F STR	Spellbinder Series (age 9-12) by Helen Stringer adventure ... fantasy ... school ... spooky Publisher comments: Belladonna Johnson can see ghosts. It's a trait she's inherited from her mother's side of the family, like blue eyes or straight hair. And it's a trait she could do without, because what twelve-year-old wants to be caught talking to someone invisible? It is convenient, though, after Belladonna's parents are killed in a car accident. They can live with her the same as always, watching the same old TV shows in their same old house. Nothing has changed . . . until everything changes. One night, with no warning, they vanish into thin air—along with every other ghost in the world. It's what some people think ghosts are supposed to do, but Belladonna knows it's all wrong. They may not be living, but they're not supposed to be gone. With the help of her classmate Steve, a master of sneaking and spying, Belladonna is left to uncover what's become of the spirits and to navigate a whole world her parents have kept well-hidden. If she can't find her way, she’ll lose them again—this time for good. title: The Midnight Gate
F KLI	43 Old Cemetary Road Series (age 9-12) by Kate Klise humor ... authorship ... letters/journal ... spooky ... mystery Publisher comments: Ignatius B. Grumply moves into the Victorian mansion at 43 Old Cemetery Road hoping to find some peace and quiet so he can crack a wicked case of writer's block. But 43 Old Cemetery Road is already occupied by eleven-year-old Seymour, his cat Shadow, and an irritable ghost named Olive. It's hard to say who is more outraged. But a grumpy old ghost just might inspire this grumpy old man--and the abandoned kid? Well, let's just say his last name's Hope. title: Over My Dead Body
F BRO	Missing on Superstition Mountain (age 9-12) by Elise Broach spooky ... mystery Publisher comments: It's summer and the three Barker brothers—Simon, Henry, and Jack—just moved from Illinois to Arizona. Their parents have warned them repeatedly not to explore Superstition Mountain, which is near their home. But when their cat Josie goes missing, they see no other choice. There's something unusually creepy about the mountain and after the boys find three human skulls, they grow determined to uncover the mystery. Have people really gone missing over the years, and could there be someone or some thing lurking in the woods? Together with their new neighbor Delilah, the Barker boys are dead-set on cracking the case even if it means putting themselves in harm's way.
F WES	The Books of Elsewhere Series (age 9-12) by Jacqueline West adventure ... spooky ... fantasy Publisher comments: When eleven-year-old Olive moves into a crumbling Victorian mansion with her parents, she knows there's something strange about the house - especially the odd antique paintings covering the walls. And when she puts on a pair of old spectacles, she discovers the strangest thing yet: She can travel inside the paintings, to a spooky world that's full of dark shadows. Add to that three talking cats, who live in the house and seem to be keeping secrets of their own, and Olive soon finds herself confronting a dark and dangerous power that wants to get rid of her by any means necessary. It's up to Olive to save the house from the dark shadows, before the lights go out for good. title: The Shadows title: Spellbound
F SNY	The Truth About Stone Hollow (age 9-12) by Zilpha Keatley Snyder spooky ... fantasy Catalog: The new boy at school introduces Amy to the secrets of Stone Hollow where the circles of time converge.
F WOO	Dear Napoleon, I Know You're Dead, But... (age 9-12) by Elvira Woodruff fantasy ... letters/journal ... spooky Catalog: Marty receives a surprising reply when he writes a letter describing his spirited but sick grandfather to Napoleon Bonaparte.
F DEF	The Ghost of Fossil Glen (age 9-12) by Cynthia C. DeFelice letters/journal ... mystery ... friendship ... spooky Allie Nichols knows she's being pursued by a ghost. But her friend Karen calls her a liar and doesn't want to hear stuff like that. It is Allie's old pal Dub who listens eagerly as Allie tells him about a voice that guides her safely down a steep cliff side, the face in her mind's eye of a girl who begs ``Help me,'' and a terrible nightmare in which that girl falls to her death. Who is the girl? Is she the ghost? And what does the ghost want from Allie? As Allie discovers that her role is to avenge a murder, she also learns something about friendship, false and true, in this gripping ghost story and murder mystery.
