Scary (and Not so Scary) Stories for Kids

Books for Younger Readers

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Aaron, Huw

Even the scariest creatures, from werewolves to vampires, must brush their teeth, put on pajamas, and settle down for a night of rest.

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Baptiste, Tracey

Mama says jumbies exist only in stories. So Naya sets out on a nighttime adventure to find out for herself ... Naya is sure that jumbies are real. Some have big mouths. Or thick fur. Or glowing skin. Or sharp teeth. Kind of like her new friends.

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Birkjær, Betina

There's a monster living in the attic. Not a loud monster but a quiet one. It's probably making a kid trap. Each night, it grows in the dark. Everyone knows monsters feed on darkness. This is Monster-Scared. With humor and charm, award-winning author Betina Birkjær and illustrator Zarah Juul show us how the things we can't see grow bigger and scarier, how the slightest sound or shadow can send shivers down our back, and how monsters are--perhaps--mostly scary in our imagination.

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Burleigh, Robert

A lively, rhythmic Halloween read aloud that follows a group of zombie pumpkins as they celebrate the season.

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Cuyler, Margery

Stompie the zombie is so excited that his relatives are coming for a family reunion. After all, it's been 500 years since their last one! But on the way to the GROSS-ery store to pick up some last-minute re-FLESH-ments, Stompie has a BUMPY spill on his cycle and BREAKS A BONE. Luckily, Itchy Witchy is nearby, and she flies him to Urgent Scare on her broom.

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Heikkilä, Cecilia

Fox and Mole live alone on a headland, in two houses, side by side. Mole is carefree and self-centred. Fox is responsible and self-sacrificing. As autumn draws in, the friends read a spooky story together (that Mole keeps interrupting) about a racoon who transforms into a scuffling monster (a slightly spooky bit) while Mole eats Fox's cookies (all of them). Fox's anger with Mole's lack of consideration builds, and when Mole forgets Fox's birthday, Fox too begins to transform... Can Mole recognise what's wrong and fix things before it's too late?

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Joosse, Barbara M.

When a young boy tries to settle down to sleep for the night, strange and scary noises from the city streets keep him awake.

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Lyall, Casey

Once upon a time a vampire took a bite of a jam sandwich ... and a legend was born. Now the vampire jam sandwich roams the streets, looking for MORE JAM. Will yours be next?

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Poblocki, Dan

Two siblings spend the night at their grandparents' old, possibly haunted house, and their paranormal concerns seem validated when strange noises and sounds begin to come from one sibling's pants.

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Reynolds, Aaron

Jasper Rabbit tells the eerie tale of Charlie Marmot, whose decision to keep his tonsils after surgery leads to creepy, mysterious events.

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Shiotani, Mamiko

A grumpy ghost spends long nights swooping up and down and round and round in his dark and dusty attic. He likes being inside, alone. But maybe he's also a little frightened of anything else. Then a curious girl arrives in his attic. The little ghost sulks: why won't this annoying and slightly scary child go away?

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Sima, Jessie

When a house believes she is haunted, she tries everything in her power to stop it in order to get people to move in--until she realizes that she is fine just the way she is.

Books for Older Readers

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A collection of scary stories depicting the end of the world.

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Acevedo, Chantel

When his family moves into a lighthouse in Spectacle Key, Florida, where strange things begin to happen, Frank Fernandez meets a mysterious girl who needs his help with lifting the island's dark curse.

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Aguirre, Jorge Augusto

For hundreds of years, something in the basement of Glenfield Middle School has waited for its chance to open a portal into the realm of monsters. Now its time has come, and the school is going to need a hero.

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Allen, Josh

A collection of thirteen scary stories with shocking twists on everyday reality, from an innocent set of dark, dusty basement stairs to a piano recital that requires unusual sacrifices.

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Anderson, V. P.

After ice-skater and Olympic hopeful Mina wipes out at her biggest competition she gets recruited by a squad of vampires who need a human player to complete their Paranormal Roller Derby team.

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Atwood, Megan

Eleven-year-old Stan cannot convince anyone that the garden gnomes he has always feared are connected to reports of missing persons and the strange sights and sounds he has observed.

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Bass, Guy

Stitch Head was the first creation to be born--and the first to be forgotten. He's the adorably monstrous creation of Professor Erasmus Erasmus, a man who has breathed life into over three hundred creatures with all manner of fangs, tails, and eyes. But as good as Erasmus is at giving life, he's equally bad at taking care of it. And so the duty falls to Stitch Head to ensure his siblings don't tear Castle Grotteskew apart.

