12 Days of Giving: Scary, Scary Ghost Stories

Not only are scary stories super popular with kids, they fit right in with holiday traditions. Did you know that telling ghost stories is a Christmas Eve tradition? Here are some scary stories for the young readers in your life. 

(I'm an IndieBound affiliate, so if you buy books through the links on my site you're not only supporting an independent bookstore, you're supporting me, too!)

For younger kids: 

Beneath the Bed and Other Scary Stories by Max Brallier (Scholastic, 2019). These just-right scary stories are perfect for the easy-reader audience they're aimed at. They're definitely scary enough to please kids who really want a shiver down their spine, but the reading level is great for kids who are just starting chapter books. 

Home Sweet Horror by James Preller (Feiwel & Friends, 2013). The Scary Tales series by James Preller is a great horror series with actual scares for the new chapter book reading crowd. 

For older kids: 

 

Small Spaces and Dead Voices by Katherine Arden (Putnam, 2018 & 2019). These two books are two of my favorite scary stories to come out recently. They star the same characters, but can stand alone. If you're just going to get one, get the first one, Small Spaces. In Small Spaces, 11-year-old Olivia rescues a book and the ghost story in the book becomes all too real when scarecrows come to life on a school field trip. In Dead Voices, Olivia and her new friends face a super haunted ski lodge on winter break. 

A Path Begins (The Thickety series) by J.A. White (Katherine Tegen Books, 2014).  When Kara Westfall was a young child, her mother was convicted of the worst of all crimes, witchcraft. Even since then, Kara and her family have been outcasts. When Kara finds her mother's grimoire, she starts to experiment with the spells there and starts an adventure to save her world from the evil that resides in The Thickety. 

Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh (HarperCollins, 2017). When Harper and her family move into a new house, creepy things start to happen. Her little brother Michael seems to be talking to someone none of the rest of them can see. Fans of haunted house stories will eat this one up. Grab the sequel, The Island of Monsters, for a double dose of scares. 

The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste (Algonquin, 2017). Corinne knows that jumbies are made up stories to scare little kids, but when she goes into the mahogany forest to retrieve her mother's necklace, something follows her out. And it will be up to Corinne and some true friends to save her island home from the most powerful jumbie they've ever known. There are three books in this series, so pick them all up for your brave middle grade readers. 

Dead Voices

Happy Halloween! Today, I've got a spooky scary book that's perfect for your young readers of horror. Last year, I posted about Katherine Arden's middle grade debut Small Spaces, still one of my booktalking favorites. Today I've got the standalone sequel, a winter story:

Dead Voices by Katherine Arden. Grades 4-7. G.P. Putnam's Sons, August 2019. 256 pages. Reviewed from galley provided by publisher. 

Booktalk: 

After the events of the fall, new best friends Ollie, Coco, and Brian are looking forward to winter break. They're heading up into the mountains to ski at Vermont's newest ski lodge, Mount Hemlock Resort. The lodge has never been open to the public before - it had been a school building before it was a report - and the kids are excited to visit. 

But strange things start happening even on the way up the mountain as Ollie's dad drives through a heavy snowstorm. Coco wakes up from a nightmare and is certain she sees a person standing in the middle of the road with one hand raised as if saying STOP. But when their car swerves to a stop, there's nothing there. 

Once they arrive at the resort, strange things start happening. The kids start having terrible nightmares and hearing strange sounds. A ghost hunter shows up at the resort and tells them the legend about Mother Hemlock, the head of the old school, and girls who were said to have died of fright. 

And then Ollie's watch, a gift from her late mother that saved them from the Smiling Man this fall, suddenly shows a message: BEWARE. 

My thoughts:

This book is everything I wanted in a scary story. Although it's a sequel to Small Spaces, it stands alone sufficiently (though please don't deny yourself the joy of reading Small Spaces if you are a fan of scary stories). Dead Voices manages to use so many scary story tropes to full effect, and I mean that in the best way possible. It's truly a thrill ride and as I was reading it, I kept stopping to delight in the shivers going down my spine. 

Katherine Arden is a master at creating atmosphere. From the harrowing car ride up the snowy mountain to the creepily haunted resort building, the foreboding atmosphere is almost palpable as you read and it helps to build tension.  

Of course, I also love that the friends work together to try to figure out what's going on and to deal with the haunting once they're in the thick of it. I hear that this series will eventually contain four books, one for each season, and I can't wait to read more!

Readalikes:

• Small Spaces by Katherine Arden (Putnam, 2018). Of course you'll want to pick up Arden's first scary middle grade novel, but this one can stand alone, too. 
• Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh (HarperCollins, 2017). In another terrifically creepy haunted house story, Harper has just moved with her family to a new house in Washington DC and her little brother starts talking to someone that none of the rest of them can see. 
• Doll Bones by Holly Black (McElderry, 2013). The combination of creepiness and solid friendship story in these books makes them good readalikes. 

Seven Scary Middle Grade Books

It's October! Around here that means the wind's blowing colder, it's getting dark earlier, and lots of people are in the mood for a good scary story. Something we learned quickly as we were visiting schools for booktalks: kids LOVE scary stories. Not every kid, of course, but lots of them. So today I've got seven of my favorite scary stories for your middle grade readers. I would love to hear about your favorites in comments!

