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Find out moreFor those who enjoy a spooky tale, we have scary stories galore. From cute little ghosts for younger readers to truly terrifying reads for teenagers, you can find a wide selection of books in this section.
Shortlisted for the Excelsior Award White 9+ KS2 | Packed with evil curses, haunted houses, quirky characters and a town full of unexplained phenomena, Seaerra Miller's new series of illustrated comic-like books are sure to be a hit with kids who love twisted tales and action-packed, mysterious stories.
June 2021 Book of the Month | Recommended by Stephen L Holland, Guest Editor, June 2021: Eliza Duncan is a direct and diligent, no-nonsense teen with a passion for photography and a focus on ghosts. Marjorie Glatt found her laundromat infested with white-sheeted ghosts: with its washes, tumble-dries and ironing, they thought it the perfect health spa. She adopted one called Wendell as her best friend. But now she has been adopted–by her school’s most popular students who rule the roost by putting everyone else down. Marjorie, once a victim of this, feels awkward about her newfound immunity for she fails to speak up for others, particularly when they start picking on Eliza who’s determined that there are ghosts, that she’ll snap one on celluloid, and soon has her sights set on Wendell. Astonishingly complex, this comes with layers of self-awareness, self-examination yet blind spots and moments of betrayal from even the kindest of corners. Also: is this not the most perfect cover? What a narrative drive! Thummler totally owns her unique colour palette.
Shortlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize 2020 | The Klaus Flugge judges said: ‘A visual treat and the text and illustrations work very well together; it’s full of detail but never cluttered; pace is cleverly controlled; just the right balance of fun and fright!’. Flavia Z. Drago introduces us to Gustavo, a gorgeous little ghost who is so shy he’s literally invisible. Her folk-art style with its palette of orange and Rosa Mexicana creates a distinctive playground for Gustavo as he suddenly and unexpectedly makes new friends.
While witches might be steeped in gold, Ciannon Smart’s mighty debut is steeped in the majesty of Caribbean magic as it weaves the gripping journey of two vengeful witches. The first in a duology, Witches Steeped in Gold is a stunner for readers who love complex plots driven by strident characters, and comes especially recommended for fans of epic, female-fronted fantasy, such as The Gilded Ones, Children of Blood and Bone, and series by Sarah J Maas. Heir to a conquered, magical dynasty, Iraya was exiled from the island nation of Aiyca as a child. Having spent her life in a cell, she’s a warrior set on securing her freedom - and revenge: “there’s nothing like the potential betrayal of your oldest and best sestren, a friend closer to you than any other, to challenge any doubts about avenging your murdered parents.” And she plans to use Obeah magic to do just that - “the ways of Obeah in matters of vengeance are clear. It is justice to take in equal part that which was stolen from you.” Meanwhile, gold-swathed Jazmyne is a threat to her mother’s power as self-crowned Doyenne, “part of the resistance working against the very structure I serve.” And so the stage is set for two vengeful witches to form an alliance that might see them achieve their respective desires. Smart’s world-building and sense of place is gorgeously sensory - you can hear, smell and taste, for example, the “musical patwah mingling with peppery jerk spice and opiate smoke.” An ambitious concept, delivered in intricate style, Smart’s debut is a satisfyingly complex page-turner.
April 2021 Book of the Month | This exquisitely creepy YA shocker whirls with gritty horror, witty one-liners, Insta-worthy visual conjurations and the menacing mystery of three bewitching sisters who vanished in childhood. “Dark dangerous things happened around the Hollow sisters. We each had black eyes and hair as white as milk...We didn’t have friends, because we didn’t need them.” So explains the youngest sister, Iris. As children, the three sisters vanished one New Year’s Eve on the strike of midnight and reappeared with their hair and eyes a different colour, tiny baby teeth in place of their adult teeth, and no memory. “In possession of an alchemical self-confidence that belonged to much older humans,” Iris’ older sisters have “set off into the world, both bound for the glamorous, exotic futures they’d always known they were destined for”, leaving her alone in North London with her mother. Sinister bells toll when seventeen-year-old Grey, a supermodel and designer of decadent couture “who looked like sex and smelled like a field of wildflowers”, fails to turn up to middle sister Vivi’s punk gig in Camden, and then there’s the mystery of the man wearing a horned skull. There are books with unexpected twists, then there’s House of Hollow - imagine losing your way in a decaying fairy tale forest, where tangled tree roots trip you up, and you have no idea what terrors skulk within its ever-shifting mists. At times grisly and always eerie, this intoxicating cocktail of contemporary horror and mythic menace is a lushly-written feast.
