommendations:

Since Charlie is only 4 months and can’t really appreciate holiday décor yet—but definitely enjoys looking at wall decorations—I dug around in our Halloween boxes and found some homemade foam bats and glitter spiders from Michael’s to dress up his nursery’s small Halloween book display this year.

As we get ready for Halloween, our favorites are You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie and B is for Boo! You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie was the first book he ever made me read again (by way of some fussy tears when it closed!) and reached out to interact with, so it will always be special to me.

What are some of the first fall-themed books you remember reading? Let me know in the comments below! For me, it’s Arthur’s Halloween, Trick or Treat Little Critter, and a bunch of Clifford books including Clifford’s First Halloween, Clifford’s Halloween, and Clifford’s First Autumn.

Happy reading,

Julia