Back of Book: 

Travis and his sister, Corey, can t resist a good trick. When they learn that their grandmother's quiet Vermont inn, where they re spending the summer, has a history of ghost sightings, they decide to do a little haunting of their own. Before long, their supernatural pranks have tourists flocking to the inn, and business booms. But Travis and Corey soon find out that they aren't the only ghosts at Fox Hill Inn. Their thoughtless games have awakened something dangerous, something that should have stayed asleep. Restless, spiteful spirits swarm the inn, while a dark and terrifying presence stalks the halls and the old oak grove on the inn s grounds. Only Travis and Corey can lay to rest the ghosts they've stirred. This means discovering the secret of Fox Hill and the horrors visited on its inhabitants years before...

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Paranormal 

Review: 🌟🌟 

Back of Book: 

Times have been tough for Ash lately, and all he wants is for everything to go back to the way it used to be. 

Back before drought ruined the land and disease killed off the livestock. Before Ash’s father went off to war and returned carrying psychological scars. Before his best friend, Mark, started acting strangely.

As Ash trains for his town’s annual Stag Chase—a race rooted in violent, ancient lore—he’s certain that if he can win and make his father proud, life will return to normal. But the line between reality and illusion is rapidly blurring, and the past has a way of threatening the present.

When a run in the mountains brings Ash face-to-face with Bone Jack—a figure that guards the boundary between the living world and the dead—everything changes once more. As dark energies take root and the world as he knows it is upended, it’s up to Ash to restore things to their proper order and literally run for his life. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Paranormal 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

Back of Book: 

Josie and Alec both live at 444 Sparrow Street. They sleep in the same room, but they’ve never laid eyes on each other. They are twelve years old and a hundred years apart.

The children meet through a hand-painted talking board―Josie in 1915, Alec in 2015―and form a friendship across the century that separates them. But a chain of events leave Josie and her little sister Cass trapped in the house and afraid for their safety, and Alec must find out what’s going to happen to them. 

Can he help them change their future when it’s already past? 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Paranormal | Historical 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

At the Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, you will definitely learn your lesson. An atmospheric, heartfelt, and delightfully spooky novel for fans of Coraline, Splendors and Glooms, and The Mysterious Benedict Society.

Victoria hates nonsense. There is no need for it when your life is perfect. The only smudge on her pristine life is her best friend Lawrence. He is a disaster, lazy and dreamy, shirt always untucked, obsessed with his silly piano. Victoria often wonders why she ever bothered being his friend. (Lawrence does, too.)

But then Lawrence goes missing. And he is not the only one. Victoria soon discovers that The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls is not what it appears to be. Kids go in but come out different. Or they don't come out at all.

If anyone can sort this out, it's Victoria, even if it means getting a little messy. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Fantasy  

Review: 🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring...

In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.

The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.

Only it's different.

At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.

Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Fantasy 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟  

Back of Book: 

Their dream house has become a nightmare. 

Olivia is curious about the people moving into 16 Olcott Place. The last family there moved out in the dead of night, and the new family, the Donahues, has no idea why. Olivia becomes fast friends with Janie Donahue... so she's there at the house when the first of the letters arrives:

I am the Sentry of Glennon Heights. Long ago I claimed 16 Olcott Place as levy for my guardianship. The walls will not tolerate your trespass. The ceilings will bleed and the windows will shatter. If you do not cease your intrusion, the rooms will soon smell of corpses.

Who is the Sentry? And why does the Sentry want the Donahues out of the house badly enough to kill? As Olivia and Janie explore the house, they find a number of sinister secrets... and as they explore their town, they find a hidden history that the Sentry wants to remain hidden forever.

You can lock the doors. You can close the windows. But you can't keep the Sentry out... 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Contemporary  

Review: 🌟🌟🌟 

Back of Book: 

What is happening on Founders Island? 

