The days are growing shorter, and Halloween is drawing nearer... It's the perfect time to curl up with a spooky read!
These middle grade tales of horror and fantasy will be sure to give you chills.
Craving more spooky tales? Visit our catalogue to find stories about haunted houses, borrow a terrifying eBook from CloudLibrary, or explore Hoopla's children's horror titles.
The Jumbies
Corinne La Mer claims she isn't afraid of anything. Not scorpions, not the boys who tease her, and certainly not jumbies. They're just tricksters made up by parents to frighten their children. When a beautiful stranger plans to claim the entire island for the jumbies, Corinne must call on her courage and her friends and learn to use ancient magic she didn't know she possessed to save her island home.
Hoodoo
In 1930s Alabama, twelve-year-old Hoodoo Hatcher is the only member of his family who seems unable to practice folk magic, but when a mysterious man called the Stranger puts the entire town at risk from his black magic, Hoodoo must learn to conjure to defeat him.
Spirit Hunters
Harper doesn't trust her new home from the moment she steps inside, and the rumors are that the Raine family's new house is haunted. Harper isn't sure she believes those rumors, until her younger brother, Michael, starts acting strangely.
Small Spaces
Ollie discovers a chilling ghost story about a girl, Elizabeth Morrison, who is being chased through cornfields filled with scarecrows by two brothers with deadly intent. When she finds the graves of Elizabeth Morrison and her tormentors on a farm during a school trip, Ollie starts to think this book is more than just a book. On the ride home, the school bus breaks down along the side of the road. In order to survive whatever is coming, they'll need to keep to small spaces.
Ghost Hunter's Daughter
Claire doesn't believe in ghosts, even though her dad is a ghost hunter on TV. But then her dad disappears. Claire and a classmate set out for the town of Hush Falls, where her dad was last seen. Legend says that a tall man in a dark tattered coat lurks near the local reservoir, and anyone who gets too close to old Lemuel Hush is never heard from again. Claire is determined to rescue her father, but how can she save him from the ghost of Hush when everyone knows that seeing the ghost means that you're destined to die?
Part of Your Nightmare
When eleven-year-old Shelly Anderson finds a mysterious nautilus shell at her family's aquarium and meets The Little Mermaid's infamous sinister sea witch, Ursula, she agrees to help the witch in exchange for becoming the fastest swimmer on her school's swim team. But after Shelly's wish quickly goes belly-up, she must figure out how to back out of the witch's deal before it forever binds her fate.
Scare Me
Every year, the town of Happy Hills holds its haunted house contest. In a spooky old manor, teams of kids come up with new ways to frighten people. The scariest team wins. But this year, all the teams are going to lose. Because this year the house itself has awakened . . . and it won't be happy until it's devoured all the people inside. What started out as a game has turned into something much more deadly.
Twist
Eli hopes to be the next Stephen King, and he's just created his best monster yet! Neha has a notebook is filled with drawings of a fantasy world called Forest Creeks, and it's become inhabited by wonderful imaginary creatures. Court has a gift, both for finding trouble and for stopping it. And when she accidentally ends up with one of Neha's drawings, she quickly realizes that the monsters raiding Forest Creeks are coming from Eli's stories. When these three creative kids come together, they accidentally create a doorway from Forest Creeks into the real world, and now every monster that Eli ever imagined has been unleashed upon their town!
Don't Turn Out The Lights: A Tribute To Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark
Flesh-hungry ogres? Brains full of spiders? Haunted houses you can't escape? This collection of 35 terrifying stories from the Horror Writers Association has it all, including ghastly illustrations from Iris Compiet that will absolutely chill readers to the bone.
Fearsome Creatures Of The Lumberwoods
Meet the snoligoster, who feeds on the shadows of its victims. The whirling whimpus, who once laid low an entire Boy Scout troop. These and 17 other fearsome creatures are among the most fantastical beasts in American folklore. Their stories, as narrated by one of the last surviving cryptozoologists, are best enjoyed while sitting around a campfire. If you dare.
