Middle grade novels are my favorite! I’ve blogged about this before so it’s not a surprise. The length is perfect and they’re always so well written. One of my favorite things though, is just how many different genres there are for our intermediate readers! My favorite is historical fiction, but every once in a while, I add a “spooky” book into the mix.
Last year I read Serafina and the Black Cloak and LOVED it! I wouldn’t say it was necessarily spooky, but it was definitely creepy. The setting is the famous Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. Knowing the setting is a real place, made it even creepier. I haven’t read the next two books in the series….yet, but they are on my list.
In honor of Halloween, I’ve rounded up 8 of my all time favorite “spooky” books for our intermediate students. Some are more more fun, than spooky, but all would be perfect for the season!
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A brave and unusual girl named Serafina lives secretly in the basement of the grand Biltmore Estate amidst the splendor of the Gilded Age. Serafina’s pa, the estate’s maintenance man, has warned her to keep herself hidden from the fancy folk who live on the floors above, but when children at the estate start disappearing, Serafina and her friend Braeden Vanderbilt must work together to solve a dark and dangerous mystery.
When Henry Davis moves into the neighborhood, Barbara Anne and her classmates at Washington Carver Elementary don’t know what to make of him. He’s pale, small, odd. For curious Barbara Anne, Henry’s also a riddle–a boy who sits alone at recess sketching in a mysterious notebook, a boy, she soon learns, who’s being haunted by a ghost named Edgar.
August DuPont has spent his whole life inside an old house with his aunt Hydrangea. His lonely existence ends abruptly with the arrival of an invitation to meet an aunt–and cousins–he didn’t even know existed. When Aunt Orchid suggests that August attend school with his cousins, it’s a dream come true. But August has scarcely begun to celebrate his reversal of fortune when he is confronted by a small problem on his way home. 8
The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane
When she arrives at school, she finds the strange symbols from the medallions etched into walls and books, which leads Emmy and her new friends, Jack and Lola, to Wellsworth’s secret society: The Order of Black Hollow Lane. Emmy can’t help but think that the society had something to do with her dad’s disappearance, and that there may be more than just dark secrets in the halls of Wellsworth…
Rosa Diaz has her hands full of ghosts. She saved the town of Ingot by unleashing all the ghosts who were previously banished. Now, like the rest of the world, Ingot is filled with spirits and poltergeists. But unlike the rest of the world, the town’s living residents have no idea how to cope, and some of the ghosts are holding century-old grudges.
Tanya has always been the unflappably cool and collected one in her friend group. So when she begins babysitting for her neighbor’s great-niece, she’s surprised to find herself super freaked out by the doll collection in the house. They’re just toys right? But when her babysitting charge becomes a little too attached to the doll, Tanya realizes the doll might be the incarnation of a supernatural threat Tanya and her friends have faced before.
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. Then things really couldn’t get worse– nope, wait, they get a lot worse.
Irréelle fears she’s not quite real. Only the finest magical thread tethers her to life―and to Miss Vesper. But for all her efforts to please her cruel creator, the thread is unraveling. Irréelle is forgetful as she gathers bone dust. She is slow returning from the dark passages beneath the cemetery. Worst of all, she is unmindful of her crooked bones.
Windy City Literacy 