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Bowles, David

Cousins Malia, Ivan, and Dante are visiting their aunt Lucy for the summer. But on their way to Gulf City's water park, they get lost on 13th Street--only it's not a street at all. It's a strange world filled with dangerous beasts. Will the cousins find their way back to Aunt Lucy's?

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Brallier, Max

A collection of five scary stories, first featuring Jason, sleeping over at his uncle Henry's house, who needs to take a long, dark walk to the bathroom only to find someone is waiting for him inside.

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Campbell, Jen

Do you dare read this collection of terrifyingly gruesome tales? In this gripping volume, author Jen Campbell offers young readers an edgy, contemporary, and inclusive take on classic fairy tales, taking them back to their gory beginnings while updating them for a modern audience with queer and disabled characters and positive representation of disfigurement.

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Carter, Brooke

In this partially illustrated early chapter book, ten-year-old nonbinary Sly works to solve riddles and locate the spell that can save them, their grandmother and a ghost girl from being stuck forever in an enchanted mirror.

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Clanton, Ben

In the hilarious eighth book of this blockbuster graphic novel series, Narwhal and Jelly celebrate the spookiest time of the year -- Halloween -- with a super twist!

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Cuevas, Adrianna

No one has ever called Frani Gonzalez squeamish. Seriously, whether it's guts (no big deal), bugs (move aside, she's got this), or anything else that you might find at the Central Texas Forensic Anthropology Research Facility, to her and her dad, the university's body farm is just home. Having bodies buried in her backyard doesn't exactly make Frani the most popular kid in school, and the imaginary spider that lives in a web in her brain isn't helping either.

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Gonzales, Chuck

Months after his success at the BMX expo, Carlos is facing a lot of changes. Another Latino family has moved into town; his best friend RJ seems more interested in hanging out with the soccer team than Carlos; and the terrifying Mrs. Wynkle has roped him into directing the school spring play. Carlos and his co-director, Mark, are determined to make the most exciting play the school has seen, but they quickly learn that their creative visions may be at odds.

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Gutman, Dan

The Ella Mentry School kids tell each other seven scary stories during their playgound sleepover.

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Hartman, Aubrey

An undead fox serving as the Usher of souls has his life upended when a mysterious badger soul appears.

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Hermon, Daka

Something is wrong with twelve-year-old Zee, who has returned after a year's absence; nobody knows where he was or what happened to him, but now he is distracted and violent, freaking out when he sees his friends, Justin, Nia, and Lyric, playing an odd game of hide-and-seek, and talking wildly about some danger that is approaching--and soon his friends are pulled into a shadowy world ruled by a monstrous, shape-shifting Seeker, forced to play a terrifying game of hide-and-seek where they will have to confront their worst nightmares in order to find their way home.

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Ireland, Justina

The Shady Pines trailer park seems like a miserable place to spend a summer, even before an elderly neighbor suddenly passes away. But then Tasha meets a girl named Ellie who says she knows what really killed old Mr. Harold: a terrifying creature that stalks the trailer park at night, sucking the life from its victims.

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Klassen, Jon

This is an old story. It is about a girl named Otilla who runs away. It is also about a house in the woods, and a skull who lives there, and a secret the skull has, and the night that Otilla finds out what that secret is.

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Lacera, Megan

A group of diverse kids turn to the mythical monsters from their respective cultures to help them save the only home they have ever known.

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Lai, Remy

July Chen sees ghosts. But her dad insists ghosts aren't real. So she pretends they don't exist. Which is incredibly difficult now as it's Hungry Ghost month, when the Gates of the Underworld open and dangerous ghosts run amok in the living world. When July saves a boy ghost from being devoured by a Hungry Ghost, he becomes her first ever friend. Except William is not a ghost. He's a wandering soul wavering between life and death. 

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Lucas, Chad

Bones Malone feels like he can't do anything right in his new small town: He almost punched the son of the woman who babysits him and his brothers, he's one of the only Black kids in Langille, and now his baseball team...just lost their first game...And then he and his brothers have the same dream--one where they're running from some of their deepest fears, like a bear and an eerie cracked mirror that Bones would rather soon forget.

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Mejia, Tehlor Kay

In Silver Springs, Arizona, her mother's stories of the monstrous La Llorona are thrilling but unbelievable to science-loving Paola until she and her best friends Dante and Emma take a walk through a cactus field near the Gila River.

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Méndez, Yamile Saied

Few campers at Camp Apple Hill Farm have found the mysterious cabin rumored to be hidden deep in the woods--but those who have whisper of a mysterious woman who tells tales of horrors beyond imagination. Are you brave enough to visit Cabin 23?

