Scary Stories

Halloween is this weekend, and kids looking for a scary story should look no farther than the library! We have scary stories for kids of all ages. Even little ones will probably like the picture book Wolf's Coming! by Joe Kulka. In that story, several animals run and hide from a wolf, who stalks across the fields and into a house. It turns out that the animals were planning a surprise birthday party for the wolf, and the illustrations turn from dark and menacing to bright and cheery at the end.

Older kids can't go wrong with the classic Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. Not only is that book (and its sequels) packed with ghostly tales for the elementary school set, but it's also graced with some of the creepiest illustrations I've ever seen. Great spooky fun.




Middle school kids will probably really like the Cirque du Freak series by Darren Shan, starting with Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare. Teenage Darren sneaks out of the house one night to go see a traveling freak show, and ends up becoming more involved with the performers than he ever thought he would be. The series is packed with creepy characters and has some blood and gore, but no sex or language, making it a pretty good choice for that age group.

Older teens can sink their teeth into the popular House of Night series by P.C. Cast once they're done with the Twilight books but want more vampire stories. In this series, starting with Marked, teen Zoe Redbird is marked as a vampire fledgling one day at school. She must go to live at the House of Night with other vampires and vampire fledglings, or else her body will reject the Change into a full vampire and she will die. And, as if starting out at a new school isn't stressful enough, Zoe starts to notice suspicious things at the House of Night.

We have all these books and more at the library, so come check them out!