Alec is a new kid on Founders Island, an isolated place where most people have lived their lives. His friend Hannah's family goes back for generations. . . but even she doesn't know the island's deepest secrets. 

Life is normal on the island... until one day, all the light goes out. 

Not just the electricity. 

The sky, as well. 

Founders Island is plunged into complete darkness. 

Then, just as abruptly, the light returns... until it goes out again. 

The darkness keeps coming back. 

And in the darkness, horrible things awake. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Fantasy  

Review: 🌟🌟 

Back of Book: 

Darkness had come to the town. Strange things were happening in the dead of night. Children would put a tooth under their pillow for the tooth fairy, but in the morning they would wake up to find... a dead slug; a live spider; hundreds of earwigs creeping and crawling beneath their pillow.

Evil was at work. But who or what was behind it...? 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror 

Review: 🌟🌟 

Back of Book: 

Zach, Poppy and Alice have been friends for ever. They love playing with their action figure toys, imagining a magical world of adventure and heroism. But disaster strikes when, without warning, Zach’s father throws out all his toys, declaring he’s too old for them. Zach is furious, confused and embarrassed, deciding that the only way to cope is to stop playing... and stop being friends with Poppy and Alice.

But one night the girls pay Zach a visit, and tell him about a series of mysterious occurrences. Poppy swears that she is now being haunted by a china doll – who claims that it is made from the ground-up bones of a murdered girl. They must return the doll to where the girl lived, and bury it. Otherwise the three children will be cursed for eternity...

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Fantasy 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

"Why am I talking to you?" he asked aloud.

"I don't believe in ghosts."

"You want to know the truth," replied the dybbuk,

"Neither do I. But here I am."

Avrom Amos likes to crack jokes. He loves the spotlight. And if he wants something, he knows how to get it. He's just like any other boy, except for one thing: He's a ghost—a dybbuk. During World War Two he'd been murdered by the Nazis, right after he saved the life of a young ventriloquist named Freddie.

Freddie doesn't know it yet, but he's about to return the favor. Because the dybbuk wants revenge, and he knows exactly how to get it. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Paranormal 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

"Do you know what it feels like to be forgotten?"

On a cold winter night, Iris and her best friend, Daniel, sneak into a clearing in the woods to play in the freshly fallen snow. There, Iris carefully makes a perfect snow angel—only to find the crumbling gravestone of a young girl, Avery Moore, right beneath her.

Immediately, strange things start to happen to Iris: She begins having vivid nightmares. She wakes up to find her bedroom window wide open, letting in the snow. She thinks she sees the shadow of a girl lurking in the woods. And she feels the pull of the abandoned grave, calling her back to the clearing. . . 

Obsessed with figuring out what's going on, Iris and Daniel start to research the area for a school project. They discover that Avery's grave is actually part of a neglected and forgotten Black cemetery, dating back to a time when White and Black people were kept separate in life—and in death. As Iris and Daniel learn more about their town's past, they become determined to restore Avery's grave and finally have proper respect paid to Avery and the others buried there.

But they have awakened a jealous and demanding ghost, one that's not satisfied with their plans for getting recognition. One that is searching for a best friend forever—no matter what the cost.

The Forgotten Girl is both a spooky original ghost story and a timely and important storyline about reclaiming an abandoned segregated cemetery.  

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Paranormal 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 

Back of Book:

Each day, sixth-grader Rusty feeds a dog that's left chained in the frigid weather with no shelter, food, or water. When he realizes the dog has been injured, he tries to have Animal Control help - but when that fails, Rusty and his friend Andrew unchain the dog and take it. With the dog in their hideout, the boys face multiple challenges, including Andrew's snoopy sister and the escalating threats of the dog's abusive owner. Even more challenging? The appearance of a ghost dog that appears in Rusty's room, and is trying to lead him to an even deeper secret...