Doll Bones by Holly Black (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2013. 244 pages). Zach, Poppy, and Alice are best friends, getting together to weave awesome adventure stories starring their action figures, a pastime that none of their fellow middle-schoolers would probably understand. But things are starting to change between them and when the end of the game seems nigh, the girls visit Zach in the middle of the night to tell him that Poppy is being haunted by a mysterious china doll who claims that it is made from the ground up bones of a murdered girl. The friends must set off to figure out where the murdered girl lived and bury the doll or risk being cursed forever. This is the perfect fall read with a chilling atmosphere and a solid friendship story at its heart.

Hoodoo by Ronald Smith (Clarion, 2015. 208 pages). Twelve-year-old Hoodoo Hatcher was born into a magic family, but he hasn’t yet figured out how to harness his powers. When a spirit arrives in their woods, Hoodoo has a vision telling him that it’s up to him to defeat this demon, but how can he when he doesn’t have his magic? This is an atmospheric story with some seriously creepy magic going on. I would especially recommend this one for fans of historical and Southern gothic stories.

The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste (Algonquin, 2015. 234 pages). Eleven-year-old Corinne doesn’t believe in jumbies – what folks call supernatural creatures on her island home. But when she goes into the mahogany forest to get back the necklace the village boys stole from her… something follows her out. This is one of my absolutely favorites to booktalk. It's a strong friendship story, as well as being a terrifying tale of supernatural creatures. Readers who liked Doll Bones will love this book.

The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier (Abrams, 2014. 350 pages). When two abandoned siblings find work at an English manor house, they quickly realize that all is not right in the house. People there have awful nightmares every night and each morning Molly finds muddy footprints that don’t match the feet of anyone living in the house. Can they save themselves and the family from the night gardener? From the warnings of townspeople that no one enters "the sour woods" to the dulling of Molly's bright red hair as she continues to live in the house, this book is filled with little details that add up to an un-put-downable scary story.

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2018. 218 pages). When Ollie’s class school bus breaks down on the way back from a field trip, the creepy scarecrows in the fields start to look all too real. Their teacher goes for help and the bus driver has some strange advice for the kids: “Best get moving. At nightfall they’ll come for the rest of you.” And then Ollie’s broken wristwatch displays a terrifying message: RUN. Katherine Arden, author of popular adult fantasy books, is a master of atmosphere and she brings that to this middle grade book, too. There were so many passages that I just read over and over for the shiver down my spine before I raced on, needing to know what happens next.

Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh (HarperCollins, 2017. 276 pages). When Harper and her family move to a new home, rumors are that their new house is haunted. But Harper doesn’t believe them… until her little brother starts acting very strange. Could he be possessed by a spirit? And how can Harper save him? This creepy mystery from We Need Diverse Books founder Ellen Oh totally reminded me of the scary books I loved to read as a tween. Details of Harper's Korean-American family and portrayals of the racist microaggressions Harper faces make this title stand out in a sea of haunted house books.

A Path Begins (The Thickety #1) by J.A. White (Katherine Tegen Books, 2014. 488 pages). When Kara was a little girl, her mother was convicted of witchcraft and hanged. Now, Kara and her family are outcasts. One day, a strange bird appears to Kara and leads her into the Thickety – the enchanted forest that no one is supposed to enter – and Kara finds her mother’s spell book. She knows that she should leave it behind or destroy it – it’s illegal to have magic books – but it’s the one thing she has of her mother’s. So Kara takes it out of the Thickety. And that’s just the beginning of the story. I've written before about how much I love this series of books. If you have readers who are into magic and witchy stories, this is a can't-miss!

Ooh I hope you've found the perfect scary tale for the young readers in your life here, and I'd love to hear about your favorite scary reads! Tell me all about 'em in the comments!

Small Spaces

Kids love scary books. It's a thing. And if you're looking for a great scary book to hand to middle grade readers, I have one for you.

In Small Spaces by Katherine Arden introduces us to Olivia, an eleven-year-old girl reeling from the loss of her mother. Ollie's pulled away from everything - she avoids the other kids at school, she's quit all the activities she used to do. Ollie just wants to be alone with her books, and on this last glorious, sunshiney afternoon of the fall, that's what she's headed to do. But when she stumbles across a distraught woman about to throw a book - a book! - into the river, Ollie stops her and takes the book.

As Ollie becomes entranced by the story in the book - a story about two brothers and a sinister deal made with a man called "the smiling man" - she starts to realize that the story might be based in reality. Her sixth-grade class is taking a trip to a nearby farm and when their teacher reluctantly tells the class about some of the ghost stories surrounding the farm, they sound eerily familiar.

And then on the way home from the field trip, the bus breaks down close to dark. The creepy bus driver warns Ollie "Best get moving. At nightfall they'll come for the rest of you." And Ollie's long-broken digital watch, a keepsake from her mother, starts displaying a countdown and one word: RUN.

(Is there anything creepier than someone in a story getting a message that just says RUN? Instant panic, amiright?)

If you've read Katherine Arden's adult fantasy novels The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, you know she is a master at creating atmosphere and she brings this mastery into this middle grade story as well. From the weather changing to the descriptions of small creepy things like the leering scarecrows in the field and the recalcitrant new bus driver, Arden paints a picture for the reader. There were so many passages that I just read over and over for the shiver down my spine before I raced on, needing to know what happens next.

