The Halloween season is the perfect time to read spooky stories. Nights are getting colder and longer and mentions of ghosts seem to be everywhere. Ghost stories are often associated with campfires, marshmallows, and bumps in the night. But sometimes, a ghost story is best read alone. This book list includes twelve riveting ghost stories, all written for readers ages 13-18. Varying in length, style, and level of fright, teen readers who enjoy ghost stories are sure to find a new favorite on this list. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
Seventeen-year-old Denise Farber, her mom, and her stepfather are moving back to New Orleans, into the Argonne house, which is over 100 years old and showing its age, but her mother plans to turn into a bed-and-breakfast. But, old houses have histories, sometimes ghosts, and a mysterious old comic book that Denise finds in the attic may hold the answer to a crime and the terrifying things that keep happening in what she thinks of as the “Agony” house.
For three years, seventeen-year-old Cas Lowood has carried on his father’s work of dispatching the murderous dead, traveling with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. But, everything changes when he meets Anna, a girl unlike any ghost he has faced before.
Anya, embarrassed by her Russian immigrant family and self-conscious about her body, has given up on fitting in at school. However, falling down a well and making friends with the ghost there just may be worse.
Sixteen-year-old Cordelia and her family move into the house they just inherited in Pennsylvania, a former insane asylum the locals call Hysteria Hall. Unfortunately, the house does not want defiant girls like Delia, so it kills her. As she wanders the house, meeting the other ghosts and learning the dark secrets of the Hall, she realizes that she has to find a way to save her sister, parents, and perhaps herself.
Okiku has wandered the world for centuries, freeing the innocent ghosts of the murdered-dead and taking the lives of killers with the vengeance they are due. But when she meets Tark, she knows the moody teen with the series of intricate tattoos is not a monster and needs to be freed from the demonic malevolence that clings to him.
I am Alfonso Jones
By: Tony Medina
Illustrated by: Stacey Robinson and John Jennings
The ghost of fifteen-year-old Alfonso Jones travels in a New York subway car full of the living and the dead, watching his family and friends fight for justice after he is killed by an off-duty police officer while buying a suit in a Midtown department store.
In San Diego in 1918, as deadly influenza and World War I take their toll, sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches desperate mourners flock to seances and spirit photographers for comfort and, despite her scientific leanings, must consider if ghosts are real when her first love, killed in battle, returns.
There are three rules in the neighborhood: Don’t cry; Don’t snitch; Get revenge. Will takes his dead brother Shawn’s gun and gets in the elevator on the 7th floor. As the elevator stops on each floor, someone connected to Shawn gets on. Someone already dead. Dead by teenage gun violence. And each has something to share with Will.
Teens Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna follow all the rules, but when their summoning circle is broken, the vengeful spirit of Bloody Mary slips through. As the girls struggle to escape Mary’s wrath, loyalties are questioned, friendships are torn apart, and lives are changed forever.
As fifteen-year-old Pemba adjusts to leaving her Brooklyn, New York, home for small-town Connecticut, a Black history researcher helps her understand the paranormal experiences drawing her into the life of a mulatto girl who was once a slave in her house.
Teenage Bina runs away to New York City’s Catherine House, a young women’s residence in Greenwich Village with a tragic history and dark secrets, where she is drawn to her mysterious downstairs neighbor Monet.
Seventeen-year-old Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat, able to see ghosts in color and capture them on film. But when a routine hunt goes awry, Micheline is infected with a curse known as a soulchain, and if she is unable to exorcise the entity in seven days, she will be destroyed, body and soul.
Whether you are protecting your school, family, or community, getting rid of zombies takes a lot of bravery. Enjoy these 8 middle grade reads about courageous zombie hunters, and a few courageous zombies themselves.
Arnold Z. Ombee has escaped a secret government lab that’s developing zombies. Young, scared, and alone, he is found by the Kinders, a warmhearted couple who take him in.
