Scary Middle-Grade Reads

Get in the mood for spooky season with some bone-chilling, spine-tingling reads for tweens!

Wait till Helen comes : a ghost story

Hahn, Mary Downing.

jFICTION Hahn, Mary Downing

Molly and Michael dislike their spooky new stepsister Heather but realize that they must try to save her when she seems ready to follow a ghost child to her doom.

Wait till Helen comes : a ghost story graphic novel

Hahn, Mary Downing, author.

ON ORDER BOOK

When their mom remarries, Molly and her brother, Michael, try to make friends with their new stepsister, Heather. But Heather only wants to make trouble for them. She lies and tattles and misbehaves, and somehow they always get the blame. They know she's trying to drive a wedge between her father and their mother so she can have her father all to herself--and it seems to be working. Then, Heather starts playing in the graveyard behind their new house. She claims she can talk to a ghost named Helen, and her behavior gets even stranger. Michael doesn't believe in ghosts and thinks their new little sister is just looking for more attention. But Molly isn't so certain, especially when Heather threatens that Helen is going to come for them and make them sorry. It seems as though things can't get any worse--but they do. When Helen comes.

Stolen children

Kehret, Peg.

jFICTION Kehret, Peg

A wealthy toddler, Kendra, and her babysitter, Amy, are kidnapped and held for ransom. Amy tries to find an escape for her and Kendra.

Small spaces

Arden, Katherine, author.

jFICTION Arden, Katherine

"After eleven-year-old Ollie's school bus mysteriously breaks down on a field trip, she has to take a trip through scary woods, and must use all of her wits to survive. She must stick to small spaces"--

Night of the living dummy

Stine, R. L.

jFICTION Stine, R. L.

Lindy finds a ventriloquist's dummy and has fun learning to make him move and talk. Kris is jealous, and decides to get a dummy of her own. Then nasty evil things begin to happen. No way can a dummy be causing all the trouble. Or is there?

Goosebumps : Slappy's tales of horror

jGRAPHIC NOVEL Goosebumps

Scary stories for young foxes

Heidicker, Christian McKay, author.

jFICTION Heidicke Christia

The haunted season has arrived in the Antler Wood. No fox kit is safe. When Mia and Uly are separated from their litters, they discover a dangerous world full of monsters. In order to find a den to call home, they must venture through field and forest, facing unspeakable things that dwell in the darkness: a zombie who hungers for their flesh, a witch who tries to steal their skins, a ghost who hunts them through the snow . . . and other things too scary to mention. Featuring eight interconnected stories and sixteen hauntingly beautiful illustrations, Scary Stories for Young Foxes contains the kinds of adventures and thrills you love to listen to beside a campfire in the dark of night.

Doll bones

Black, Holly.

jFICTION Black Holly

Zach, Alice, and Poppy, friends from a Pennsylvania middle school who have long enjoyed acting out imaginary adventures with dolls and action figures, embark on a real-life quest to Ohio to bury a doll made from the ashes of a dead girl.

The Black Slide

Ocker, J. W., author.

jFICTION Ocker J. W.

Against his better judgment, fifth grader Griffin Birch follows his best friend down the new slide in the school playground, and at the other end of this portal they discover a cruel world populated by bloodthirsty creatures on a quest to become immortal.

Ghost squad

Ortega, Claribel A., author.

jFICTION Ortega Claribel

"For Lucely Luna, ghosts are more than just the family business. Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine. Together, they must join forces with Syd's witch grandmother, Babette, and her tubby tabby, Chunk, to fight the haunting head-on and reverse the curse to save the town and Lucely's firefly spirits before it's too late."--Jacket flap.

Hide and don't seek : and other very scary stories

Rissi, Anica Mrose, author.

jFICTION Rissi Anica

"If you're feeling brave, turn the page. A game of hide-and-seek goes on far too long... A look-alike doll makes itself right at home... A school talent show act leaves the audience aghast... And a summer at camp takes a turn for the braaaains... This collection of all-new spooky stories is sure to keep readers up past their bedimes"--Dust jacket flap.

Whispering Pines

Lang, Heidi, author.

jFICTION Lang Heidi

"When otherworldly forces descend on their town of Whispering Pines, conspiracy theorist Rae, who's searching for her lost father, and Caden, who's haunted by the ghost of his brother, must band together to save their home"--

The dollhouse murders

Wright, Betty Ren.

jFICTION Wright, Betty Ren

In the attic of her aunt's house, Amy finds a beautiful dollhouse that is an exact replica of the house itself. Playing with the dollhouse causes the dolls to reenact the grisly murder of Amy's great-grandparents, who died in the house thirty years before. Amy, her mentally disabled sister Louann, and Amy's best friend Ellen, convinced that the dollhouse is trying to tell them something, find themselves struggling to solve the murder and lay the spirits of the dollhouse to rest.

