40 Spooky and Mysterious Middle Grade Books • The Contented Reader

ghost story • vacation home

Murderer ghosts and buried family secrets threaten young Eleanor and Alice Roosevelt in this exciting middle-grade novel that puts a supernatural spin on alternate history. It’s 1898 in New York City and ghosts exist among humans. When an unusual spirit takes up residence in the Roosevelt home, thirteen-year-old Eleanor and fourteen-year-old Alice become suspicious. the cousins ​​don’t get along, but they know something is wrong. this ghost is more than just an annoying annoyance. authorities say he’s safe to be around, even as his mischievous behavior grows more bizarre and threatening. It’s almost like he wants to scare the Roosevelts out of his house, and no one seems to care! Meanwhile, Eleanor and Alice discover a dangerous ghost in the house where Alice was born and her mother died. Is there someone else tormenting the family? Introverted Eleanor and rebellious Alice develop an unlikely friendship as they explore the family’s dark and complicated history. it’s up to them to destroy both ghosts and come to terms with their family’s losses. Told from alternate perspectives, thrills and chills abound in Dianne K. Salerni’s imaginative novel about a legendary family and the ghosts that haunt their secrets.

magic • little brown books for young readers

a charming new mid-grade fantasy adventure about a young witch whose dash of magic might be more than enough, perfect for fans of kiki’s delivery service and aru shah and the end times.sometimes all you need is a little magic…eva evergreen is determined to earn the rank of witch rookie before the age of thirteen. if she doesn’t, she will lose her magic forever. for most young witches and wizards, it’s a fairly simple test:one: help your city, do good everywhere. two: live there for a moon, don’t leave too soon. three: fly home on a broomstick, the easiest of tricks.the only problem? eva only has a hint of magic. she summons cabbages instead of flowers and burns with the sun instead of summoning rain. and to add insult to injury, she falls asleep every time she abuses her magic. When she lands in the sleepy seaside town of Auteri, the residents expect a powerful witch, not a semi-magical girl. So Eva comes up with a plan: set up a magical repair shop to help Auteri and prove that she is worthy of her. she may have more blood than magic, but her “semi-magical fixes” repair the lives of the townspeople in ways they never could have imagined. Only Eva’s little bit of magic may not be enough when the biggest magical storm in history threatens the city she loves. Eve must conjure up all the magic, bravery and cunning she can muster or auteri and her dreams of becoming a witch will be swept away by the storm.

ghost story • delacorte books for young readers

a twisted middle grade standalone adventure for fans of neil gaiman and nevermoor: the trials of morrigan crow about a cursed child who embarks on a journey to a magical town of ghosts to Find out who he really is. Oscar Grimstone is a normal boy, aside from his secret curse. whenever he touches something alive, like a flower or the goldfish in his classroom, he always seems to die. But then Oscar discovers an even bigger secret: although he is very much alive, he has the ability to transform into a ghost. Just when he thinks things couldn’t get any stranger, two ghosts show up at his house in a skeleton carriage and he ends up joining them on a journey beyond the real world to a place he never knew existed: the city of the ghosts. There Oscar will discover a place where people go once they die, before boarding a ship to the other side. but will he find out who he really is?

paranormal • school press

Coconut meets Stranger Things with a Ghostbusting twist in this action-packed supernatural fantasy.For Lucely Luna, ghosts are more than just a family business.Just before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens evil spirits, wreaking havoc in St. Agustin. Together, they must join forces with Syd’s witch granny, Babette, and her chubby tabby, Chunk, to fight head-on against the haunting and reverse the curse to save the city and Lucely’s firefly spirits before it’s too much. afternoon. Featuring the family dynamic of coco and the action-packed adventure of ghostbusters, claribel a. Ortega delivers a thrillingly creepy and deliciously sweet first novel.

magic • bugle books

When twelve-year-old Rory applies for a job at a creepy old mansion in his bleak seaside town, he finds the owner, Lord Foxglove, strange and unpleasant. but he and his mother need the money, so he takes the job anyway. Rory soon finds out that his new boss isn’t just weird, she’s not even human, and she’s trying to steal the shadows from the townspeople. Together, Rory and his friend Isabella set out to find out exactly what Foxglove and his otherworldly accomplices are planning and devise a strategy to defeat them. But can two boys defeat a group of ancient evil beings who are determined to take over the world?