Peg Kehret delivers another fast-paced story with lots of heart, which will leave young readers cheering for Rusty and the dogs. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Paranormal 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

Celeste knows she should be excited to spend two weeks at her grandparents' lake house with her brother, Owen, and their cousins Capri and Daisy, but she's not.

Bugs, bad cell reception, and the dark waters of the lake... no thanks. On top of that, she just failed her swim test and hates being in the water—it's terrifying. But her grandparents are strong believers in their family knowing how to swim, especially having grown up during a time of segregation at public pools. Without the opportunity to learn, Grandma's sister drowned when they were kids.

But soon strange things start happening, like Celeste's cousins accusing her of waking them up in the middle of the night. But Celeste hasn't been awake during the night—she knows she's been fast asleep because she's been having terrible nightmares about drowning!

Things at the old house only get spookier until one evening when Celeste looks in the steamy mirror after a shower and sees her face, but twisted, different...

Who is the girl in the mirror? And what does she want?

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Paranormal 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟 

Back of Book: 

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well, he would be perfectly normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the world of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more.

But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod's family.

A deliciously dark masterwork by bestselling author Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by award-winning Dave McKean. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Paranormal 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟  

Back of Book: 

Something sinister lurks in the woods outside of Slade.

Gabe has seen it, or he thinks he has—a shadow standing at the tree line, watching Gabe's house with faintly glowing eyes

Despite Gabe's misgivings, his new friend, Seth, relishes the creepy atmosphere of the forest. It's the perfect setting for his imaginary struggle against the Hunter, a deformed child-eating creature said to leave the bones of his victims in his wake. It's just a game, but it's all a bit much for Gabe, who quickly loses interest as summer ends and the days grow shorter.

But then strange things start to happen. Frightening things. And Gabe knows it has to do with the dark figure watching him from the edge of the woods.

Is Seth out to teach Gabe a lesson? Or is the Hunter more than just a myth? Gabe isn't sure which option is more horrifying, but he's determined to learn the truth before someone gets hurt... or worse. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Fantasy  

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

Simon is a liar. Stella and Alex know this about their new stepbrother, so they aren't bothered by his stories about their new house. Wildwyck, a former schoolhouse for misbehaved boys, might have plenty of creaks and shadows, but the twins know that ghosts aren't real. But Simon is getting harder and harder to ignore, as his cries for attention become increasingly dangerous and difficult to explain.

Stella and Alex have to consider... could Simon actually be telling the truth? As they look for answers, they learn that the history of Wildwyck is more sinister than they could have imagined. And when a shocking truth is revealed, it's not clear who can be trusted anymore.

Will the three siblings be able to put aside their differences to save their family... before it's too late?

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Paranormal 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟 

"The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe" by Dan Poblocki is one of my favorite horror reads of all time, despite it being a middle grade novel. "Liars' Room" is my second book that I have read by Poblocki, and it just didn't hit the same. It wasn't nearly as scary, the ending lacked luster in comparison, and I really didn't enjoy the characters all that much. Despite this, Poblocki is sill an astonishing author and "Liars' Room" was still a pretty good book.

"Liars' Room" follows three siblings who have just moved into a new house after their parents married one another. The house ends up being a former schoolhouse for "problem boys" called Wildwyck. As strange things start happening, Alex and Stella begin to investigate the house's past while constantly being interrupted by their new stepbrother, Simon. To figure out the mystery, the three will have to put their issues aside and work as a team.

This book alternates between the four step-siblings' perspectives: the twins, Alex and Stella, the younger brother, Simon, and Zachary, the older brother who still lives with his mom in a different state. Alex and Simon were a tad bit stereotypical as twins, with them often "reading each other's thoughts" and wanting to do everything together. Part of their growth though is becoming more of their own people, so that was nice to see. I personally just found Simon annoying, but I did feel bad for the way that his stepsiblings treated him, so I did still feel empathetic of his situation. I found Zachary the most intriguing and we only met him through journal entries. They were interesting to try to decipher why Poblocki included them, and they added depth to the story.

