Help your little goblins get into the spirit of the season! The staff at Douglas County Libraries has created a fabulous list of books for kids and tweens who like something a little spooky.
Douglas County Libraries elevates our community by inspiring a love of reading, discovery, and connection.
AGES 4-6 |
 | THE BERENSTAIN BEARS TRICK OR TREAT by Stan & Jan Berenstain (Ages 4-6) It’s Halloween, and Brother and Sister can’t wait to go trick-or-treating with all of their friends, but when someone in the group encourages the kids to play a trick, things don’t go as planned.
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 | I WANT TO BE IN A SCARY STORY by Sean Taylor (Ages 4-6) Our author would like to write a funny story, but his main character — Monster — has a different idea. He wants to be the star of a chilling, petrifying, utterly terrifying SCARY story. But scary stories... well, they can be very scary — especially for their characters! Particularly when they involve dark forests and creepy witches and spooky houses... Oh yikes and crikes, maybe Monster wants to be in a funny story after all!
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 | ROOM ON THE BROOM by Julia Donaldson (Ages 4-6) The witch and her cat are happily flying through the sky on a broomstick when the wind picks up and blows away the witch's hat, then her bow, and then her wand! Luckily, three helpful animals find the missing items, and all they want in return is a ride on the broom. When disaster strikes, will they be able to save the witch from a hungry dragon?
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AGES 6-8 |
 | BENEATH THE BED AND OTHER SCARY STORIES by Max Brallier (Ages 6-8) The kids at school dare John to visit the old house on the hill at night, and when he and his sister go in, they find dusty dishes set on the table, a book open like it is waiting for a reader, and something hiding under the bed in the attic — and that is only one of the five scary stories with unexpected twists that are included in this collection.
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 | FLAT STANLEY AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE by Lori Haskins Houran (Ages 6-8) Arthur is excited about a party in a haunted house, and Stanley wants to show off his limbo moves. But when they see a bully picking on their friend at the party, the boys know they have to help. Soon Stanley comes up with a plan that is flat-out hilarious.
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 | THE HAUNTED HOUSE NEXT DOOR by Andres Miedoso (Ages 6-8) When supernatural things start happening in the house that timid Andres and his parents just moved into, next-door neighbor Desmond Cole comes to the rescue.
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 | RISE OF THE BALLOON GOONS by Troy Cummings (Ages 6-8) Alexander has just moved into Stermont, but the elementary school is being torn down, his new classroom is located in the hospital morgue, a notebook he finds is full of information about monsters — and everywhere he turns, there are spooky balloon men determined to attack him.
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 | THE SCHOOL IS ALIVE! by Jack Chabert (Ages 6-8) Sam Graves discovers that his elementary school is alive and plotting against the students. As hall monitor, it is his job to protect them — but he will need some help from his friends.
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AGES 8-12 |
 | THE BAD BEGINNING by Lemony Snicket (Ages 8-12) After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children must depend on each other and their wits when it turns out that the distant relative who is appointed their guardian is determined to use any means necessary to get their fortune.
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 | CITY OF GHOSTS by Victoria Schwab (Ages 8-12) Ever since her near-fatal drowning, Cassidy has been able to pull back the "Veil" that separates the living from the dead and see ghosts — not that she wants to — and she was really looking forward to a ghost-free summer at the beach. However, her parents are going to start filming a TV series about the world's most haunted places, starting with Edinburgh with its graveyards, castles, and restless phantoms — and Cass and her personal ghost companion, Jacob, are about to find out that a city of old ghosts can be a very dangerous place indeed.
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 | THE CROWFIELD CURSE by Pat Walsh (Ages 8-12) In 1347, when 14-year-old orphan William Paynel, an impoverished servant at Crowfield Abbey, goes into the forest to gather wood and finds a magical creature caught in a trap, he discovers he has the ability to see fays and becomes embroiled in a strange mystery involving Old Magic, a bitter feud, and ancient secrets.
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 | DOLL BONES by Holly Black (Ages 8-12) Zach, Alice, and Poppy, friends from a Pennsylvania middle school who have long enjoyed acting out imaginary adventures with dolls and action figures, embark on a real-life quest to Ohio to bury a doll made from the ashes of a dead girl.
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 | GHOST SQUAD by Claribel Ortega (Ages 8-12) 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.
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 | THE GIRL IN THE LOCKED ROOM by Mary Downing Hahn (Ages 8-12) Jules, whose father is restoring an abandoned house, and a girl who lived there a century before begin to communicate, and slowly, the girl's tragic story is revealed.
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 | THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS by John Bellairs (Ages 8-12) Orphaned Lewis Barnavelt comes to live with his Uncle Jonathan and quickly learns that both his uncle and his next-door neighbor are witches on a quest to discover the terrifying clock ticking within the walls of Jonathan's house. Can the three of them save the world from certain destruction?
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 | THE LAST KIDS ON EARTH by Max Brallier (Ages 8-12) After a monster apocalypse hits town, average 13-year-old Jack Sullivan builds a team of friends to help slay the eerily intelligent monster known as Blarg.
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 | THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE by Jonathan Stroud (Ages 8-12) The Screaming Staircase follows three young operatives of a Psychic Detection Agency as they battle an epidemic of ghosts in London.
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 | SHADOW HOUSE: THE GATHERING by Dan Poblocki (Ages 8-12) Poppy Caldwell is an orphan who keeps seeing a figure standing behind her in the mirror at the group home where she lives, but she does not associate this ghost with the letter that mysteriously appears in her file, claiming to be from a long-lost aunt, and inviting her to Larkspur House. She is just one of five children who find themselves gathered in this strange house with a deadly past — and apparently no intention of letting the children escape.
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 | THORNHILL by Pam Smy (Ages 8-12) Parallel plotlines set in different times, one told in text and one in art, inform each other as a young girl unravels the mystery of a ghost next door and Thornhill's shadowy past.
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 | TOOK: A GHOST STORY by Mary Downing Hahn (Ages 8-12) A witch called Old Auntie is lurking near Dan's family's new home. He doesn't believe in her at first but is forced to accept that she is real and take action when his little sister, Erica, is "took" to become Auntie's slave for the next fifty years
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