horror • school press

one of our most iconic childhood games gets a spooky twist when it becomes the gateway to a nightmarish world.I walked up the hill, the hill was muddy, I stepped on my toe foot and i made it’s bloody, should i wash it? justin knows something is wrong with his best friend. zee disappeared for a year. and when he came back, he was… different. no one knows what happened to him. at zee’s welcome home party, justin and the neighborhood team play hide-and-seek. but it goes very wrong. One by one, everyone who plays the game disappears, drawn into a world of nightmares that come to life. justin and her friends realize that this horrible place is where zee had been trapped. all they can do now is hide from the search engine.

ghost story • viking books for young readers

hunt ghosts and solve the case before paying? All in one weekend’s work. When JJ Jacobson convinced his mother to accept a surprise invitation to an all-expenses-paid weekend getaway at the illustrious Barclay Hotel, she never imagined she’d find herself in the middle of a murder mystery. She thought she was in for a run-of-the-mill weekend ghost hunt at the most haunted place in town, but when she arrives at the Barclay Hotel and her mother is blamed for the hotel owner’s death, she realizes her end is over. week is leaving. to be anything but ordinary. Now, with the help of his new friends Penny and Emma, ​​JJ has to track down a killer, clear his mother’s name, and maybe even meet a ghost or two along the way.

paranormal books • delacorte for young readers

sleeping has never been so scary. and now waking up is even worse! charlie laird has several problems: 1. her father married a woman who is sure she is a witch.2. she had to move into her purple mansion, which is not a place you’d like to meet after dark.3. can’t remember the last time sleep wasn’t a nightmarish prospect. like even a nap. What Charlie doesn’t know is that his problems are about to get a lot more real. Nightmares can ruin a good night’s sleep, but when they start to fade from your dreams and into the waking world, that’s a line that should never be crossed. And when your worst nightmares start to come true… well, that’s something only Charlie can handle. And she’s going to need all the help she can get, or it could just be a blackout for Charlie Laird. forever.

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mystery • press jolly fish

Twelve-year-old Ollie Oxley moves again. His mom is starting another new job, this time at the Bingham Theater in Granite City, California. Moving around all the time means Ollie has had trouble making friends, but he quickly connects with a boy named Teddy. However, to Ollie’s surprise, his first friend in town is a bit more… unique than the ones he’s made in the past. teddy is a ghost. Becoming friends with someone who lived during the famous California Gold Rush surely makes things interesting for Ollie. But when school bully Aubrey attacks Ollie, and it looks like the Bingham Theater might close, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Can Teddy and Ollie work together to take down Aubrey, save his mom’s job, and solve a mystery that’s been years in the making?

horror • disney-hyperion

“my dear sweet girl. move along. don’t be afraid?”eleven-year-old shelly anderson just wants to be popular. Her parents have split up and she has to start over at a new school with different classes, a new swim team and an unfamiliar social scene. So what if she just wants the cool kids to like her? is that really too much to ask? So when Shelly finds a mysterious nautilus shell that summons the infamous sea witch, Ursula, she jumps at the chance to make a deal that will cement her as one of the coolest girls in school. But when Shelly’s wish quickly goes awry, she must find a way out of the witch’s deal before she ties her fate forever. Grab your bedside lamp, dear reader, and get ready to relax!

mystery • algonquin young readers

Twelve-year-old myrtle hardcastle has a passion for justice and an unconventional obsession with criminal science. Armed with her father’s law books and her mother’s microscope, Myrtle studies toxicology, keeps up with the latest advances in crime scene analysis, and watches her neighbors in the quiet. swinburne town, england. When her next-door neighbor, a wealthy spinster and eccentric breeder of rare flowers, dies under mysterious circumstances, Myrtle jumps at her chance. With her unflappable governess, Miss Ada Judson, by her side, Myrtle takes it upon herself to prove that Miss Wodehouse was murdered and find the killer, even if no one else believes her, not even her father, the city attorney.