The Kinders decide Arnold will become part of their family. They help him disguise his undead appearance and teach him how to act like a human boy. After a lot of practice, he’s ready for the ultimate test: Fifth grade!
After he is almost eaten by one of his classmates, zombie-hunting fourth grader Larry Mullet and his friends fight back against the zombies who have invaded their school.
When the head of the Bureau of Useful Misadventures (or BUM) discovers that an evil organization is using the Student Mind and Body competition to recruit agents, he asks Nathan to enter the competition, but things go terribly wrong when Nathan’s nemesis starts to notice some odd things about him, and Nathan fears his zombie identity will be exposed.
Reports of zombies and grave-robbers alarm the people of a Louisiana swampland village, but Ruth Rose, Josh, and Dink begin to suspect that the supernatural may not be the cause of the eerie occurrences.
When planning for Cockenzie Rood Day, Prince Albion gets kidnapped because a zombie wants to play his fiddle in the talent contest. Trueheart, a prince and Gubble the troll must stop the zombie before real damage is done to the Five Kingdoms.
While trying to survive after zombies take over Phoenix, Arizona, Zack, Rice, and Madison discover a zombie antidote and embark on a mission to save the nation from the undead scourge.
Katie and her eleven-year old brother Andy Lawrence move to Appleton, and while spending a day sightseeing at the famous Appleton Orchard strange things start happening, starting with their parents turning into appleheads and the town’s children are turning into zombies.
Spooky mansions are the perfect setting for an unsolved mystery. These 13 titles take readers into spooky, secretive halls for hours of engaging storytelling. A list geared towards 8 to 12-year-old readers.
When their parents divorce, twelve-year-old twins Felix and Maisie move with their mother to live in the attic of a historic Newport, Rhode Island, mansion where they discover a hidden room that carries with it an intriguing secret.
After Grandma gets sick, Christina must spend lonely days with her grumpy Uncle Ralph in a spooky, isolated Victorian mansion, but things change when she meets the ghost of a little boy, who may be linked to a thirty-year-old murder.
Pre-teen sleuth Hannah West gets caught up in a mystery involving feng shui and missing antiques while housesitting a mansion on Seattle’s famed Millionaire’s Row.
When the polluted beach at their Malibu condo forces them to relocate to a holistic spa next door, Nancy Drew and her friends investigate the spa’s motivational guru, whom they believe may be responsible for the local ocean garbage dumping.
Carlos and his friends must uncover who is sending death threats to a wealthy eccentric or Carlos’ mother may lose her business, and the reader decides which clues they will follow.
Set at America’s largest private residence-250 rooms-with real secret passages! Readers learn about the Victorian era when electricity & other “newfangled” things kids take for granted today first came to be. Napoleon, the Vanderbilts, & some of America’s greatest writers figure into the plot, as does natural resource conservation.
Winston attends a weekend of puzzles at a famous musician’s mansion, but when he and other young guests pursue a thief, they find themselves in big trouble. Puzzles for the reader to solve are included throughout the text.
Fifth-grader Trina, who has never lived anywhere long enough to call home, is excited about moving into Goldenrod, an abandoned mansion, with her dad. But soon Goldenrod brings its secrets to her attention, including a forgotten doll, leaving Trina wondering what the old house wants from her.
Maggie Brooklyn is distracted from solving the mystery of who is out to sabotage the new sweet shop in the neighborhood because her new dogsitting job has her and her twin brother Finn spending time in what may be a real haunted mansion.
In 1899, a twelve-year-old rat catcher on North Carolina’s Biltmore estate teams up with the estate owner’s young nephew to battle a great evil and, in the process, unlocks the puzzle of her past.
When eleven-year-old Olive and her distracted parents move into an old Victorian mansion, Olive finds herself ensnared in a dark plan involving some mysterious paintings, a trapped and angry nine-year-old boy, and three talking cats.
Moving into an inherited mansion in Maine with their mother and stroke-afflicted father, three siblings uncover a mystery involving hidden passageways, family rivalries, and healing waters.
