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CRO |
New World
(age 10+) by Gillian Cross adventure ... spooky ... math/science/technology Fourteen-year-old Miriam agrees to test a new computer game in utmost secrecy but finds that it is more than she bargained for. |
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COL |
The Supernaturalist
(age 10+) by Eoin Colfer spooky ... science fiction ... adventure ... action Publisher comments: In futuristic Satellite City, fourteen-year-old Cosmo Hill escapes from his abusive orphanage and teams up with three other people who share his unusual ability to see supernatural creatures. Together they determine the nature and purpose of the swarming blue Parasites that are invisible to most humans. |
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ALC |
The Stonewalkers
(age 10+) by Vivien Alcock adventure ... spooky Everyone is so tired of Poppy Brown's stories that Poppy has begun talking to garden statues. When her favorite statue, Belladonna, is struck by lightning and comes to life, Poppy must find a human who will listen! Poppy's classmate Emma is skeptical, but curious enough to help Poppy investigate the living statues, which are disappearing from gardens all over town and assembling somewhere on the moors. What seemed fascinating at first soon becomes terrifying as the two girls are captured by the creatures they had observed - creatures who are at once beautiful, spiteful, and as unfeeling as the stone they're made of. |
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BER |
Magic by the Book
(age 10+) by Nina Bernstein folklore ... adventure ... spooky ... magic Publisher comments: Neither Anne nor Emily remembered choosing the book at the library, but when as they read it, the boundary between their world and the one described in the book disappears. Suddenly they are in Sherwood Forest, where they join Robin Hood's band. They had yearned for magic as strong as the spell cast by the stories they loved best. But then an uninvited guest turns up at their parents' garden party. The sinister man snatches the book with the intention of using its powers for evil, and the siblings find themselves engaged in a battle to regain possession of the book. |
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BRU |
Skeleton Man
(age 10+) by Joseph Bruchac spooky ... mystery Publisher comments: Ever since the morning Molly woke up to find that her parents had vanished, her life has become filled with terrible questions. Where have her parents gone? Who is this spooky old man who's taken her to live with him, claiming to be her great-uncle? Why does he never eat, and why does he lock her in her room at night? What are her dreams of the Skeleton Man trying to tell her? There's one thing Molly does know. She needs to find some answers before it's too late. sequel: The Return of Skeleton Man |
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GAI |
The Graveyard Book
(age 10+) by Neil Gaiman fantasy ... spooky Publisher comments: Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place; he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time, as well as their timely ghostly teachings, like the ability to Fade. Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? And then there are things like ghouls that aren't really one thing or the other. |
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HEN |
Bird Lake Moon
(age 10+) by Kevin Henkes illness/loss ... family ... friendship ... spooky Publisher comments: Spencer thought the house might be haunted. Mitch knew it wasn't. And he knew why. The whole time Spencer and Mitch hung out together at Bird Lake that summer, there were secrets keeping them apart. And maybe a secret knowledge keeping them together, too...together like members of the same tribe. Like friends. |
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HIG |
The Black Book of Secrets
(age 10+) by F. E. Higgins mystery ... fantasy ... spooky Publisher comments: A boy arrives at a remote village in the dead of night. His name is Ludlow Fitch, and he is running from a most terrible past. What he is about to learn is that in this village is the life he has dreamed of, a safe place to live, and a job, as the assistant to a mysterious pawnbroker who trades people's deepest, darkest secrets for cash. Ludlow's job is to neatly transcribe the confessions in an ancient leather-bound tome: The Black Book of Secrets. |
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HIG |
The Bone Magician
(age 10+) by F. E. Higgins fantasy ... spooky ... mystery ... magic Publisher comments: Pin Carpue is on his own in the world. His mother is dead and his father is missing after being labeled a suspect in a rash of murders. Pin finds a job working for the local undertaker as a body watcher, making sure people are really dead before they're buried. The body hes supposed to be watching tonight is currently surrounded by three people engaged in a most unusual ceremony. An old man, a bone magician, and his young female assistant are waking a woman so her grieving fiancé can have one last goodbye with her. Pin can't believe it will work, but then the dead woman sits up and speaks. Pin is determined to discover how the magic works. He cannot believe they are raising the dead. He cannot believe his father is a murderer. Then Pin himself nearly becomes the killers next victim. As this mysterious tale unfolds with delicious creepiness, Pin will learn more about the bone magician, the girl Juno, and a hideous creature called the Gluttonous Beast that is kept in a local tavern where people pay for a glimpse. |
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GAI |
Coraline
(age 10+) by Neil Gaiman family ... fantasy ... spooky When Coraline steps through a door to find another house strangely similar to her own (only better), things seem marvelous. But there's another mother there, and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and courage if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life. |
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IBB |
The Beasts of Clawstone Castle