And the level of scariness is a good fit for this age group. This is a book that I wouldn't hesitate to hand to upper elementary students looking for a scare but not yet ready for the violence that often comes with scary stories. It delivers a good eerie, sinister vibe without getting graphic.

Readalikes:

Readers who enjoy a scary story with tons of atmosphere might also enjoy The Riverman by Aaron Starmer (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014).

The tone and atmosphere of this book also really reminded me of a couple of my favorites: The Thickety by J.A. White (Katherine Tegan, 2014) and Doll Bones by Holly Black (McElderry, 2013).

Book info: 

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden. Grades 4-6. Putnam, September 2018. 224 pages. Reviewed from ARC provided by publisher.

Reading Wildly: Scary Books

It's October, so it's time for another round of scary books for this month's Reading Wildly meeting. We explored scary books a couple of years ago, and it's such a perennial favorite that we brought it back this year. We were a little pressed for time at this meeting because we had to combine our department meeting and our RW meeting (happens sometimes, especially with Fall Break happening), so we didn't have a really in-depth discussion about our article. It was Are Goosebumps Books Real Literature? By Leslie Anne Perry & Rebecca P. Butler (Language Arts, Oct. 1997) and we did have a few takeaways:

• Kids know what to expect when they pick up a Goosebumps book: an easy to read, slightly scary and exciting story. 
• Scary stories, including the Goosebumps series transcend gender divides. As much as I really hate the idea of "girl books" and "boy books" (and I really do hate it), scary stories, for kids who like scary stories, are easy to hand to both boys and girls without objections from kids or parents. 
• If we had had time, I would have liked to compile a list of scary story series that would be good for everyone to know, but alas we didn't have time for this. 

So, here are the books we read: 

• Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter
• The Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia McKissack
• Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen
• Guys Read: Terrifying Tales, edited by Jon Scieszka
• Half-Minute Horrors by various authors
• The Haunted Library by Dori Butler
• Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
• The One-Eyed Doll (Scary Tales series) by James Preller
• The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight (Goosebumps series) by R.L. Stine
• The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co.) by Jonathan Stroud 
• Wait 'Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn
• The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

For next month, we are reading horse books (Children's) and animal books (Teen). It was determined that teens didn't have an overwhelming interest in horse books, but my teen librarians did feel like animal books were something more teens were interested in. We'll also start to brainstorm genres that we'd like to explore next year and I'm excited to now have our teen librarians' input in this process! 

Horse books are definitely NOT my wheelhouse, so do you have any suggestions for me?!

The Jumbies

The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste. Grades 4-6. Algonquin Young Readers, April 2015. 234 pages. Review copy provided by my local library.

Booktalk:

On Corinne’s island home, people often talk about the jumbies - evil spirits that live in the mahogany forests and cause trouble for people who cross their paths.

There are the douens (dwens), spirit children that travel in packs and have backwards knees and feet. “If they know your name, they will call you and sound just like your mom or dad” and if they get you they’ll turn you into one of them.

There are the La Diabless (LA-jah-bless), beautiful women who wear big fancy white hates and long white dresses to cover their feet. Instead of two lady feet, they have one lady foot and one cow’s hoof, so “if you see a pretty lady on the side of the road one night, make sure you see both her feet.”

Soucouyant (soo-coo-YAH) are “old ladies who will take off their skin, leave it in a nice safe place, and then fly around in a ball of flame, sucking out people’s blood.” You may have woken up sometimes with soucouyant bites, only they look like mosquito bites so it’s hard to be sure.

Corinne doesn’t believe in jumbies. She’s sure that they’re just tales people tell. But one day, some trickster boys steal her mother’s necklace and when Corinne goes to get it… something follows her out of the forest.

In The Jumbies, Corinne will face the worst jumbie anyone has ever seen on her island, a jumbie bent on taking Corinne and her father, a jumbie who will stop at nothing to get her revenge.

(Parts of this booktalk were taken from Tracey Baptiste's author's note in the book. Direct quotes are denoted with quotation marks.)

My thoughts: 

I cannot wait to booktalk this book to students this fall. Scary books are always a hit and this one is a unique take with its island setting and its basis in Caribbean folklore and tales. The story was inspired by a Haitian folktale and incorporates legends that author Tracey Baptiste grew up with in Trinidad. 

At its heart, this is a story of friendship and family and finding the power inside you that you didn't know you had. As Corinne faces the jumbies that begin attacking her village, she's not alone. She bands together with a pair of trickster brothers and a new friend whom she met at the market. The four children support each other and each ends up being braver than he or she thought possible.

Vivid sensory details bring the lush island setting to life as the adventure travels from the dark mahogany forests to the swamps to the beaches of the island. Small details such as the fish stews that Corinne cooks for her father and the fruits sold at the market place the action firmly in its setting in a very organic way. 

Readalikes:

The blend of a strong friendship story with some creepy elements made me keep thinking about Doll Bones by Holly Black, which is another favorite creepy book that I like to booktalk. 

My Haunted Reading List

Horror's not normally my thing. While I enjoyed it as a young adult*, it's not a genre to which I gravitate anymore. Which is why I was a little surprised to look up and realize that the past four books I've read have been ghost stories. What's been in that stack?

Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper. Grades 5-8. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2013. 328 pages. Review copy provided by publisher. 

Too much plot summary is going to get all spoilery, so I'll just say that Ghost Hawk is the story of a Native American boy in Massachusetts around the time of the first white settlements (think Plymouth and Puritans). There's a good deal of adventure and historic detail (which may or may not be accurate, unfortunately).

First of all, I have to say that I enjoyed reading Ghost Hawk. I knew it was coming under some controversy on the Heavy Medal blog, so I avoided reviews and reading through the comments until I had read it. Even though I enjoyed the read, I take Debbie Reese's comments about the portrayal of Native Americans seriously and even if you play the fantasy genre card, a book that's based on real people needs to be accurate. End of story. In her author's note Susan Cooper claims that this is not a historical novel but a fantasy in a historical setting. If you're using real people (and Susan Cooper is), you owe it to readers to be as accurate as possible. I honestly don't even see why this is a debate. 

I read Ghost Hawk and then my next book finally came in at the library: 

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. #1) by Jonathan Stroud. Grades 5-8. Disney-Hyperion, 2013. 400 pages. Review copy provided by my local library. 

Oh my, this one was a blast! Set in an alternate England where hauntings are viciously real and children are the ones who can sense the Visitors, this is the story of Lucy Carlyle and the ghost busters who hire her. Lockwood & Co. is fairly unique among ghost disposal agencies because they don't have any supervising adults. They don't need them! Lockwood and his staff have everything taken care of. And if a house gets burned down once in a while, well, at least it's not haunted anymore, eh? But Lucy and her colleagues will face the biggest challenge of their career when they're approached by an eccentric millionaire with the most haunted house in all of England. 

This is a believably creepy mystery story that puts kids logically into the center of the action. There are enough scares to please your horror fans (especially that climax!) and a solid mystery that will keep readers guessing. Lucy is a likeably imperfect heroine; her gifts give her an edge, but she doesn't always make sensible choices (much to the chagrin of her colleague and boss). This is the first in a trilogy and it wraps up enough while still definitely paving the way for following books. 

On audio, I'm working through: 

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz, narrated by David Aaron Baker. Adult (teen crossover). Bantam/Random House Audio, 2003. Review copy provided by my local library. (I'm an Audible affiliate and if you purchase items after clicking links in this post, I get a small commission!)

This one is a recommendation from The Boyfriend who recently read and enjoyed it. I'm enjoying it well enough, though it feels like it's overwritten. (Sigh. I often feel that way about adult novels after reading so much slim and tight youth lit.) Odd Thomas is a 20-year-old short order cook who sees ghosts in his small California desert town. When he spies a strange, repulsive man being followed by masses of shades (a good indicator that this man will be committing a very violent crime soon), Odd must figure out what's going to happen and how to protect his friends. 

The narration is solid and fits with the character, though there are pronunciations I don't agree with every now and then. 

And I just now picked up: 

Far Far Away by Tom McNeal. Grades 7 and up? Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2013. 384 pages. Review copy from my local library. 

This one is for the Bill Morris Seminar, which I'll be attending in January**. We have a list of books to read, which we'll discuss at the seminar. The ghost of Jacob Grimm (yes, that Jacob Grimm) is following a teenage boy in the town of Never Better. Jeremy is the only person Jacob has met who can hear ghosts and Jacob is charged with protecting him from an evil that will befall him at some point.

I'm only halfway through at this point, but I'm having some trouble figuring out who the audience is meant to be. Really, the main character is a 150-year-old ghost and Jeremy's story is told with a distance that keeps the reader from connecting to him. I do like the modern fairy tale tone, but I also have some other issues that I won't get into quite yet since I haven't finished it yet. 

So that's the state of my haunted reading pile! Have you ever unintentionally found yourself reading a bunch of books in a row that had a running theme? 

* MOAR VAMPIRE BOOKS, PLS

** Oh yeah, I was selected for the 2014 Morris Seminar! I'm super excited!!!! Wheee!

Reading Wildly: Scary

With Halloween coming up, we dedicated this month to scary stories for our Reading Wildly program. Knowing that my staff members have different thresholds for horror (and our library kids do, too!), slightly scary books were a-okay this month, as well.

And I added a dimension to our discussion this month by asking my staff members to read an article in addition to a novel. This is something that really added to our genre discussion and it's something I'm going to continue doing each month.

There has been a lot written about scary stories and children, so I passed out three articles and made one required reading. I found these articles on Inspire, our state library database search, and printed out or ran off copies for each of my staff members.

Required reading:

• "Don't Let a Good Scare Frighten You: Choosing and Using Quality Chillers to Promote Reading" by Patricia O. Richards, Debra H. Thatcher, Michelle Shreeves, Peggy Timmons, and Sallie Barker (The Reading Teacher, Vol. 52, No. 8, May 1999). 

Optional articles:

• "The Alluring Darkness: Finding Belonging in Fangs and Wands" by Chase M. Will (YALS, Summer 2008). 
• "Scary Stories, Mixed Feelings" by Pat Miller (LibrarySparks, October 2011). 