Overall, "Liars' Room" was a decently interesting read that kept me entertained throughout most of the book. I did find myself drifting away at the end; I think it could have been more dramatic and engaging. (Though Zachary's final journal entry was spot on and got me scratching my head.) I wanted to give Poblocki's work another chance after loving the first book I read by him, and I'd say that he has me hooked and wanting to read more of his work in the future. If you are looking for a truly spooky read, "Liars' Room" is rather mild, but it was still an interesting story that delved in the difficulty of moving on and learning to deal with each other's differences.

Back of Book: 

A thrilling tale about when the borders between legend and reality blur—with dangerous consequences.

When Josie and her brothers uncover a haunted camera, the Mothman legend becomes a terrifying reality that threatens their entire town in this spooky and action-filled novel.

Josie may live in the most haunted town in America, but the only strange thing she ever sees is the parade of oddball customers that comes through her family's auction house each week. But when she and her brothers discover a Polaroid camera that prints pictures of the ghost of local recluse John Goodrich, they are drawn into a mystery dating back over a hundred years. A desperate spirit, cursed jewelry, natural disasters, and the horrible specter of Mothman all weave in and out of the puzzle that Josie must solve to break the curse and save her own life.

Mothman's Curse by Christine Hayes is a spine-chilling middle-grade novel full of action and adventure, and contains black and white illustrations from artist, comic writer and designer James K. Hindle. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Fantasy  

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

For some kids summer is a sun-soaked season of fun. But for Steve, it’s just another season of worries. Worries about his sick newborn baby brother who is fighting to survive, worries about his parents who are struggling to cope, even worries about the wasp’s nest looming ominously from the eaves. So when a mysterious wasp queen invades his dreams, offering to “fix” the baby, Steve thinks his prayers have been answered.

All he has to do is say “Yes.” But “yes” is a powerful word. It is also a dangerous one. And once it is uttered, can it be taken back?

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Fantasy  

Review: 🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

This much-anticipated follow-up to Jonathan Auxier’s exceptional debut, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, is a Victorian ghost story with shades of Washington Irving and Henry James. More than just a spooky tale, it’s also a moral fable about human greed and the power of storytelling.

The Night Gardener follows two abandoned Irish siblings who travel to work as servants at a creepy, crumbling English manor house. But the house and its family are not quite what they seem. Soon the children are confronted by a mysterious spectre and an ancient curse that threatens their very lives. With Auxier’s exquisite command of language, The Night Gardener is a mesmerizing read and a classic in the making. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Fantasy  

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

Back of Book: 

Alone at sea, with only the stars to guide them...

The proud sailing ship Polaris is on a mission to explore new lands, and its crew is eager to bring their discoveries back home. But when half the landing party fails to return from the Amazon jungle, the tensions lead to a bloody mutiny. The remaining adults abandon ship, leaving behind a cabin boy, a botanist's assistant, and a handful of deckhands—none of them older than twelve. Troubled by whispers of a strange tropical illness and rumors of a wild beast lurking onshore, the young sailors are desperate to steer the vessel to safety. When one of their own already missing and a strange smell drifting up from belowdecks, the novice crew begins to suspect that someone—or something—else is onboard. Having steeled themselves for the treacherous journey home, they now have more to fear than the raging waters of the Atlantic...

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Science Fiction  

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

Back of Book: 

Newbery Medalist Avi weaves one of his most suspenseful and scary tales—about a ghost who has to be seen to be believed and must be kept from carrying out a horrifying revenge.

The time is 1872. The place is New York City. Horace Carpetine has been raised to believe in science and rationality. So as apprentice to Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer, he thinks of his trade as a scientific art. But when wealthy society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht orders a photographic portrait, strange things begin to happen.

Horace's first real photographs reveal a frightful likeness: it's the image of the Von Machts' dead daughter, Eleanora.

