A great way to incorporate children’s love for books into their lives is when Halloween comes around. Dressing up as their favorite characters is empowering for children as they embody what that character means to them, in addition to the character’s strong traits. Helping kids do this doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. All it takes is a little imagination!

Depending on the character, making a costume based on them can be easy. If it is a character that wears simple t-shirts and jeans then all that is needed is to find clothing close to that and voila! You have a costume. It doesn’t have to be a character that wears simple clothing either, by adding or changing a couple things to clothes it can make a perfect costume. If you’re going for a cow, simply add a couple of black spots to a white t-shirt. This can be done through gluing or sewing fabric onto the shirt or just coloring it with fabric markers! Clothing is perfect for being color blocks and the base for additions.

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Altering clothing is also a great option. It doesn’t have to be anything complicated done with a sewing machine, it can be as simple as using a pair of scissors. Need some torn pants for a pirate costume? Cut away! Don’t have any clothing that you’re okay with altering? Thrift stores are also a great place to look for cheap clothing to use for costumes.

However, if it is a more complicated costume, you can get creative. Using household items, such as cardboard, manila folders, fabric markers, markers, paint, straws, newspaper, and more you can create a great costume. Cardboard is great for creating a rigid structure and can be colored and cut to anything. Straws are great to create protrusions needed for costumes, they’re easy to work with. Fabric markers, coloring markers, dye, and paint are handy when it comes to coloring costumes. 

Another great way to create a costume is simply following the color scheme of the character, maybe throwing in a few key characteristics of the character. For example: if you are going to be Tinker Bell, a green dress would work amazingly and maybe some cardboard fairy wings with lots of glitter! 

Remember, the most important part of this costume is that the kids feel amazing in it and love it! This doesn’t require a lot of money or skill, it can be as simple as pulling out an old dress that you can color on with some fabric markers or decorating a cardboard box with some markers. The sky's the limit!

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Sovann Hyde is an intern at Cardinal Rule Press and studying at Michigan State University. She enjoys writing and reading in her free time as well as gaming with friends. Jetta, Gryffin, and Bella, her family’s dogs and cat, keep her energetic and curious.