horror • henry holt and company

The enchanted season has arrived in the forest of antlers. no fox kit is safe. When Mia and Uly are separated from their litters, they discover a dangerous world full of monsters. To find a lair to call home, they must venture through field and forest, facing unspeakable things that dwell in the dark: a zombie that craves their flesh, a witch that tries to steal their skin, a ghost that haunts them. . the snow… and other things too terrifying to mention. With eight interconnected stories and sixteen beautiful and haunting illustrations, Scary Stories for Young Foxes contains the kind of adventures and thrills you love to hear around a campfire in the dead of night. fans of neil gaiman, jonathan auxier and r. I stine have found their next favorite book.

adventure, survival • puffin books

the new york times bestselling adult author of the bear and the nightingale makes her high school debut with a creepy and riveting ghost story destined to become a classicafter suffering A tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie only finds solace in books. So when she meets a crazed woman in the river who threatens to throw a book into the water, Ollie doesn’t think, she just acts, steals the book and runs away. As she begins to read the small volume, Ollie discovers a chilling story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who loved her, and a peculiar deal made with “The Smiling Man,” a sinister specter who grants your deepest wish. , but only for the final price. Ollie is enthralled by the story until her school trip the next day to Smoke Hollow, a local farm with a haunting history of its own. she there she stumbles upon the graves of the very people she has been reading about. Could it be that the story of the smiling man is true? Ollie doesn’t have much time to think about the answer to that. On the way home, the school bus breaks down and she sends her teacher back to the farm for help. But the strange bus driver has some advice for the children left in his care: “You better get moving. at nightfall they will come for the rest of you. Dusk, indeed, descends rapidly as Ollie’s previously broken digital wristwatch, a throwback to better times, begins an astonishing countdown and delivers a terrifying message: run. Only Ollie and two of her classmates heed the bus driver’s warning. As the trio heads into the woods, bordered by a field of scarecrows who seem to be watching them, the bus driver has just one last piece of advice for Ollie and her friends: “Avoid the big places. keep it small. And with that, a delightfully creepy and spooky adventure begins.

mystery • harpercollins

we need several books founder ellen oh returns with spirit hunters, a high stakes middle grade mystery series about harper raine, the new seventh grader in town who must face the dangerous ghosts that haunt her younger brother. a fascinating ghost story and captivating adventure, this story will have you guessing every time! Harper doesn’t trust her new home from the moment she walks in, and rumor has it that the Raine family’s new house is haunted. Harper isn’t sure she believes these rumors, until her younger brother, Michael, starts acting strange. The whole atmosphere gives Harper a feeling of déjà vu, but she can’t remember why. She knows that the memories she is blocking will help her understand her brother’s behavior and the strange and threatening sensations she feels in this house, but will she be able to put the pieces together in time?

paranormal • amulets books

The livelihood of a family-run haunted hotel is threatened when a larger haunted hotel opens nearby in this hilarious and spooky storywillow ivan’s family aged twelve has managed the ivan hotel for four hundred years. Through thick and thin, they have held on to their title as the best haunted hotel on Mercer Street. that is, until the hauntery, a corporate chain of haunted hotels, moves down the street. As Ivan’s business fades, so do his ghostly staff. and willow begins to worry that ivan’s days are numbered. Then Willow meets Evie, a phantom ghost who is forced to play the role of a creepy girl even though she longs to be a scary ghost. so when willow offers her a job at ivan, evie accepts, but she doesn’t tell willow that she still works for ivan’s competition, for fear of losing her new job and her friend. together, the girls devise a plan to save ivan. But with Ivan’s ghosts already fading and Evie’s secret threatening to come to light, will it be too late?

magic • viking books for young readers

A fast-paced and exciting middle grade that combines Indiana Jones-style treasure hunting with WWII spies and time travel adventures. At the height of World War II, Isaac Wolf’s parents send him from his home in Prague to Scotland alone. They give him a pendant in the shape of an eternity knot and assure him that he will be safe if he can find this symbol in Scotland. The clue leads him to Rookskill Castle and the gifted children of MI6’s Special Alternate Intelligence Unit who are learning to harness their magical powers to support the Allies’ cause. With the help of his new friends, Isaac must unlock his powers and unravel the reason why his parents sent him to Rookskill Castle. To solve the meaning of the Knot of Eternity, he must hunt down a series of magical artifacts scattered across ages of the past. But he’s not the only artifact hunter, and he soon finds himself in a race against Nazi spies and an even more sinister magical foe. Can Isaac solve the puzzle, save his parents, and defeat evil in our world and beyond, all before time runs out?