The forgotten girl

Brown, India Hill, 1991- author.

jFICTION Brown India

When eleven-year-old Iris sneaks out at night to make snow angels, she was not expecting to raise the ghost of Avery Moore, a girl her own age; but bringing to light the segregated and abandoned black cemetery seems like the perfect way to help Avery get the recognition she craves, and it will also be a good idea for the school project about the history of her small North Carolina town, where racial tensions are never far from the surface--only it seems that if Avery gets everything she wants Iris will join her as a ghost, best friends forever.

Hide and seeker

Hermon, Daka, author.

jFICTION Hermon Daka

Something is wrong with twelve-year-old Zee, who has returned after a year's absence; nobody knows where he was or what happened to him, but now he is distracted and violent, freaking out when he sees his friends, Justin, Nia, and Lyric, playing an odd game of hide-and-seek, and talking wildly about some danger that is approaching--and soon his friends are pulled into a shadowy world ruled by a monstrous, shape-shifting Seeker, forced to play a terrifying game of hide-and-seek where they will have to confront their worst nightmares in order to find their way home.

The gathering

Poblocki, Dan, author.

jFICTION Poblocki Dan

Poppy Caldwell is an orphan who keeps seeing a figure standing behind her in the mirror at the group home where she lives, but she does not associate this ghost with the letter that mysteriously appears in her file, claiming to be from a long-lost aunt, and inviting her to Larkspur House--and she is just one of five children who find themselves gathered in this strange house with a deadly past, and apparently no intention of letting the children escape.

Wretched waterpark

White, Kiersten, author.

jFICTION White Kiersten

Twins Theo and Alexander and their sister Wil are abruptly dropped off at their Aunt Saffronia's house, where they learn they must complete a series of tasks in order to see their parents again--and their first assignment is at a waterpark.

Nightbooks

White, J. A., author.

jFICTION White J. A.

Imprisoned by Natacha, a witch, in a New York apartment, Alex must tell her a new scary story every night in order to stay alive.

Half-minute horrors

jFICTION Half

An anthology of very short, scary stories by an assortment of authors and illustrators including Chris Raschka, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, Jack Gantos, and Lane Smith.

Don't let the doll in

Ford, Mike, author.

jFICTION Ford Mike

"When Mara hears about a new store called Frightville, she can't wait to check it out. On its shelves are strange and unusual gifts of all kinds. It's there that she comes face-to-face with Charlotte, a small figurine of a friendly-looking girl. Mara instantly feels that Charlotte is meant to live with her. But once Charlotte is in the dollhouse, strange things start to happen. There are odd noises in the night, and objects from Mara's room start to go missing. Is Mara imagining things, or is this doll actually haunted?"--Page [4] of cover.

The shadow hand

Shepherd, Kat, author.

jFICTION Shepherd Kat

When babysitter Rebecca discovers that a sinister ruler of darkness has replaced the baby with a changeling, she and her friends must save him by surviving a chilling journey through the Nightmare Realm.

The lonely ghost

Ford, Mike, author.

jFICTION Ford Mike

"For fans of creepy stories like The Girl in the Locked Room, and the spine-tingling novels of K.R. Alexander, The Lonely Ghost is the chilling story of twin sisters haunted by a ghostly presence in their new house."--Publisher description.

The fear zone

Alexander, K. R., 1986- author.

jFICTION Alexander, K. R.

"When five kids are invited to a cemetery at midnight, they think it's just a prank. When they find a gravestone that instructs them to dig up a grave, they think it's just a joke. It's no joke. An evil force is unleashed - a force that takes the shape of their worst fears. Once these fears are released, they won't go away. Not without a fight--"--back cover.

Only if you dare : 13 stories of darkness and doom

Allen, Josh, author.

jFICTION Allen Josh

A collection of thirteen short stories showing how horribly wrong food, dating, jobs, and even a bed pillow can be.

The Keeper

McCall, Guadalupe Garcia, author.

jFICTION McCall, Guadalupe Garcia

"James always knew moving from Texas to Oregon was going to be horrible. But no sooner have he and his family arrived ... than he starts getting mysterious letters from someone called the Keeper. Someone who claims to be watching him ... James and his sister, Ava, are obviously in danger. But the problem with having a history of playing practical jokes is that no one believes James--not even his parents"--

The Vanquishers

Bayron, Kalynn, author.

ON ORDER BOOK

In an alternate San Antonio, there have been no known cases of vampirism since a group of masked vampire hunters called the Vanquishers wiped out the last horde of the undead twenty years ago, but twelve-year-old Malika "Boog" Wilson's parents are not taking any chances, especially when Boog's new classmate Aaron goes missing.

The night gardener

Auxier, Jonathan.

jFICTION Auxier Jonathan

Irish orphans Molly, fourteen, and Kip, ten, travel to England to work as servants in a crumbling manor house where nothing is quite what it seems to be, and soon the siblings are confronted by a mysterious stranger and secrets of the cursed house.