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I have a friend whose 11-year-old daughter likes scary books. She asks:

Hoping maybe you can help. My daughter who will be 11 in a few months enjoys reading scary books, for example All The Lovely Bad Ones. Do you have any good ones in mind that I could send her way?

I have a lot of suggestions for good middle grade with suspenseful action, but not as many for truly scary horror/ghost story kinds of books. If she’s already outgrown R.L. Stine’s books but isn’t ready for the plethora of paranormal and horror published for teens, I’m sure there are still plenty of scary books for her, but I’m coming up blank. I have a few suggestions, but hopefully the comments will yield more.

• Skeleton Man and its sequels (I believe there are 5 now), Joseph Bruchac

(In fact, that’s the only one I could think of today–I’ll look at my shelves at home again tonight; hopefully others will come to mind.) I’ve also included suggestions from Child_Lit subscribers, with quotes about their read annotated if it would make a difference in choosing the book.*

• Shadowed Summer, Saundra Mitchell (Child_Lit: “A delicious ghost story. Only caveat: heavy on metaphors and similes. Some readers might find it too much.”)


• Halloween Night: Twenty-One Spooktacular Poems (Child_Lit: “scary-funny poems”)


• The Crossroads and The Hanging Hill Chris Grabenstein


• Revenge of the Witch (The Last Apprentice series), Joseph Delaney, and its sequels


• Coraline, Neil Gaiman


• The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman


• The Witches, Roald Dahl


• The House with the Clock in its Walls, John Bellairs, and its sequels


• The Ghost Belonged to Me and Ghosts I Have Been, Richard Peck


• Boots and Pieces, The Curse of Cuddles McGee, and Night of the Living Lawn Ornaments, Emily Ecton

Edited to add:

• Wait Till Helen Comes, Mary Downing Hahn

I’ll add more to the list as suggestions come in.

* Some comments have been edited for brevity.

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Meet  43 children's authors & illustrators!

Kindling Words Caravan
Thursday, January 24, 2008
4:00-5:00
Phoenix Books
Essex, VT

I'll be there signing copies of Spitfire, and I'm bursting at the seams over the company I'll be keeping. 
Here are some hints...

What a beautiful day it was today in Chicago. Sunshine, not too warm, not too windy--just right. It was the perfect day for an outdoor fair, especially a book fair. The Printers Row Book Fair drew throngs of people, and quite a few ventured into our panel on First-Time Authors. We rocked! Our moderator, Esther Hershenhorn, had given us her questions in advance so we were prepared, sincere I believe, and even a little funny. Lorijo Metz, Deborah Ruddell, and Brenda Ferber set the tone and I followed their lead. Their books are already in print, but I was able to display my finished cover and page proofs.

We had more than 15 minutes of fame--just shy of one hour--but it was fun. The Tribune treated the authors like rock stars and had everything organized wonderfully. Even the young woman ahead of me in the buffet line commented, "I'm with C-SPAN and we don't usually get treated like this."

"Oh," I said, ever the Chicago promoter, "You mean they don't feed you at the National Book Fair?"

She thought for a moment and said, "No!"

So you rock, Tribune, and all of the volunteers and sponsors responsible for this wonderful weekend dedicated to books!