mystery • tundra books

A clever and charming middle-grade mystery series starring young detective Aggie Morton and her friend Hector, inspired by the imaginary life of Agatha Christie as a child and her most popular creation, Hercule Poirot. for fans of lemony snicket and the wollstonecraft detective agency.aggie morton lives in a small town on the england coast in 1902. adventurous and imaginative but profoundly shy, aggie doesn’t have much to to do from the death of her beloved father… to the fateful day she crosses paths with twelve-year-old Belgian immigrant Hector Perot and discovers a dead body on the floor of the mermaid ballroom. As the number of suspects grows and murder threatens to tear the city apart, Aggie and her new friend will need every tool at her disposal, including her insatiable curiosity, deductive skills, and no little help from her friends, to… solve the case first. Aggie’s beloved dance instructor is framed for a crime Aggie is sure she didn’t commit. Filled with mystery, adventure, an unforgettable heroine, and various helpings of tea and sweets, The Body Under the Piano is the clever debut of a new series for middle grade readers and fans of Christie and Poirot everywhere. parts, of a Governor General’s Award: Nominated Children’s Historical Fiction Author.

magic • henry holt and company

“remember, my dear, you do not really and truly exist”. made of dust, bones and imagination, irréelle fears that she is not quite real. Only the finest magical thread ties her to life and to Miss Vesper. but despite all her efforts to please her cruel creator, the thread is coming undone. irréelle is forgetful while she collects bone dust. she returns slowly from the dark passages below the graveyard. worst of all is that she doesn’t care about the crooked bones of it. When Irréelle makes a final and unforgivable mistake by destroying a hideous creature that has just come to life, Miss Vesper threatens to imagine her away once and for all. Defying her creator for the first time, Irréelle flees to the bottom of the graveyard and embarks on an adventure to unearth the mysterious magic that brings the bones to life, even if it means she will return to dust and be no more. With echoes of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, first-time author Heather Kassner creates a superbly written story that buzzes with magic, mystery and dark imaginations.

magic books • philomel

A dream world turns into a haunting nightmare in this captivating first novel, perfect for fans of Circus Mirandus and the Night Gardener. After Andrea’s brother Francis goes missing, everything changes. his world was turned upside down and there was nothing he could do to correct it. So when he discovers a magical dream world called Dreaming in the woods near his house, Andrea jumps at the chance to escape his pain and go inside. But the cost of admission is high: Andrea must give up a souvenir to get in. and he knows exactly what memory he would like to give up. Once inside, Andrea finds store after store of dreams come to life; he can fly on a gust of wind, take on rogue pirates and search for buried treasure, reach for and wish on a tangible star, and much, much more. But Andrea soon realizes that not all daydreams are meant to delight, and the sandman behind the circus tents seems to have plans of his own. When Andrea finds a tent in which his brother’s darkest nightmare has come to life, he realizes the dark truth: Dreaming is not an escape; it’s a trap. Will Andrea and Ella’s new friend Penny Ella have what it takes to find Francis, find out what’s really going on in the daydream, and break free from this nightmarish dream world? in readers’ minds long after the last exciting page has been turned.

monsters • random house books for young readers

at night, this naughty group peeks out from under your bed. when you hear that crack…crack… the crackles are there! Discover a hilarious and spooky high school story written by a UK star. What would you do if you woke up in a world without adults? When all the parents in the world are gone, most kids will think this is awesome. ! they can finally go crazy and eat sweets for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But Lucy Dungston wants her mom back, especially since her dad recently disappeared. Lucy wants to know the truth about her, and is convinced that the creaking noises coming from under her bed can lead to her. live under children’s beds. this troublesome group has brought all adults into an upside down world called the woleb. Lucy must act fast if she wants to rescue the adults, because adults who stay in the woleb too long start to become squeakers!