We had a great discussion about the appeal of the horror genre for kids (something we saw first-hand when we brought creepy stories to booktalk to a local fourth grade class earlier this month). Sometimes, things that are very scary to adults are actually not that scary to kids (Richards et al., 1999) and changing stories to make them less violent and frightening can actually make them scarier. Richards et. al give the example of Little Red Riding Hood being scarier when the wolf runs away at the end (instead of being killed) because the wolf is still out there! 

Reading scary stories can help children work through their fears, experiencing capable characters that solve the mystery and/or defeat the bad guys. Horror is also a socially acceptable medium for reading about and exploring deeper issues, such as coming of age (Will, 2008). 

Reading and discussing these articles helped my staff see horror in a new light and gives us some ammo to defend this genre, which is super popular with kids and not always so popular with adults. 

Again, we shared our booktalks for the following books (I'm designating the slightly scary titles, as reported by my staff): 

• Are You Afraid Yet?: The Science Behind Scary Stuff by James O'Meara
• The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand
• Coraline by Neil Gaiman
• Doll Bones by Holly Black (slightly scary)
• Final Cut by Tony Bradman
• Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck (slightly scary)
• Gustav Gloom and the People Taker by Adam-Troy Castro (slightly scary)
• Half-Minute Horrors by various authors
• Haunted U.S.A. by Charles Wetzel
• The Haunting of Swain's Fancy by Brenda Seabrook
• Hook Moon Night: Spooky Tales from the Georgia Mountains by Faye Gibbins
• The Nightmarys by Dan Poblocki
• Voodoo Child by Tony Bradman
• The Wooden Mile (Something Wickedly Weird) by Chris Mould (slightly scary)
• Zombiekins by Kevin Bolger (slightly scary, funny)

I'm pleased that we had a wide variety of books talked about at our meeting this month. We definitely had a range of scary to not-scary that came about organically, and even some nonfiction. Huzzah!

Our topic for next month is nonfiction, which I'm limiting to narrative nonfiction. I explained that narrative nonfiction is nonfiction that tells a story, rather than a textbook that contains lists of facts. I passed out a list of the Sibert Medal Winners and Honor Books and encouraged staff to choose a book from this list if they have any doubts. I'm emphasizing narrative nonfiction because that's where I see kids needing readers' advisory. If they're looking to learn information about snakes, we can answer that reference question. If they're interested in reading true stories for fun, narrative nonfiction may fit the bill. Teachers, also, may be looking for more narrative nonfiction as our school corporation continues to move to the Common Core Standards. 

I also assigned an article to read that we'll discuss next month: "Making Nonfiction Accessible for Young Readers" by Sue Christian Parsons (Reading Today, October/November 2012). I'm really excited about the direction our Reading Wildly program is taking and looking forward to our next discussion!

What are you reading? Any favorite narrative nonfiction titles to share? 

The Fifth Wave

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. Grades 8 and up. Putnam Juvenile, May 2013. 457 pages. Review copy purchased.

The first wave was an electromagnetic pulse that knocked out all the electronics and engines on the planet. No one knew that about the Others before that. The second and third waves killed billions. The fourth wave was slower, more deliberate. The aliens look like us now. And there's no knowing who we can trust.

Cassie is alone. She might be the last human left. But she made a promise. And she'll risk everything to keep it.

Guys, this book is AMAZING. Rick Yancey is a master at building suspense and there are plot twists around every corner, so everything is changing constantly. You think you have it figured out and then YOU DON'T. Even though it's a huge, thick book, the pages went quickly because I just couldn't put it down.

It's scary if you really think about what's happening because it's all so very plausible. One day humanity was doing its thing and then suddenly aliens came and killed pretty much everyone. The survivors had to figure out what to do next. So, yes, it's scary, but I would call it a thriller rather than a horror novel. There's plenty of violence and the characters have to make some really psychologically demanding decisions. And again: you never know who you can trust.

Readalikes:

This is a great choice for fans of The Hunger Games for the survival aspect and the tough moral choices the characters have to make. While both books have plenty of violence, I think that The 5th Wave hits a little closer to home since their world is closer to our current world.

I'd also try it on fans of Ender's Game, both for the people-fighting-aliens plot line and the kid soldiers plot line. The aliens of Ender's Game are also similar to the aliens in The 5th Wave for the utter destruction they have planned for the Earth (and also for some spoilery reasons). Keep The 5th Wave in mind as a readalike when the Ender's Game movie comes out.

The 5th Wave is on shelves now!

Doll Bones

Doll Bones by Holly Black. Grades 4-7. Margaret K. McElderry Books, May 2013. 244 pages. Review copy provided by my local library.

Zach, Poppy, and Alice are best friends, getting together to weave awesome adventure stories starring their action figures, a pastime that none of their fellow middle-schoolers would probably understand. But things are starting to change between them, and when Zach's dad throws his "dolls" away, Zach can't bring himself to admit that the game is done for him forever. So he lies. And the lie unwittingly sends the three friends on a quest to bury a haunted china doll... or risk being cursed forever.

Creepy and atmospheric, this story has just the right amount of horror mixed in with a good deal of adventure and friendship. Here's what I loved about it:

1. The atmosphere. OKAY THIS DOLL IS REALLY CREEPY. And the early-fall setting, the mysterious places the doll ends up, her creepy black eyes and porcelain (maybe-made-out-of-murdered-human-bones) skin... It all sets the right tone - enough to give me shivers, but not enough to give me nightmares. This will definitely satisfy kids looking for a scary story, but the level of horror is definitely middle-grade-appropriate. This takes a delicate hand and Holly Black has nailed it.