Pegg, the Von Machts' black servant girl, then leads him to the truth about who Eleanora really was and how she actually died. Joined in friendship, Pegg and Horace soon realize that his photographs are evoking both Eleanora's image and her ghost. Eleanora returns, a vengeful wraith intent on punishing those who abused her.

Rich in detail, full of the magic of early photography, here is a story about the shadows, visible and invisible, that are always lurking near. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Paranormal 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟 

Back of Book: 

The master puppeteer, Gaspare Grisini, is so expert at manipulating his stringed puppets that they appear alive. Clara Wintermute, the only child of a wealthy doctor, is spellbound by Grisini’s act and invites him to entertain at her birthday party. Seeing his chance to make a fortune, Grisini accepts and makes a splendidly gaudy entrance with caravan, puppets, and his two orphaned assistants.

Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are dazzled by the Wintermute home. Clara seems to have everything they lack—adoring parents, warmth, and plenty to eat. In fact, Clara’s life is shadowed by grief, guilt, and secrets. When Clara vanishes that night, suspicion of kidnapping falls upon the puppeteer and, by association, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall.

As they seek to puzzle out Clara’s whereabouts, Lizzie and Parse uncover Grisini’s criminal past and wake up to his evil intentions. Fleeing London, they find themselves caught in a trap set by Grisini’s ancient rival, a witch with a deadly inheritance to shed before it’s too late.  

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Fantasy 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 

Back of Book: 

From the critically acclaimed author of In Darkling Wood comes a spine-tingling novel inspired by Frankenstein with more than a hint of mystery and suspense.

One stormy June evening, five friends meet at Villa Diodati, the summer home of Lord Byron. After dinner is served, they challenge each other to tell ghost stories that will freeze the blood. But one of the guests—Mary Shelley—is stuck for a story to share.

Then there's an unexpected knock at the front door. Collapsed on the doorstep is a girl with strange scars on her face. She has traveled a long way with her own tale to tell, and now they all must listen.

Hers is no ordinary ghost story, though. What starts as a simple tale of village life soon turns to tragedy and the darkest, most dangerous of secrets. Sometimes the truth is far more terrifying than fiction... and the consequences are even more devastating. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Fantasy  

Review: 🌟🌟🌟

Back of Book: 

Parallel plotlines, one told in text and one in art, inform each other as a young girl unravels the mystery of a ghost next door.

Mary is an orphan at the Thornhill Institute for Children at the very moment that it's closing down for good. But when a bully goes too far, Mary's revenge will have a lasting effect on the bully, on Mary, and on Thornhill itself.

Years later, Ella moves to a new town where she has a perfect view of the dilapidated, abandoned Thornhill Institute. Determined to befriend the mysterious, evasive girl she sees there, Ella resolves to unravel Thornhill's history and uncover its secrets.

Ella's story is told through striking, bold art; Mary's is told through diary entries. Each informs the other until the two eventually intersect to reveal the truth behind Thornhill's shadowy past, once and for all. Strikingly told and masterfully illustrated, Pam Smy bends genres and expectations alike. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Paranormal 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟 

Back of Book: 

Ryan and his friends don't think twice about stealing some money from a wishing well. After all, who's really going to miss a few tarnished coins?

The well witch does.

And she demands payback: Now Ryan, Josh, and Chelle must serve her. . . and the wishes that lie rotting at the bottom of her well. Each takes on powers they didn't ask for and don't want. Ryan grows strange bumps—are they eyes?—between his knuckles; Chelle starts speaking the secrets of strangers, no matter how awful and bloody; and Josh can suddenly—inexplicably—grant even the darkest of wishes, the kind of wishes that should never come true.

Darkly witty, wholly unexpected, and exquisitely sinister, Frances Hardinge's Well Witched is one well-cast tale that readers didn't know they were wishing for. 

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Middle Grade | Horror | Fantasy  

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