ghost story • delacorte books for young readers

What if there was a ghost in your brother’s room?This kids’ mystery about three friends trying to help a restless spirit find peace is perfect for fans of under the egg and the book scavenger . sucks that danny’s older brother moved away and went to college. but you know he is worse? He left an angry ghost in his room! With the help of El’s friends Nat and El’s Gus, Danny interviews everyone in his Brooklyn neighborhood to find out about the spirits. is he an arab ghoul? a korean gwishin? a haunting pole? Perhaps the answer lies in Danny’s own Bubbe and his tales of a Dybbuk, a mythological Jewish ghost. Regardless of its origins, what does the spirit really want? And can Danny put the ghost to rest?

paranormal • tundra books

ghosts, a family curse, buried secrets, and two girls who have to figure it all out. a new book from an acclaimed author, for fans of coraline, doll bones and the night gardener.for the first time, ruth heads to newfoundland to stay with a family he never met instead of spending the summer traveling with his father. when he arrives, he discovers that newfoundland is very different from his life in toronto: the people there are much friendlier, but also superstitious, he believes in ghosts and familiar and visual curses. Ruth’s cousin Ruby is also staying for the summer, and the two discover they have a lot in common: They both lost their mothers when they were two, they’re the same age, and they even like the same food. But while Ruby believes in spirits and fairies, Ruth believes in science and cold, hard facts. When they find some sinister information on some tombstones in the local cemetery, Ruth and Ruby begin to investigate their family’s past and discover that twin girls are born in every generation. , and each pair of twins die young, leaving their children without mothers. Furthermore, one of the twins always has sight and can see the ghost road that leads to the mysterious lost settlement of Slipper Cove. What happened there? What does it have to do with her family? And who is the ghostly presence that keeps visiting Ruth late at night? the answers lie somewhere along the ghost road… if only they could find them.

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mystery • bloomsbury usa kids

Meet plucky detective shelby and her sports-loving sidekick watson as they take on a dog snatcher in this new twist on sherlock holmes. shelby holmes is not your typical schoolgirl sixth grade. She’s nine years old, barely five feet tall, and the best detective her Harlem neighborhood has ever seen, always using logic and a bit of courage (which yes, some might call “bossy”) to solve the most difficult crimes. -old john watson goes downstairs, shelby finds something that has eluded her until now: a friend of hers. Quiet John isn’t sure what to make of Shelby, but he soon finds himself her most trusted partner (read: only one) in a dog-napping case that will require both of their talents to crack. Sherlock Holmes gets a fun and sweet twist with two irresistible young heroes and Black & white illustrations in this middle grade debut from international bestselling author elizabeth eulberg.

ghost story • simon & schuster books for young readers

A charming and adventurous debut novel that is perfect for fans of the Penderwicks series.Siblings Meg, Will, and Ariel Griffin embark on an adventure! They can’t wait to spend a week visiting their eccentric aunt and her tongue-drooling giant Newfoundland dog in England. But when they finally arrive, they are confronted with some local secrets that cause more than a little trouble. Throw in some very quirky lights, weird new friends, a police chase and some stampeding sheep, and the griffin kids are all set. their heads, literally. Apparently this town has a ghost problem and the three kids must race to solve the mystery before the ghosts take something that doesn’t belong to them.

ghost story • knopf books for young readers

Two boys are about to discover that their lives are anything but ordinary when a ghost of the 1918 flu pandemic arrives and gives them adventures. perfect for fans of a dark and gloomy story!ghosts only haunt when they’ve left something behind… when henry davis moves into the neighborhood, barbara anne and her classmates in washington carver elementary school don’t know what to do with it. he is pale, small, weird. For curious Barbara Anne, Henry is also a riddle: a boy who sits alone at recess drawing in a mysterious notebook, a boy who soon learns that he is being haunted by a ghost named Edgar. With the help of some new friends, this unlikely duo embarks on an adventure to find out who Edgar was in life and why he’s after Henry now. Together, they could help Edgar find what he needs to finally be at peace.