2. The friendship between the kids. This aspect of the book reminded me of all my favorite stories from when I was a kid. I just loved all three of these kids. They're plucky and courageous and fiercely protective of each other (even if Zach lies and Poppy breaks a promise). I feel like I could read about a million of their adventures and not get tired.

3. Adventures in a library! And a pink-haired librarian!!! With fancy shoes!!!!!

4. A boy who's "playing with dolls" and friends with girls and that's completely okay. I mean, Zach's dad has to kind of come around to it, obviously, but this is what makes Zach happy. And it's great for kids to see that. Also, I don't necessarily know about boys but I can tell you that I still played dolls with certain friends when I was in middle school. We loved to make up stories about them. So I feel like this aspect is very realistic, too, even if no one is talking about it. ;)

Basically, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I'm really going to enjoy booktalking it and pressing it into the hands of every kid who asks me where the scary stories are.

Readalikes:

The atmospheric creepiness reminds me of Neil Gaiman, so for kids looking for another scary story, I'd hand them Coraline (the button eyes! Ahhhhh!) or The Graveyard Book.

I loved the storytelling friendship between the kids, so if the characters are what's appealing, I might try The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. This is another book about kids making up stories together and there's also a bit of a creepy atmosphere and a slight mystery.

Doll Bones is on shelves now!

In a Glass Grimmly

In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz. Grades 4-8. Dutton Juvenile, 2012. 314 pages. Review copy provided by my local library.

Adam Gidwitz, author of A Tale Dark and Grimm, is back with another bloody, gross, action-packed fairy tale romp. As our intrepid narrator says: "Once upon a time... fairy tales were awesome."





This companion book to A Tale Dark and Grimm features cameos from many well-known and little-known fairy tales. Jack and Jill are cousins, each desiring something they can't have. Jack wants to be accepted and become friends with the boys who live in his town, boys who have made fun of Jack for as long as he can remember. Jill desires beauty, or at least her vain mother's approval. Rejected by the ones they care for most, Jack and Jill set off on a quest. And along the way they meet goblins and mermaids and giants and many other fantastical creatures.

I liked this one just as much as A Tale Dark and Grimm. It's filled with adventure and I really enjoyed spotting the tales I recognized as they are woven into Jack and Jill's story. Fans of the first book won't be disappointed. This volume also stands quite nicely on its own; the books don't need to be read in order.

I read this as part of Angela's Readers' Advisory Challenge for a horror book. While there were definitely some horrible bits, I don't know that I'd classify it as a scary book. Still, this might please some of the kids seeking "scary books", depending on what they're looking for. If horror to them means physical horror (blood & guts, that sort of thing), this will fit the bill. If they're looking for a ghost story, this might be a miss.

Readalikes:

Obviously, I'd recommend A Tale Dark and Grimm to kids who have enjoyed this book. If they dig the fairy tale angle, I'd try a compilation of the original, gruesome tales like The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales. There are also lots and lots of retold fairy tales to choose from. Try Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, Half Upon a Time by James Riley, or The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman.

For kids who dig the epic fantasy adventure aspect, I'd recommend another quest fantasy, like maybe The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, or Giants Beware! by Jorge Aguirre.

And for kids who like the characters of Jack and Jill and their friendship as they quest, I'd try A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickett.

In a Glass Grimmly is on shelves now!

Boo! At the @alscblog

Happy Halloween, everyone!! 

I'm over at the ALSC Blog today talking about some slightly scary and Halloween-y books that just might still be on your library shelves, even if the rest of your Halloween books are checked out! Just click the book below (a suggestion from one of my AWESOME Twitter friends for this post!) to head over there and check it out. And make sure you leave your own suggestions in comments!

A Tale Dark and Grimm

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. (Grades 4-8.) Dutton, 2010. 256 pages. Review copy provided by publisher for Young Hoosier Book Award. (This review reflects only my own opinion, not the opinion of the commitee!)


You think fairy tales are kind of lame? Well, obviously that's because you haven't read the true versions. Fairy tales are awesome. And Adam Gidwitz proves it in A Tale Dark and Grimm, a retelling of Hansel and Gretel with all the good, gory bits left in. This fairy tale is NOT for little kids. In fact, if there are any little kids hanging around while you're reading this book, you should probably get a babysitter for them or at least make them hide under the bed.

Even the trailer's awesome:

Okay, besides the gruesome bits (which are awesome if you like that kind of thing), here's what I loved about A Tale Dark and Grimm:

1. The humor. Yes, even in a tale very dark and grim there is a good deal of humor. A narrator appears throughout the story, adding commentary and warning readers whenever particularly gory parts are coming up. I love this technique because it adds humor and it also tempers the violence a little. It's not quite as disturbing if you've been warned that it's coming up and you'd better get small children out of the room. Even though the story's definitely a dark one, the narrative voice lightens the tone.

2. The rich language. Oh, the wealth of wonderful words contained within this book... Succulent, perfunctory, modicum, magnanimous... Yes, it's because I'm reading this book for the YHBA Committee that I'm noticing particular words. It's obvious that Adam Gidwitz is an author who believes that kids can rise to understand challenging words while still enjoying a story.

