Ghosts and witches and werepenguins, oh my! Welcome to the wonderful time of year when creepy stories crawl into our laps on eight legs. For fans of Goosebumps and other spooky stories, here is a list of books at the Westfield Athenaeum that will fill your evenings with ghoulish fun.
Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega
“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.”
The Curse of the Werepenguin by Allan Woodrow
“All orphan Bolt Wattle has ever wanted was to find his true family. When a mysterious baron in far-off Brugaria sends for Bolt, he wonders if he’s getting closer to finding his long-lost parents. But Baron Chordata appears to be a twelve-year-old boy who wears tuxedos all the time, shouts at everyone, and forbids Bolt from asking questions. Things couldn’t get any worse … until midnight, when the Baron bites Bolt and turns him into a half boy, half penguin. With the help and hindrance of a plucky girl who just might be the world’s greatest bandit, a whale cult led by a man whose weapon is a stale loaf of French bread, and a sinister but friendly fortune-teller who can’t stop cackling, Bolt’s on a quest to reverse the curse, return to human form, and stop the Baron from taking over the country of Brugaria with his army of mind-controlled penguins..”
Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
“After suffering a tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie only finds solace in books. So when she happens upon a crazed woman at the river threatening to throw a book into the water, Ollie doesn’t think–she just acts, stealing the book and running away. As she begins to read the slender volume, Ollie discovers a chilling story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who both loved her, and a peculiar deal made with “the smiling man,” a sinister specter who grants your most tightly held wish, but only for the ultimate price. On the way home, the school bus breaks down, sending their teacher back to the farm for help. But the strange bus driver has some advice for the kids left behind in his care: “Best get moving. At nightfall they’ll come for the rest of you.” Nightfall is, indeed, fast descending when Ollie’s previously broken digital wristwatch, a keepsake reminder of better times, begins a startling countdown and delivers a terrifying message: RUN. Only Ollie and two of her classmates heed the bus driver’s warning. As the trio head out into the woods–bordered by a field of scarecrows that seem to be watching them–the bus driver has just one final piece of advice for Ollie and her friends: “Avoid large places. Keep to small.” And with that, a deliciously creepy and hair-raising adventure begins.”
Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie
Claire has absolutely no interest in the paranormal. She’s a scientist, which is why she can’t think of anything worse than having to help out her dad on one of his ghost-themed Chicago bus tours. She thinks she’s made it through when she sees a boy with a sad face and dark eyes at the back of the bus. There’s something off about his presence, especially because when she checks at the end of the tour…he’s gone.
Claire tries to brush it off, she must be imagining things, letting her dad’s ghost stories get the best of her. But then the scratching starts. Voices whisper to her in the dark. The number 396 appears everywhere she turns. And the boy with the dark eyes starts following her.
Claire is being haunted. The boy from the bus wants something…and Claire needs to find out what before it’s too late.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.
Jaclyn Hyde by Annabeth Bondor-Stone & Connor White
“Jaclyn Hyde is almost perfect. Whether she’s baking cookies for her classmates, building a replica Mt. Vesuvius for the science fair, or practicing her lines for Fog Island. But when she discovers the last batch of perfection potion in an abandoned laboratory, Jaclyn decides that being almost perfect isn’t perfect enough anymore. But instead, she finds out that trying to be perfectly perfect isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, it’s downright horrifying. The potion turns Jaclyn into Jackie, a goblin-like monster who’ll do anything to make sure Jaclyn comes out on top. Suddenly, she’s wreaking havoc on the school play, stealing someone else’s brownies to pass off as her own, and even destroying someone’s painting to get herself crowned “Artist of the Week.” And that’s just the beginning. Jackie will stop at nothing to make sure everyone knows just how perfect Jaclyn really is. So now, if Jaclyn wants to save her school, her friends, and herself from her perfectly horrifying alter-ego, she’s going to have to screw up her courage and risk it all — even if that means admitting that she never was as perfect as she seemed.”
Night Frights: The Haunted Mustache by Joe McGee
Fifth-graders Parker and Lucas get more than they bargained for when they seek to debunk one of Wolver Hollow’s greatest legends about a haunted mustache that, every year on the anniversary of its owner’s death, seeks a lip to claim as its own.
Karma Moon Ghost Hunter by Melissa Savage
“While in a haunted Colorado hotel for her father’s ghost-hunting television series, Karma Moon must battle her anxiety, interpret the signs of the universe, and get footage of a real ghost–you know, the usual”
The Witches by Roald Dahl
A young boy is placed in the custody of his eccentric witch-expert grandmother before being transformed into a mouse by an evil coven that is plotting against local kids.
Ophie’s Ghosts by Justina Ireland
Discovering her ability to see ghosts when a cruel act ends her father’s life and forces her to move in with relatives in 1920s Pittsburgh, young Ophelia forges a helpful bond with a spirit whose own life ended suddenly and unjustly.
Rise of Zombert by Kara LaReau
Secretly rescuing a stray cat while helping Danny make a horror film, Mellie becomes the recipient of the cat’s gifts of headless birds and mice, while Danny harbors growing suspicions that the cat is actually a zombie.
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in . . .
For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.
Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest, most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.
The Thirteenth Cat by Mary Downing Hahn
Zoey loves spending the summer with her Aunt Alice, and her aunt’s new house is the perfect place to cozy up with a good book. But she’s unnerved by the overgrown forest next door, which is creepy even in the daytime and full of eerie sounds at night. Worse, there are rumors in town of a dark force in those woods. And Zoey can’t deny that the wild black cats who live there seem to be watching her.
When she encounters a mean old woman who claims to be their owner, Zoey realizes there’s more to the cats than meets the eye. But little does she know that the closer she comes to discovering their secret, the more danger she’s in . . .
Legend of the Ghost Dog by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
With her beagle Henry and her new friend Quin, twelve-year-old Tee is determined to solve the mystery of “the Shadow”, the ghostly animal that is believed to haunt the Alaskan wilderness near her new home in Nome
No Place for Monsters by Kory Merritt
Cowslip Grove seems like the perfect place to raise a family until the children start disappearing. Nobody looks for the children because nobody can remember them. Nobody except Levi and Kat. Now they must figure out what terrible presence is taking the chilren and fight it to save the missing kids, before the whole town disappears.
School of the Dead by Avi
For most of Tony Gilbert’s life, he has thought of his uncle as “Weird Uncle Charlie.” That is, until Uncle Charlie moves in with Tony and his family. Uncle Charlie is still odd, of course–talking about spirits and other supernatural stuff–but he and Tony become fast friends, and Tony ends up having a lot of fun with Uncle Charlie. When Uncle Charlie dies suddenly, Tony is devastated. Then he starts seeing Uncle Charlie everywhere! It doesn’t help that Tony switched schools–it was Uncle Charlie’s dying wish that Tony attend the Penda School, where Uncle Charlie himself went as a kid. The Penda School is eerie enough without his uncle’s ghost making it worse. On top of that, rumors have been circulating about a student who went missing shortly before Tony arrived. Could that somehow be related to Uncle Charlie’s ghost?