folklore • algonquin young readers

a chilling story rooted in Caribbean folklore that will have readers holding their breath as they fly through its pages. corinne la mer fears nothing. not scorpions, not the boys who make fun of her, and certainly not jumbies. they are just tricks that parents make up to scare their children. Then one night, Corinne chases an agouti into the Forbidden Forest. those bright yellow eyes that followed her to the edge of the trees couldn’t belong on a jumbie. or could they? When Corinne sees a beautiful stranger talking to the town witch at the market the next day, she knows something unexpected is about to happen. And when this same beauty, named Severine, shows up at Corinne’s house, preparing dinner for Corinne’s father, Corinne is sure danger is in the air. Ella soon discovers that casting a spell on her father, Pierre, is just the first step in Severine’s plan to reclaim the entire island for the Jumbies. Corinne must harness her and her friends’ courage and learn how to use ancient magic she didn’t know she possessed to stop Severine and save her island home. the magic orange tree”, the jumbies will be a favorite for fans of breadcrumbs, a dark and bleak tale, and where the mountain meets the moon.

mystery • simon & schuster books for young readers

Ever since Magnolia Stone’s scientist father left Shady Pines to find a new job, Maggie has been stuck in her grandmother’s RV with her grumpy older brother, Ezra. now she is on a mission to bring her family back together by winning the vitaccino junior naturalist merit award. bet to win. But after animals around town start getting unusual growths and Ezra develops a bluish glow and hacking cough, Maggie wonders what they’ve really stumbled upon. She uses her scientific intelligence and Nate’s impressive knowledge of all things creepy to put things back in order and stop these peculiar glowing fungi from taking over her home.

graphic novel • aladdin

sabrina the teenage witch meets roller girl in this hilarious and unique graphic novel about a half-witch who has just discovered the truth about herself, her family and her family. city ​​and is trying his best to survive in high school now that he knows everything. magic is more difficult than it seems. But she’s about to find out that witches aren’t just the stuff of creepy movies, books, and stories. When some eighth grade bullies try to ruin their Halloween, something really weird happens. Turns out Founder’s Bluff, Massachusetts has a centuries-old history of witch drama. And, surprise: the moth family is at the center of it all! when the moth’s new powers appear, things spiral out of control. she meets a talking cat, falls into an enchanted diary and discovers a hidden world of witches. the secrets of past generations emerge as the moth unravels the complicated legacy at the heart of her city, her family and herself. -in progress.

horror • aladdin

A girl uncovers a centuries-old mystery after moving into a haunted house in this delightfully suspenseful mystery. Tessa Woodward isn’t exactly thrilled about moving to cold, rainy Chicago from her sunny Florida home. but nostalgia turns to icy fear when inexplicable things begin to happen in her new house. things like flickering lights, mysterious drawings that appear out of nowhere, and a crack that she can feel in her bones. When her little brother’s doll begins to cry real tears, Tessa realizes that someone, or something, is trying to communicate with her. a secret that has been shrouded in mystery for over a hundred years. With the help of three new friends, Tessa begins to unravel the mystery of what happened at the house on Shady Street and, more importantly, what it has to do with her! /p>

impression • paranormal

The babysitting club gets goosebumps when a diverse group of friends run into supernatural trouble on their babysitting jobs.The typical babysitting job just got a whole lot scarier! Rebecca Chin is understandably freaked out when something starts to haunt her babysitter, Kyle. Since a mighty storm, strange handprints have appeared on the walls, shadows haunt her room, and the baby is not quite himself. After investigating, Rebecca and her three best friends discover that a sinister, paranormal villain known as the Queen of the Night has taken Kyle and replaced him with one of her henchmen. To stop her, they embark on a chilling journey into the woods to outwit the Queen of the Night and her creepy creatures, or risk being trapped in her kingdom forever! Serie.

horror • charm books

The start of a chilling new horror series about grisly happenings in a small town.Something strange is going on in Goodie Lane… Thirteen-year-old Quinn Parker knows there’s something wrong. rare in her neighbors she calls them “the oldies” because they’ve lived in gift lane for as long as anyone can remember, but they never seem to age. are they vampires? or aliens? or get secret experimental surgeries? Or is Quinn’s imagination running wild again? if her father were still around, he would believe her. when he was alive, they came up with all sorts of theories about old men. Now, Quinn is determined to continue the investigation with the help of Mike, her neighbor and her maybe-crush. they’ll have to look for clues and follow the mystery wherever she leads them, even if it’s to the spooky pond down the street that is said to hold sinister secrets of her own. but the oldies are in them. And the closer Quinn and Mike get to discovering the answers, the more they realize just how terrifying the truth can be.