3. Showing, not telling. The language used in the story is beautiful and rich, but the book is not over-written. Mr. Gidwitz manages to employ the perfect amount of description to let your imagination bring forth a picture in your mind. I flagged this particular passage describing a village:

... ringed by trees that... had just slipped into their golden robes of autumn. Laughter was in the air, as was the smell of wood burning in fireplaces and apple cider frothing with cinnamon." (Page 86)

This book is a masterful combination of literary merit and kid appeal and I sorely hope this year's Cybils committee will stand up and take notice!

Now, it's not going to be for every kid. There is quite a bit of blood and guts. People die. Children kill people. Children are killed. Hansel even goes to Hell. For some kids, this is going to be a field day of fun, but for some kids this is going to be too much. Know your audience with this one, is what I'm saying.

I'd try it on any kids interested in the original, bloody Grimm stories (Betsy recommends Grimm's Grimmest) or fans of The Boneshaker by Kate Milford or possibly even Lemony Snickett (although A Tale Dark and Grimm is more graphic than A Series of Unfortunate Events).

Check out more reviews at Biblio File, Book Nut, Eva's Book Addiction, A Fuse #8 Production, GreenBean TeenQueen, The LibrariYAn, and A Patchwork of Books.

A Tale Dark and Grimm is on shelves now!

The Replacement

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff.  Grades 8 and up.  Razorbill, September 2010.  343 pages.  Reviewed from ARC snagged at BEA.

Something's rotten in the town of Gentry.  Kids disappear sometimes, replaced by creatures that soon die, unable to bear the metal in the world.  Everyone knows it, but that's the way it's always been.  Gentry's been cursed... or is it blessed?  Because the things that happen to other towns - natural disasters, business failures - never happen in Gentry.  And kids keep disappearing...

Mackie Doyle, with eyes black as coal and a severe aversion to iron and steel, is not like the other kids at his high school.  He knows he's different, knows that he's been different ever since he was placed in his crib, knows that without his sister Emma looking out for him he never would have survived this long.  But he's not sure what he is.  Mackie's going to find out.  He's going to find the one thing that can keep him alive.  But it'll require sacrifice and Mackie - along with the entire town of Gentry - will have to decide if it's worth it.

Eerie.  That's a good word for this story.  And atmospheric.  And creepy.  And compelling.

The first thing I really liked about this story was our main character Mackie.  He's not human, but no one's really sure what he is exactly.  He's lived in the human world longer than most of his kind do.  And he's just so relateable!  Sure, he can't use a normal knife and fork because metal burns his skin.  He can't step onto the consecrated ground at the church where his father works.  He tries to make himself invisible at school because he feels like he's so different that he doesn't want to call more attention to himself.  Who hasn't felt like that at some point?  Completely outside, like nobody would ever understand.  Sure, Mackie's different, but he's not evil and, in fact, he's doing everything he can to make sure that the evil that surrounds Gentry is stopped.

I loved Mackie's relationship with his sister and his friends.  Despite his weirdness, people care about Mackie.  If he'd let himself see it, he'd know that he's got a nice support group.  At the beginning of the book, Mackie feels alone, but as he slowly figures out where he came from and what's happening in Gentry, he realizes that there are people who love him just how he is.  I especially loved the bond between Mackie and his sister Emma because they truly have each others' backs.

So, then there's the town of Gentry.  CREEPY.  This is a town where, for hundreds of years, people have looked the other way.  They've allowed their children to be taken and sacrificed in exchange for the town living on.  The atmosphere that Brenna Yovanoff has built here is dark and foggy, mysterious and a little poisonous.  It's such a warped little town that it's easy to believe that there are unnamed monsters hiding underground.  The monsters (for lack of a better word) are presented in such a way that they're not just evil.  This is not the Big Bad, wreaking havoc just because that's what they do.  These are very old creatures and there are precedents behind how they act and how they relate to the people of Gentry.  I really appreciated the fact that the creatures are well-rounded.  It makes sense, what's going on, even if it is a little twisted.

Teens looking for a spooky tale need look no further, but the appeal of this book goes beyond horror fans.  Maggie Stiefvater is quotes on the ARC, calling this a "beautiful story of ugly things" and I couldn't agree more.

Read more reviews at Reading Rants, DJ's Life in Fiction, Stacked, Forever Young Adult, and Fat Girl Reading.  

The Replacement is on shelves now!

Book Review: Days of Little Texas

Days of Little Texas by R.A. Nelson. (Grades 8+)
Full disclosure: review copy provided by Random House.

Summary from publisher:

Welcome, all ye faithful—and otherwise—to a ghost story, a romance, and a reckoning unlike anything you’ve read before. Acclaimed YA author R. A. Nelson delivers a tantalizing tale set in the environs of the evangelical revival circuit and centered around Ronald Earl, who at ten became the electrifying “boy wonder” preacher known as Little Texas. Now sixteen, though the faithful still come and roar with praise and devotion, Ronald Earl is beginning to have doubts that he is worthy of and can continue his calling. Doubts that only intensify when his faith and life are tested by a mysterious girl who he was supposed to have healed, but who is now showing up at the fringe of every stop on the circuit. Is she merely devoted, or is she haunting him?

