Publishers know children love Halloween, so every fall they come out with a slew of fun and spooky books to read in October.

Here are this year’s best:

Frankenstein Takes the Cake, by Adam Rex, is the hilarious sequel to his funny 2006 book, Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich.

The book opens with comic-book panels that show the green monster and his betrothed arriving at the in-laws place to plan their wedding.

After a couple of pages, Rex begins switching monsters, formats, illustration styles and stories in a frenetic and highly entertaining manner.

There’s “The Official Blog of the Headless Horseman,” illustrated by photos, an “Edgar Allan Poem,” Japanese monster haiku and a weight-loss ad for witches (melt the pounds away with a bucket of water a day).

Eventually the action winds back to Frankenstein’s wedding.

From the end papers to the author information on the jacket flap, Rex fills every possible space with fun stuff to read and look at. This is a winner.

Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody, by Michael Rex, will tickle youngsters, especially those were tucked into bed with Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon.

Rex’s rhyme is a pitch-perfect imitation:

In the cold gray tomb

There was a gravestone

And a black lagoon

And a picture of

Martians taking over the moon.

There’s not much of a plot, of course. But Rex stuffs in an impressive number of creepy creatures and his illustrations are humorously spooky.

Halloween Night, by Marjorie Dennis Murray, is another kid-pleaser creepy, funny and deliciously icky.

In rhyme loosely based on “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” Murray describes a monstrous group of friends preparing for a party. A witch stirs a smelly brew. Creepy green creatures fill goody bags with crunchy insect legs, grubs and rotten eggs. Banshees wield trays of moldy green tea.

In the distance an unsuspecting group of trick-or-treating children approaches.

Will they join the party?

Brandon Dorman’s digital illustrations are packed with hilariously gruesome details. There are jars full of eyeballs, a kaleidoscopic assortment of bugs and monstrous teeth and toenails. The trick or treaters’ costumes are fun. Kids will chortle when they spot the superhero with tighty whities over his black bat suit.

Cat Nights, by Jane Manning, is more magical than gory.

Witch-child Felicity has finally reached a milestone birthday No. 263. It’s the year she can turn herself into a cat. But a witch can only become a cat eight times. One who performs the spell a ninth time will stay a cat forever.

Felicity takes full advantage of her eight nights, doing all the catlike things she’s been waiting to do.

She’s happy as a feline. Her witch cousins are worried. But maybe a cat is what Felicity really should be.

It’s a fun story about following your dreams.

Manning’s watercolors are bright and lively.