adventures • books by katherine tegen

Told in alternate viewpoints of chess, emma and finn greystone, Secrets of Greystone #1: The Strangers is the start of a new page-turning adventure that examines assumptions about identity, family , and home, from the middle grade master of suspense.what makes you?the kids of greystone thought they knew. Chess has always been the protector of his younger siblings, Emma loves math, and Finn does what he does best: act silly and be adored. They have been a happy family, just the three of them and their mother. But everything changes when reports of three kidnapped children, who share the same first and middle names, ages and exact dates of birth as the Greystone children, reach Greystone. family. this strange coincidence makes them wonder: who exactly are these strangers? Before Chess, Emma and Finn can question her mother about it, she embarks on a mysterious work trip. But the puzzling clues left behind lead to complex codes, hidden rooms, and a dangerous secret that will turn her world upside down.

magic • puffin books

Roald Dahl’s Witches is the story of a detestable race of witches.Beware.Real witches dress in ordinary clothes and look like ordinary women. but they are not ordinary. they are always plotting and scheming with murderous and bloodthirsty thoughts, and they hate children. the great witch hates children most of all and plans to make them all disappear. only a boy and her grandmother can stop her, but if her plan fails, the great witch will curl them like donuts, and then what…?

horror • penguin workshop

driftwood harbor may seem like an ordinarily boring small new england town, but something extremely strange and downright creepy is happening within the city limits.twins beacon and everleigh mccullough move out of their home in sunny Los Angeles. to driftwood harbour, a rainy fishing village in new england. If that wasn’t bad enough, there’s something strange about this town and the mysterious group of too-perfect students called Gold Stars. After Everleigh is recruited into his ranks, Beacon must uncover the terrifying secret of the driftwood harbor before he loses her sister forever. kyrs (already author michelle krys). Get ready for an exciting page turner with a big mystery as the residents of the driftwood harbor will do whatever it takes to keep their dark secrets from surfacing.

adventures • viking books for young readers

neil gaiman’s coraline meets stranger things in a dark and twisted tale about a sleepy town with a dark secret, and the three kids brave enough to find out.eleanor, from Twelve years old, she has just moved to Eden Eld to live with her aunt and uncle after her mother died in a fire. her birthday, which falls on halloween, is just around the corner, and she hopes this year will be a fresh start in a new life. But then one morning, an antique wall clock counting down from thirteen hours appears outside her bedroom. and then she sees a big black dog with glowing red eyes prowling the grounds of her school. a book of fairy tales he’s never heard of falls almost voluntarily in front of her, as if asking to be read. something is wrong in the city of eden eld. Eleanor and her new classmates, Pip and Otto, are the only ones who see these “bad things,” and they all share a Halloween birthday, too. United by these uncanny similarities, the trio discover a centuries-old pact the town has with a mysterious figure known as Mr. January: every thirteen years three thirteen-year-olds disappear, sacrificed in exchange for the eternal fortune of the town. this halloween, mr. January is back to collect his pay, and Eleanor, Pip, and Otto will be his next offering… unless they can break the curse before the clock strikes thirteen.

paranormal • books by margaret k mcelderry

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A boy and a girl who must protect their small town from supernatural forces that threaten to destroy it. Rae’s father disappeared without a trace, and Rae knows what happened to him. but no one believes her when she says that her father did not run away from her, that in fact he was kidnapped. Now, a year into therapy later, Rae’s mom decides they need a fresh start, so they move to a new town in hopes that life can get back to normal. the problem is that there is nothing normal. over the city of whispering pines. No one knows that better than Caden. he’s lived in whispering pines all her life, and he’s seen more than his fair share of strange things, starting with her own family, as the town is the perfect base for mother’s ghost-hunting business her. when several children disappear and then turn up as zombies with their eyes gouged out, many locals ignore it. just another day in the whispering pines But Caden has a dark secret, one that may explain why someone is stealing eyes. And Rae, who knows what it feels like to be disbelieved, may be just the person Caden needs to help him fix things.

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