It’s that time of year. The leaves are turning, the days are shorter, the mornings are colder. And that’s not the only kind of chill that comes around this time of year. It’s the season for ghosts and spectrals, chills and thrills. And what better way to celebrate than with a ghostly thriller set in none other than New England, home to some of the best ghost stories out there? Here are five middle grade novels perfect for late fall reading.
All the Lovely Bad Ones, by Mary Downing Hahn
Every good list of ghost stories has to include a title by Mary Downing Hahn, and this one is no exception. In All the Lovely Bad Ones, we meet mischevious siblings Travis and Corey. When they discover that their grandmother’s Vermont inn is supposedly haunted, they decide to play a few tricks on the guests. It’s all fun and games, and tourists are flocking to the inn to see the spectral sights, until Corey and Travis realize that they’ve awakened something more dark and sinister than they could have ever imagined. Suddenly, playing ghost isn’t so fun anymore.
The Peculiar Haunting of Thelma Bee, by Erin Petti
Eleven-year-old Thelma Bee is always up for exploration. Whether it’s learning a new language, or testing a hypotheis with a new science experiment, Thelma’s curiousity is front-and-center in everything she does. But when a ghost steals her father, and the only clues are a mysterious jewelry box, and a final one-word message the ghost whispered in her ear, Thelma may be in over her head. She’s the only one who can get her father back, but only if she can make it back herself.
The Girl Behind the Glass, by Jane Kelley
For 11 years, twins Hannah and Anna have agreed on everything. When the family moves temporarily to the house on Hemlock Road, the twins agree that they don’t want to leave their old friends and their old lives behind. The only reason they’re moving anyway is because their older sister failed to get into the fancy private Brooklyn school. Now they’re stuck in an old creepy house. The longer the family stays at the house, the stranger (and scarier) things become. Perhaps the strangest of all is the wedge that’s driven between Anna and Hannah. It’s almost as though someone…or something…is trying to drive them apart. Mystery, jealousy, tragedy: This book has it all.
Something Upstairs, by Avi
Old houses all come with their quirks, but the dark stain on the floor of 12-year-old Kenny’s attic bedroom in his new Rhode Island home seems particularly ominous. Sure enough, the next night a shadow emerges from the stain and begins making its way around the room. Once Kenny recovers from his gut-clenching fear, he discovers the shadow is Caleb, a 16-year-old slave who was murdered in that very room over 200 years ago. Caleb’s story leads Kenny to make a promise, one that has him traveling back in time to the 1700s. But once there, Kenny encounters a cast of dangerous characters (no surprise, considering why he’s there in the first place) that threaten to trap him in the 1700s. Will Kenny make it back home to the present again?
Listening for Lucca, by Suzanne LaFleur
13-year-old Siena’s three-year-old brother, Lucca, hasn’t spoken in 18 months. That’s around the time that Siena began collecting abandoned objects. It’s also around the time she started having dreams of crashing planes, and a house overlooking the ocean. When Siena’s parents move the family from Brooklyn to a new house in Maine, hoping for a fresh start, Siena’s dreams and reality collide when she recognizes their new home overlooking the ocean as the one from her dreams. As Siena learns the history of the house and its inhabitants, the past and present become even more entangled and the veil between two worlds just a little bit thinner.
What books have you sleeping with a flashlight under your pillow this month?
The post 5 Creepy Books Set in New England for Chilly Nights appeared first on The B&N Kids Blog.