April 2021 Book of the Month | Derek Landy’s riotously inventive Skulduggery Pleasant series first blasted its way onto bookshelves back in 2007, and fresh fantastical thrills keep on coming in Dead or Alive - no mean feat for book fourteen in a series. With the world teetering on the brink of irrevocable, devastating change, this penultimate novel sees Skulduggery, Valkyrie and Omen face their most trying test (yet…). As wildly witty and exhilarating as ever, this doorstopper of a page-turner sizzles with a burning sense of time slipping away, for if Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie can’t rid the world of Damocles Creed, the world’s people will be wiped out. Even Valkyrie is thrown by the imminent prospect of making the ultimate sacrifice: “Valkyrie woke, jumped out of bed and managed to get halfway to the bathroom before she threw up. They were going to kill Creed. They were going to kill Creed and nothing would be the same again.” The dialogue dances, desperation escalates, and fans will be left longing to know how Skulduggery’s awe-inspiring story will end.
April 2021 Book of the Month | Abandoned by their original owners, cats Pasha and Poop (yes, really) find forever homes with the lovely Wilde family. But the cats of their new neighbourhood are terrorised by the pawful Scaredy Cat. With flashing eyes, and an ability to walk through walls, he forces everyone to follow his cruel rules for cat behaviour, and woe betide those that try to resist. Pasha is determined to stand up to the bullying, but can he persuade Poop and the other cats that they have nothing to fear but fear itself? Typically for Patterson, the story races along, the cats taking turns to narrate, and it’s a perfect mix of excitement, adventure and comedy. It comes to a wonderful climax in a pet cemetery of all places, and amongst the fun there are important messages about finding the strength in yourself to do what’s right.
It's Visitor's Weekend at Camp Croak and Lexie Wilde and her band of Ghost Scout friends are looking forward to seeing their families. But when Grams doesn't appear, and instead someone claiming to be Lexie's mother arrives, Lexie doesn't know what to think. And when a Wish Wind suddenly flies through camp, causing chaos and mayhem, the scouts must use their best skills and badges to unravel the chaos that ensues. It most certainly is a hullabaloo at Camp Croak! GHOST SCOUTS UNITE! Raise your paws and show some claws!
Y’all are just going to love Taylor Dolan’s funny, stylish new series. Lexie Wilde is spending summer at Scout Camp – so far, so normal, but her fellow campers turn out to be a werewolf, a ghost, a zombie and a talking skeleton with buckets of attitude. Once she’s adjusted, Lexie settles in and declares Camp Croak is better than butter on fresh cornbread (we’re deep in the US South). Everything changes however with the arrival of self-declared Scoutmaster Supreme Miss Euphemia Vile, a woman with hair bigger than the state of Texas and evil in mind. Can Lexie and her new friends see her off? This is girl power as you’ve never experienced it before and all delivered with the most delicious Louisiana twang. It’s as much fun to look at as it is to read aloud, with Dolan’s own scratchy pen and ink illustrations on every page. Strange, sharp, and very funny, don’t miss!
Rich in historic atmosphere and detail, and smouldering with female desire to be heard in a patriarchal society, Catherine Barter’s We Played with Fire is a hauntingly riveting read. The fact it was inspired by the true story of the Fox Sisters who made a fortune from communicating with spirits in nineteenth-century America makes it all the more gripping, and a fine example of how to transform extraordinary real-life events into enthralling fiction. Back home in Rochester Maggie had enjoyed listening to progressive women she “thought she could learn from” - strong role models who spoke-up at political meetings held in the kitchen. But these fires of inspiration are dampened when Maggie is incriminated in a terrible event that takes place near the schoolhouse she claims is haunted. As a result of the scandal, her family move to remote Hydesville where, feeling fed-up and fuming, Maggie and her younger sister Kate decide to spice things up by playing supernatural tricks on their parents. Matters take a menacing turn when their old farmhouse makes spooky sounds independent of the sisters’ tomfoolery, and they become certain a spirit is communicating with them. When this attracts the attention of their neighbours and a local journalist, Maggie and Kate see the power and potential of spiritualism and set-off on an astonishing life journey that reels with rebellion, show-woman-ship and gothic charisma.
