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Scary Stories for Kids and Middle Grade Readers

Scary stories to delight and frighten! 

Picture Books

Cover of Benita and the Night Creat
Mariana
Llanos
Cocoretto
2023

Benita loves to read in bed but keeps getting interrupted by a whistling Tunche, a scary Supay and other spooky creatures from Peruvian lore. To the creatures' disbelief, Benita is so absorbed by her book that she's not the least bit scared of them. This humorous celebration of bedtime reading puts a global twist on taking the "scary" out of monsters. Also available in Spanish.

Cover of The Goblin Twins Too Hard
Frances
Cha
Jaime Kim
2024

While Doki settles into their new home in New York City, his twin brother Kebi struggles to adjust, so Doki tries to cheer him up by planning pranks big enough to surprise the seemingly unflappable New Yorkers.

Cover of Godfather Death
Sally
Nichols
Júlia Sardà
2024

A retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale in which a poor fisherman chooses Death to be a godfather to his son.

Cover of Spooky, Scary Skeletons
Andrew
Gold
Polona Lovsin
2024

Follows five little skeletons as they go trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

Cover of Spider in the Well
Jess
Hannigan
2024

Breaking News: Wishing Well Broken! The townspeople of Bad Göodsburg are up in arms. With their beloved well busted, none of their important, generous, kindhearted wishes are coming true! Time to send that good-for-nothing Newsboy to investigate.

Cover of Trick-or-Treating in the C
Tiffany D.
Jackson
Sawyer Cloud
2024

A girl's Halloween tradition gets upended and she turns to her New York City neighbors to find other ways to celebrate.

Cover of Trick or Treat on Scary St
Lance
Bass
Richard Garrigue
2024

Trick-or-treaters are given an extra scare on Halloween.

Cover of I Got the Spooky Spirit
Connie
Schofield-Morrison
Frank Morrison
2024

As Halloween approaches, a young girl is filled with the spooky spirit as she carves pumpkins, hangs up decorations, and hosts a big ghostly dance.

Early Readers

Cover of Fitz and Cleo Put a Party
Jonathan
Stutzman
Heather Fox
2023

Fitz and Cleo are in need of some excitement in their lives. How do they raise their spirits? With a party, of course! 

Cover of Happy Haunting, Amelia Bed
Herman
Parish
Lynn Sweat
2004

Mr. and Mrs. Rogers are throwing a Halloween party and have invited Amelia Bedelia, but she's so busy helping the neighborhood children with their costumes she forgets all about it. 

Cover of A Super Scary Narwhallowee
Ben
Clanton
2023

Narwhal loves Halloween--it's a great excuse to dress up in a spooky and silly costume, like a ghost, a mermaid, a banana, or maybe even Marlow the Mustachioed Moose. Jelly isn't dressing up, though--he's a little scared of this time of year, and would prefer to hunker down in a hidey-hole until Halloween is over. But when a scary sea monster makes an appearance and swallows Narwhal (gulp!), can Jelly, with the help of some super friends, pluck up the courage to save his best bud?

Cover of A Walk in the Dark and Oth
Max
Brallier
Letizia Rubegni
2022

Jason is staying at his uncle’s house, which is creepy, and smelly, and dark, and has a painting of an old woman that seems to follow him with her eyes. When Jason wakes up in the middle of the night and has to use the bathroom, what is waiting for him in the dark hallways? Find out in this latest installment in author Max Brallier’s Mister Shivers series, perfect for short story lovers and those just looking for a good scare.

Young Fiction

Cover of A to Z Animal Mysteries #2
Ron Roy and
Kayla Whaley
Chloe Burgett
2023

Abbi, Lydia, and Daniel love to watch bats flying around their neighborhood after sunset. But then they hear an unnatural sound in Abbi's home. Is it a ghost? Or something scarier? With help from her trusty dog Barkley, Abbi and her friends will shine a light on the truth!

Cover of Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol:
Andres
Miedoso
Victor Rivas
2023

Desmond and Andres must confront stage fright and a demon as they act their way through the most cursed school play ever.

Cover of Dory Fantasmagory: Can't L
Abby
Hanlon
2023

Dory's separation anxiety from her mother turns into a ghostly, goofy escapade.

Cover of King & Kayla and the Case
Dori Hillestad
Butler
Nancy Meyers
2024

King and Kayla go on a sleepover adventure at Thor and Jillian's house, where they investigate spooky occurrences in the basement.