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Mensah, Bernard

Eight-year-old Kwame is eager to start Nkonyaa School and learn calabash magic, yet none of the teachers can figure out what kind of magic is in his calabash--but when one of Kwame's new friends is possessed by an evil magic his power is revealed.

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Murphy, Julie

Magnolia "Maggie" Hagen is determined to be in the spotlight ... if she can just get over her stage fright. This summer, though, she has big plans to finally attend Camp Rising Star, the famous performing arts camp she's been dying to go to for three whole summers. But on the last day of school, her parents break the news: Maggie isn't going to Camp Rising Star. She's being shipped off to fat camp, and not just any fat camp. She's going to Camp Sylvania, run by world-famous wellness influencer Sylvia Sylvania, who is known for her soon-to-be-patented Scarlet Diet. When Maggie arrives at camp, things are ... weird. There are the humiliating weigh-ins and grueling workouts, as expected. But the campers are also encouraged to donate blood, at their age! The cafeteria serves only red foods and the oddly specific rules change every day. There are even rumors of a camp ghost.

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Netz, Gabe

Ever since her dad died, 11-year-old Jerry Blum and her mom have bounced around dead-end towns, staying in a series of rundown motels where her mother picks up housekeeping work and Jerry can get around in her wheelchair. But the Slumbering Giant motel is different. Lights blink on and off in the surrounding trees, a mysterious radio station plays only at midnight, and people disappear into the woods, never to been seen again. Not to mention that Jerry's mom keeps vanishing to do 'special work' that she refuses to discuss. When her mother doesn't come home one morning, Jerry springs into action.

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Nguyen, Angela

A step-by-step guide to drawing adorable witches, vampires, bats, ghosts, monsters, and so much more!

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Ocker, J. W.

When mysterious ads for the Ghost Show appear around town, nobody can tell what it is. A band? A movie? A game? But that magic word--ghost--excites Hazel Gold, or Zel to her friends. As founder of her school's Creepy Club (three members strong!), she's always looking for paranormal activity. Turns out the Ghost Show is a black, five-story skull that appears on the edge of town as a supernatural attraction. 

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Oh, Ellen

Eleven-year-old Luke and his dog, Haru, are the best of friends. Luke's parents own a local grocery store in Virginia and live above the store. Luke and Haru go everywhere together, but the landlord, Mrs. Greene, hates animals and hates Haru. One stormy day, Mrs. Greene argues with Luke, and Haru runs out to defend him. She screams and falls, quickly calling the police. Even though Haru didn't bite her, the officers take Haru away. But instead of being put down at the animal shelter, the officers send Haru to a local laboratory. Scientists give Haru an immortality serum that kills him. But what they don't know is that Haru comes back to life, digs himself out of the ground, and heads home to Luke.

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Ortega, Claribel A.

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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Peterson, Scott

Travis and his sister, Corey, can't resist a good trick. When they learn that their grandmother's quiet Vermont inn, where they're spending the summer, has a history of ghost sightings, they decide to do a little "haunting" of their own. Before long, their supernatural pranks have tourists flocking to Fox Hill Inn, and business booms. But Travis and Corey soon find out that theirs aren't the only ghosts at Fox Hill. Their thoughtless games have awakened something dangerous, something that should have stayed asleep.

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Ramm, Meggie

Batcat loves being all alone in their home on Spooky Island, spending time playing video games and watching TV. But, when they find themself being haunted by an annoying, ice cream-stealing ghost, they visit the local Island Witch for a spell to remove their ghostly guest permanently.

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Rissi, Anica Mrose

A contemporary collection of original short stories by Anica Mrose Rissi that is sure to elicit chills, laughs, and screams, even from the most devoted fans of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark! A game of hide-and-seek goes on far too long... A look-alike doll makes itself right at home... A school talent-show act leaves the audience aghast... And a summer at camp takes a turn for the braaaains...

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Russell, Ally

Convinced that a Bigfoot-like creature took her best friend during a scouting trip, eleven-year-old Jenna sets out into the woods to find her.

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Than, Gavin Aung

Doctor-in-training Kara Orc has worked hard and followed the rules her entire life to get where she is now. But when a human in need shows up at the hospital, her obedience is put to the test. Sure, most humans are dangerous, destructive beasts, but Kara took an oath to help all creatures. Even humans deserve care and compassion. How long can she keep such a big secret from her boss... who also happens to be her mother?

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Winans, Justine Pucella

Luna Catalano’s moms are fake ghost hunters who flip haunted houses with bogus psychic tricks—leaving Luna friendless and craving a real haunting. But their latest move feels different. Strange noises, misplaced items, and sinister drawings escalate into real danger. 

Summaries provided by DPL's catalog unless otherwise noted. Click on each title to view more information.

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