I have a confession. I didn't really know what this book was about before I picked it up. Honestly, I heard "sixteen-year-old evangelical minister" and knew I had to read it, so I was not at all prepared for the delicious creepiness of the tale. I am not a huge fan of ghost stories. Not because I mind scary things, but because I have trouble suspending my disbelief enough to really get into them. Days of Little Texas had me at the beginning, though, with an interesting mix of characters and a slow, atmospheric building of suspense.

I'm a sucker for beautifully descriptive and poetic lines. And there's no shortage here. Whether describing Ronald Earl's mother as having "skin the color of cracker crumbs and hair that blows in the breeze like feathers" (pg 14) or a woman passing out as "soft as tallow dripping down a candle" (pg 32), there's no question that there's great imagery going on here.

Where it lost me a little bit is in character development. I felt removed from Ronald Earl, like I was looking at him from the outside when I would have rather been inside his head, understanding his motivations. And his bevvy of interesting companions in the Church of the Hand were intriguing at first, but I never felt like I got to know any of them either.

And maybe it was because I didn't go into the book expecting a ghost story, but the ending just wasn't my thing. That said, this'll please fans of ghost stories. I'd try it on teens who liked Lauren Myracle's Bliss. Sarah Miller recommends it to older fans of Lesley M.M. Blume's Tennyson (and I'd have to agree). Check out more reviews at The Compulsive Reader and Readingjunky's Reading Roost.

Book Review: All the Lovely Bad Ones

All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn. (Grades 4-8.)

Travis and his sister Corey aren't the most well-behaved children in the world. In fact, they're spending this summer with their grandmother at her Vermont inn because they got kicked out of camp last summer. Grandmother's inn has it all - a pool, video games, grounds to run around on - but the best thing about it is that there are rumors that the inn is haunted.

When Travis and Corey hear this, they immediately think up some mischief. With a few props, some makeup, and some scary sound effects they can scare the daylights out of the other guests at the inn - and have a good laugh themselves. It starts out innocently enough, but soon weird things start happening around the inn. And Travis and Corey will have to figure out how to put to rest the lovely bad ones they've awoken.

I'm not a huge fan of ghost stories, although I think I would have loved this book when I was about nine years old. That said, I liked this book better than I thought I would. Mary Downing Hahn creates a chilling atmosphere and some punky little kids that I wanted to first shake and then hug.

The supporting characters seemed a little like stock characters to me. There's the skeptical adult (Grandmother) and the wise, old believing adult who warns the kids and then helps them solve the mystery. But there are also some funny ghost-chasers who come to the inn when rumors get out that the hauntings are back.

All in all, not exactly my cup of tea, but this is one Caudill nominee that kids will clamor for.

Skeleton Creek

Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman. (Grades 7+)

I know my writing has changed in the past year. The two kinds of writing - the made-up scary stories and the documenting of events in Skeleton Creek - have slowly become one. I don't have to make up stories any longer, because I'm more certain than ever that the very town I live in is haunted.

This is the truth.

And the truth, I've learned, can kill you.

Ryan needs to write things down. He needs to get the truth down on paper. On paper, maybe the horrifying events at the dredge won't seem so scary. Except that they kind of do.

See, Ryan and his best friend Sarah were exploring the abandoned dredge when something happened. Ryan fell and shattered his leg. He fell... or something pushed him. Sarah got some of it on video and between Ryan's recollections and Sarah's videos, the two of them start putting together the awful truth about Skeleton Creek. They'll uncover clues that lead to something more sinister than either of them could imagine. But can they get to the bottom of things before someone else gets hurt... or worse?

Okay. It's quite possible I've become a scary stories wimp since I was a teen. This book creeped me out. In a way I would have loved when I was 12 or so. I have apparently gone soft in my old age, but I really think this is a book that many kids are going to love.

The story's written in diary format. Ryan, cooped up in his parents house, explores the mysteries of Skeleton Creek in his journal, a true account hidden from his parents. The text is printed on lined paper and the font looks like handwriting. Emails to and from his friend Sarah appear to be taped into the pages of the book. As Ryan is writing his story down, Sarah is taking videos and emailing the links to Ryan. The reader can log on to www.sarahfincher.com and watch the videos (passwords appear every so often in the book).

You can get a little preview of how it works (and read an excerpt) here.

If you don't have immediate access to a computer the story works without the videos, but the videos add a lot to the creep factor. I started reading this on my break at work and then went back to my computer to catch up on the videos and that worked fine, too.

I think it's a really interesting concept and I think kids are going to love the extra oomph that the videos give. The videos and the format of the book really help to build tension and atmosphere. They also serve to break up the text a bit and keep reader interest from flagging. I don't think that'll be a problem with this series. I found it pretty hard to put down.

And yes, I said series. The last video ends on a fairly big cliffhanger and there's a sequel a-comin'.

I agree with others' criticism of Ryan's journaling-as-he-goes format. It's believable in some places, but not so believable in others (although I appreciate the difficulty of creating really tense action scenes in this format). I also found the girl playing Sarah to be a little annoying. But those are minor criticisms in an otherwise engaging read.

Read more reviews at 100 Scope Notes, A Year of Reading, and Maw Books Blog. You might want to wait until you've read the book to checkout skeletoncreekisreal.com (or you might want to go ahead and check it out... your call...).

Skeleton Creek will be available February 10.