Cover of The Secret Explorers and t
SJ
King
Ellie O’Shea
2022

The Secret Explorers– a group of kids from around the world who use their expert knowledge in different subjects to solve problems– are back, and this time, it’s their job to find out why a ghostly knight is haunting a Medieval castle in Central Europe. Join History Explorer Gustavo and his fellow Secret Explorers for this spooky mystery adventure!

Cover of The Skull : A Tyrolean Fol
Jon
Klassen
2023

In a big abandoned house, on a barren hill, lives a skull. A brave girl named Otilla has escaped from terrible danger and run away, and when she finds herself lost in the dark forest, the lonely house beckons. Her host, the skull, is afraid of something too, something that comes every night. Can brave Otilla save them both?

 

Middle Grade

Cover of The Cursed Moon
Angela
Cervantes
2023

Rafa spends an evening crafting the scariest ghost story he's ever told. As an eerie blood moon hangs in the sky, Rafa tells a group of friends about The Caretaker. The Caretaker is an evil ghost who lures unsuspecting kids into the neighborhood pond. . . and they don't ever come out. Rafa is really proud of his latest creation, until strange things start to happen around him. With a sinking feeling, Rafa realizes the Caretaker is real. Rafa has brought the ghost to life--and only he can stop him.

Cover of Day of the Living LIV
LIV
Livingston
Glass House Graphics
2024

Eight-year-old Olivia "Liv" Livingston loves her town Pleasant Place, but when her family moves to spooky Gloomsdale, she must learn to adjust to this ghost town where its residents are all from various decades and centuries, the hall monitors are bats, and some students have fangs.

Cover of Dead Good Detectives
Jenny
McLachlan
Chloe Dominique
2024

Sid Jones and her best friend, Zen, like to play in their local graveyard--but they never expected their ghostly games to suddenly turn real. When Sid accidentally frees the spirit of Ezekiel "Bones" Kittow, a pirate who died nearly three hundred years prior, he asks her to help him find his long-lost treasure so his soul can finally be at rest. The only problem? He can't remember where, or even what, the treasure is.

Cover of The Fall of the House of T
Shanna
Miles
2023

Twelve-year-old Theo Tatterly's ability to see ghosts is a useful skill in a house full of dead relatives, but it makes him a loner at school, where ghosts eternally pester him for help. For Theo, life is easier on the periphery. When his first failed exorcism portends an end to the Tatterly line, Theo must bring together his entire family--living and dead--to save the home they've lived in for generations and maybe the world.

Cover of Finch House
Ciera
Burch
2023

When eleven-year-old Micah's grandfather goes missing, her instincts lead her to the off-limits Finch House, but when a boy named Theo invites her in, Micah realizes she cannot leave and must convince the house to let her go.

Cover of It Found Us
Lindsay
Currie
2023

Hazel, a twelve-year-old aspiring detective, must decode a series of ominous clues tied to a century-old tragedy to find a missing teenager before it is too late.

Cover of It Happened to Anna
Tehlor Kay
Mejia
2024

Seventh-grader Sadie is being literally haunted by loneliness in the form of a vengeful ghost, until a new friendship upends her life and threatens the ghost's hold over her.

Cover of The Last Rhee Witch
Jenna
Lee-Yun
2024

Ronnie Miller wants everything to stay the same, but nothing is scarier than all the changes Camp Foster brings. New friends. New foes. Souls with unfinished business. And, possibly worst of all, revelations that disprove everything Ronnie knew to be true. This is a heartfelt middle grade debut where Korean folklore is all too real and going to a haunted summer camp with too many secrets. 

Cover of Not Quite a Ghost
Anne
Ursu
2024

The attic bedroom in the new house is shadowy, creaky, and wrapped in old yellow wallpaper covered with a faded tangle of twisting vines and sickly flowers. After moving in, Violet falls ill--and does not get better. As days turn into weeks without any improvement, her family growing more confused and her friends wondering if she's really sick at all, she finds herself spending more time alone in the room. Soon, Violet starts to suspect that she might not be alone in the room at all.

Cover of Seven Ghosts
Chris
Priestley
2024

Jake and the other finalists in a ghost-story writing competition for children have been invited to tour Grimstone Hall where they'll learn about the seven ghosts who haunt the grounds! As their guide leads them through grand rooms, hidden nooks, and magnificent grounds, they hear all about the ghosts. But strange shapes and shadows follow Jake as they move through the house, and the tour guide starts behaving very suspiciously. With each tale told, Jake grows more anxious. Soon he'll discover something is very, very wrong.