After reviewing hundreds of upcoming titles featuring female characters, we decided to hone our Fall Fiction List to include books with female characters involved in problem-solving, acts of bravery, or adjusting to a new normal. Each title was chosen to fill a spot on your shelf to encourage not only girls, but all students who find themselves in these situations. Suggested age range and month of publication is included with each entry. Be sure to use the links provided to find similar books to those shown.
When thirteen-year-old Ellie’s Grandpa Melvin, a world-renowned scientist in the body of a fourteen-year-old boy, comes for an extended visit, he teaches her that experimenting–and failing–is part of life. Ages 8-12. (September)
A young girl wakes her father by informing him that she is Queen Alice, then draws him and other family members into her imaginative activities, from writing a book to a sleepover with fairies. Ages 3-5. (September)
Bullied while attending fifth grade with the Islanders, Sasha, who always loved being part of Cirque Magnifique, wishes it would all go away. But, when her parents disappear in the Smoke, it is up to her to save them. Ages 8–12. (September)
Princess Penelope Pineapple and her fellow princesses from the Fruit Nations are on a mission to rescue the Strawberry Kingdom’s food from certain ruin, and surprisingly Penny’s beloved bees are the key to saving the realm’s produce. Ages 3-6. (September)
Property Jones and her family are in dire straits when they win a drawing for the greatest bookstore in England, but the previous owner was hiding something nearly as big as Property’s secret. Ages 8–12. (October)
Pa Paw and Lorraine always lift their spirits by playing music together, but their instruments are missing when a fearsome storm hits the Tennessee hills. Lorraine must find the music inside her to get through it. Ages 4–8. (October)
When Rosie is unable to invent a contraption to help one of Aunt Rose’s Raucous Riveters friends, she calls on classmates Iggy Peck and Ada Twist to help. Ages 6-9. (October)
After hitting her head, Ellie Charles, thirteen, encounters a mysterious girl who takes her to moments in her past that explain how she became a manipulative, unhappy person in a story reminiscent of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Ages 10-14 (October)
Susan loves her baby sister, Jackie, but as Jackie grows older and behaves more and more like a boy Susan must adjust to having a brother, Jack, instead. Ages 4–8. (October)
The debut novel in a series about a girl in England, twelve-year-old Kat Wolfe, who starts a pet-sitting agency and finds herself unraveling mysteries. The owner of her first client goes missing and only her new friend shares Kat’s conviction that the parrot’s owner is the victim of foul play. Ages 8–12. (October)
Stella Starflake Pearl just wants to be part of the Polar Bear Explorers Club. But Stella’s a girl, and everyone knows that girls aren’t allowed to be explorers but Stella’s ready to prove everyone wrong. Ages 8–12. (November)
Last week while working on a weeding project in the nonfiction section, I stumbled upon the book Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the women who created her by Melanie Rehak. This book’s premise is how the Nancy Drew series came to be and the two most influential authors of the series. I had known that Carolyn Keene was the pseudonym for the two authors of the series but I had no idea the full, fascinating history of Nancy Drew.
As Rehak and other online sources confirm, Nancy Drew was the creation of Edward Stratemeyer and sold to publishers through his Stratemeyer Syndicate business. Stratemeyer began his career as a writer, and with a head full of too many ideas to write by himself, created a company in which he created story titles, characters, and outlines and then hired freelance writers to turn the ideas into full-fledged books. The endeavor was very prosperous for Stratemeyer and the Stratemeyer Syndicate churned out many fifty-cent dime store juvenile novel series for both boys and girls in the early 1900s. After the success of a detective series about two brothers, the Hardy Boys, Stratemeyer set his sights on creating a detective series with a female lead character. The idea for Nancy Drew was born.