Twisty thriller, meets in-your-face horror, Rory Power’s Burn Our Bodies Down is an un-put-down-able page-turner. An ingeniously menacing family mystery with a macabre, almost mythic twist you won’t see coming - guaranteed. From the opening pages readers are immediately enmeshed in the dysfunctional world teenager Margot Nielson inhabits with her mother, a woman who’s at once peculiarly protective of Margot, and brutally distant. And this unnerving behaviour derives from Margot’s unknown family history, which leads her to jump on an opportunity to find out more. After chancing upon her grandmother’s number and address, she runs away to meet her, and immediately runs into a web of trouble. Another fire has broken out on Gram’s land, a girl is found dead, and the townsfolk are nervy and hostile, making no secret of the fact they think the Nielson’s “are trouble”. With questions arising at every turn, and the eerie atmosphere of Gram’s cornfields providing a creepy backdrop, Margot has no idea who’s telling the truth - Mom or Gram? And why has Mom always told Margot to “keep a fire burning”? Why does she insist “a fire is what saves you”? This sinister mystery is in a league of its own when it comes to tension and invention.
The grounds of a country house in the summer months of 1914 provide the setting for Emma Carroll’s spooky novella and she uses it to explore themes of growing understanding and the awful, looming threat of war. Brought together after an accident puts him temporarily into a wheelchair requiring someone to push it, Leo and Fran form an upstairs-downstairs friendship. Fran is unsettled by a series of strange, seemingly supernatural coincidences that seem to be warnings of things to come, while Leo is obsessed by events in Europe and what they may lead to. Their different worries merge in a deliciously spooky scene where the two young people encounter the ghosts of an Anglo-Saxon army, something they interpret as a warning of what is to come; sure enough, the story concludes with the announcement of World War I. Despite a sense of foreboding, we know that their friendship will endure and feel certain that, whatever happens, the future will hold good things for both. Emma Carroll is one of our foremost authors of historical fiction for children and creates a tangible sense of the tension of those summer months as well as an appealing, believable set of characters. Published by Barrington Stoke, the book is accessible to all readers, including those with dyslexia, and highly recommended.
This inventive page-turner opens with a superb sense of peril as sixteen-year-old Alfie moves from Bristol to spend summer in a small village in the north of England. There’s menace from the moment he chances upon a stone in a churchyard and local girl Mia explains the superstitions around it - if a person walks around the stone three times uttering the words “I don‘t believe in witches” Meg Shelton will come for you! Keen to show he doesn’t believe such nonsense, Alfie does exactly that - with immediate menacing effects, and it’s not long before he realises that he’s become a conduit for Meg, a woman murdered for being a witch way back in 1705. Defying convention and expectation, not only is this a gripping page-turner, but it’s brilliantly funny too, with comedy springing forth the moment Meg springs into Alfie’s life (and shower…). What’s more, it’s also edge-of-your-seat pacey as Alfie and Mia - with the help of Mia’s witch-expert aunt - race against time to help Meg make peace with her past, with the stakes high, and their feelings running pretty high too.
If ever there was a picture book to be enjoyed in the long winter nights, when there’s a crackle of frost in the air, it’s this one. Snow Ghost comes shimmering out of the air, she soars over hills and woods, darkening as evening draws in, searching for somewhere to settle. Nowhere seems to offer a welcome and she’s lonely and getting tired when on top of a hill she spots a small farm with two happy children in the garden. They all play together in the snow until night falls completely and as the children go in, Snow Ghost settles on the roof, home at last. Snow Ghost is a magical creation in Diana Mayo’s illustrations, floating across the pages almost not there, yet a tangible presence, and we look down with her on the valleys, fields and quiet little town below. The sense of stillness – then joy and hope – is perfectly captured in Tony Mitton’s text which is as graceful and airy as Snow Ghost herself. A perfect story for this time of year, a celebration of hope and belonging. You can find more wintry & festive stories in our Best Books for Kids this Christmas collection!
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