(age 10+) by Eva Ibbotson humor ... spooky ... mystery When their parents go to America, Madlyn and Rollo are sent to their relatives at Clawstone Castle, home of the legendary Wild White Cattle of Clawstone Park. Times are hard at Clawstone, so Madlyn and Rollo audition a cast of ghosts to add some thrills to the Clawstone tours. Then a very real mystery arises. |
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AVI |
The Seer of Shadows
(age 10+) by Avi historical ... spooky The time is 1872. The place is New York City. Horace Carpetine has been raised to believe in science and rationality. So as apprentice to Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer, he thinks of his trade as a scientific art. But when wealthy society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht orders a photographic portrait, strange things begin to happen. Horace's first real photographs reveal a frightful likeness: it's the image of the Von Machts' dead daughter, Eleanora. Pegg, the Von Machts' black servant girl, then leads him to the truth about who Eleanora really was and how she actually died. Joined in friendship, Pegg and Horace soon realize that his photographs are evoking both Eleanora's image and her ghost. Eleanora returns, a vengeful wraith intent on punishing those who abused her. |
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AND |
The May Bird Series (age 10+) by Jodi Lynn Anderson princesses ... spooky ... action ... adventure ... fantasy Most people aren't very comfortable in the woods, but the woods of Briery Swamp fit May Bird like a fuzzy mitten. There, she is safe from school and the taunts and teases of kids who don't understand her. Hidden in the trees, May is a warrior princess, and her cat, Somber Kitty, is her brave guardian. Then May falls into the lake. When she crawls out, May finds herself in a world that most certainly does not feel like a fuzzy mitten. in fact, it is a place few living people have ever seen. Here towns glow blue beneath zipping stars and the people (people?) walk through walls. Here the Book of the Dead holds the answers to everything in the universe. And here, if May is discovered, the horrifying evil Bo Cleevil will turn her into nothing. May Bird must get out. Fast. title: May Bird and the Ever After title: May Bird Among the Stars title: May Bird, Warrior Princess |
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GLI |
Pure Dead Series (age 10+) by Debi Gliori fantasy ... humor ... spooky ... magic Things are not right at the Strega-Borgia castle. Signor Luciano Strega-Borgia has been kidnapped. Signora Baci Strega-Borgia is struggling with her spells at the Advanced Witchcraft Institute. Titus and Pandora don't like their suspiciously cheerful and fearless new nanny. Baby Damp has been accidentally shrunk, e-mailed, and lost on the World Wide Web. And to top it off, there's a gangster in a bunny suit lurking about. . . . This seriously over-the-top, gothic romp is sure to have readers clamoring for the next Strega-Borgia adventure. title: Pure Dead Magic title: Pure Dead Batty title: Pure Dead Brilliant title: Pure Dead Wicked title: Pure Dead Trouble |
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CON |
Stonewords: a Ghost Story
(age 10+) by Pam Conrad mystery ... spooky The first time Zoe met Zoe Louise, Zoe was four years old. Zoe Louise was more than 100. From that day on, living in the same house, separated by a staircase and a century, Zoe and Zoe Louise have been an important and permanent part of each other's lives. Now Zoe is older. And although Zoe Louise never grows up, she is changing in dreadful, frightening ways. Time is running out for Zoe's best friend, and Zoe is the only one who can help her. |
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PUL |
His Dark Materials (age 10+) by Philip Pullman growing up ... spooky ... action ... adventure ... fantasy Lyra Belaqua is content to run wild among the scholars of Jordan College, with her daemon familiar Pantalaimon always by her side. But the arrival of her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, draws her to the heart of a terrible struggle ... a struggle born of Gobblers and stolen children, witch clans and armored bears. And as she hurtles toward danger in the cold, far North, young Lyra never suspects the shocking truth: She alone is destined to win, or to lose, this more-than-mortal battle. title: The Golden Compass |
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BEL |
The Mansion in the Mist
(age 10+) by John Bellairs science fiction ... fantasy ... mystery ... spooky While spending the summer in an old house on a desolate Canadian island, Anthony Monday and Miss Eells discover a chest that can transport them to another world and a maniacal group who are plotting the destruction of people on Earth. |
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ALC |
The Haunting of Cassie Palmer
(age 10+) by Vivien Alcock fantasy ... spooky Thirteen-year-old Cassie, the seventh child of a seventh child, begins to exhibit the gift of second sight which enables her to communicate with the Other World. |
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SNY |
The Egypt Game
(age 10+) by Zilpha Keatley Snyder spooky ... adventure ... friendship The first time Melanie Ross meets April Hall, she's not sure they'll have anything in common. But she soon discovers that they both love anything to do with ancient Egypt. When they stumble upon a deserted storage yard behind the A-Z Antiques and Curio Shop, Melanie and April decide it's the perfect spot for Egypt Game. Before long there are six Egyptians instead of two. Everyone thinks it's just a game, until strange things begin happening to the players. Has the Egypt Game gone too far? sequel: The Gypsy Game |
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HAM |
The House of Dies Drear
(age 10+) by Virginia Hamilton spooky ... historical ... mystery The house held secrets, Thomas knew, even before he first saw it looming gray and massive on its ledge of rock. It had a century-old legend - two fugitive slaves had been killed by bounty hunters after leaving its passageways, and Dies Drear himself, the abolitionist who has made the house into a station on the Underground Railroad, had been murdered there. The ghosts of the three were said to walk its rooms... sequel: The Mystery of Drear House |