To write the Nancy Drew series, Stratemeyer offered the opportunity to Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson, the ghostwriter of Stratemeyer’s Ruth Fielding series. Benson developed Nancy into an independent, strong, resourceful, and optimistic character. Instantly, Nancy Drew became a hit and was admired by young readers. Benson wrote 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew novels. She stopped writing the series when her pay was reduced after Stratemeyer’s daughters took over the company (after Stratemeyer’s death) but returned later for a few more.
Some sources claim up to eight different writers contributed to the Nancy Drew series. If so, who was the other influential Nancy Drew author? Rehak suggests it was Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, one of Edward Stratemeyer’s daughters who took over the company. Harriet and her sister Edna both continued to create plots and outlines for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, just as their father had, and followed the same business model of hiring ghostwriters. While the company had many series simultaneously being published, the Nancy Drew series was by far the biggest money maker. As decades changed, Harriet proved pivotal in keeping the character Nancy Drew up-to-date and in many ways true to the original characteristics of Nancy, though all readers would not agree.
The Stratemeyer Syndicate was often criticized by other writers and publications for producing mass-produced, just-to-sell stories. As a librarian, I see these types of novels as something different. I see them as a way to hook a reluctant reader and love to see the enthusiasm that a child expresses when she is telling about what she has read. Regardless of how you feel about true authorship in the Nancy Drew series, or the other series produced by Stratemeyer, I have witnessed countless children follow their favorite detective characters through many novels as I am sure many of you have also. When interviewing children about why they like these types of novels, you receive answers such as “I like that she got the bad guys,” “I guessed who do it before Nancy did,” or “I want to be a detective when I grow up just like Nancy.” I have a feeling that their parents are reading Stephanie Plum and Kinsey Millhone. So, thank you, Nancy Drew.
The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew may have started the detective mystery for children’s reading, but many notable detectives have held their own throughout the years. The list of sleuths that follows is divided by the age of the sleuth, not by reading level. We were disappointed to find little diversity in modern publications, a problem that we hope publishers will remedy.
Sly the Sleuth, also known as Sylvia, solves three mysteries for her friends and neighbors, all involving pets, through her detective agency, Sleuth for Hire.
A Hollywood actress, who had been competing with Sammy’s mother for an important role, is murdered, but thirteen-year-old Sammy and her friend Marissa are on the case.
When Cam Jansen and her friend Eric uncover a mystery while selling fudge door-to-door to raise money for the local library, Cam uses her photographic memory to foil a crime.
Sophie and her friends, who call themselves The Red Blazer Girls, embark on solving a case involving mistaken identities, switched paintings, and some priceless family heirlooms.
When the Black Dinosaurs, a club made up of four friends, discover what’s hidden in an old trunk buried near their clubhouse, they set out to solve the mystery.
When Annie tells him about her missing painting, Nate the Great and his trusted companion, Sam Spade, set out to investigate, gather clues, and solve the mystery.
Each chapter is a new mystery to be solved: The case of the stolen money — The case of the talking house — The case of the two-timers — The case of the false teeth — The case of the skin diver — The case of the barefoot thieves — The case of the dog-paddle derby — The case of the broken globe — The case of the pet skunk — The case of the seven-foot diver.
When twelve-year-old Steve Brixton, a fan of Bailey Brothers detective novels, is mistaken for a real detective, he must elude librarians, police, and the mysterious Mr. E as he seeks a missing quilt containing coded information.
Saxby Smart, schoolboy private detective, invites the reader to follow the clues as he investigates three cases involving hidden treasure, a string of break-ins where nothing is stolen, and a rare comic book taken from an undamaged safe.
When Ned convinces Nancy to join him at the Rocky Isle Marine Institute in Maine, she discovers that the aquarium’s baby dolphin is being held for a million-dollar ransom.
Almost-fifteen-year-old psychic investigator Gilda Joyce interns for the summer at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., and solves a mystery involving national security.
Frank and Joe Hardy follow dangerous copycat pranks to a criminal group, identify the culprits who key an expensive car and post a video on the Internet; investigate the disappearance of an amusement park patron; and seek two missing girls.