F SKU	The Poltergeist of Jason Morey (age 9-12) by Gloria Skurzynski family ... spooky When their eleven-year-old orphaned cousin comes to live with them, the Kessler family has a difficult time, first, believing he has brought a poltergeist with him, and then learning to live with it.
F BAB	The Eyes of the Amaryllis (age 9-12) by Natalie Babbitt fantasy ... spooky ... adventure When the brig Amaryllis was swallowed in a hurricane, the captain and all the crew were swallowed, too. For thirty years the captain's widow, Geneva Reade, has waited, certain that her husband will send her a message from the bottom of the sea. But someone else is waiting, too, and watching her, a man called Seward. Into this haunted situation comes Jenny, the widow's granddaughter. The three of them, Gran, Jenny, and Seward, are drawn into a kind of deadly game with one another and with the sea, a game that only the sea knows how to win.
F AVI	Murder at Midnight (age 9-12) by Avi knights/castles/dragons ... magic ... mystery ... spooky Publisher comments: A plot to overthrow King Claudio is brewing in the Kingdom of Pergamontio. Scholarly Mangus the magician — along with his street-smart and faithful new servant boy, Fabrizio — have been marked as easy scapegoats for the traitor lurking within the king's court. Together, these two unlikely partners must gather clues to solve the mystery and prove their innocence before the stroke of midnight. . . or face death! Intricate plotting, surprise twists, and lively prose make for another suspenseful page-turner that stands alone or sets the stage for MIDNIGHT MAGIC!
F HAH	Time For Andrew: a Ghost Story (age 9-12) by Mary Downing Hahn family ... mystery ... spooky Aunt Blythe's house gives Andrew the creeps, full of dark rooms, creaky noises, and the sound of a woman sobbing somewhere in the shadows. Then, in the middle of the night, Andrew awakens to find a boy standing in his room...a boy who is Andrew's double, except he looks as if he's come from the grave. He wants to follow him, to a place where he will meet the spirits of long-dead ancestors...a place from which Andrew may never return.
F HAH	Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story (age 9-12) by Mary Downing Hahn family ... mystery ... spooky Heather is such a whiny little brat. Always getting Michael and me into trouble. But since our mother married her father, we're stuck with her...our "poor stepsister" who lost her real mother in a mysterious fire. But now something terrible has happened. Heather has found a new friend, out in the graveyard behind our home: a girl named Helen who died with her family in a mysterious fire over a hundred years ago. Now her ghost returns to lure children into the pond...to drown! I don't want to believe in ghosts, but I've followed Heather into the graveyard and watch her talk to Helen. And I'm terrified. Not for myself, but for Heather...
F NAY	The Witch Saga (age 9-12) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor mystery ... spooky When the darkness, tolls the hour, I shall have you in my power... Lynn and her best friend, Mouse, are positive their neighbor, Mrs. Tuggle, is a witch. And they suspect the old woman is forcing Lynn's sister, Judith, to join her coven to witches. But Lynn and Mouse can't prove anything and their parents don't believe them. The girls are desperate to expose Mrs. Tuggle's evil nature, especially since her actions are becoming more threatening everyday. Now Lynn's parents have announced that they're going away for the weekend, leaving Judith and Mrs. Tuggle in charge. Can the girls outsmart Mrs. Tuggle and save Lynn's family -- or is the dark magic too strong to conquer? title: Witch Water title: The Witch Herself title: The Witch's Eye title: Witch's Sister title: The Witch Returns
F HAH	The Old Willis Place: a Ghost Story (age 9-12) by Mary Downing Hahn mystery ... spooky Diana and her little brother Georgie have been living in the woods behind the old Willis place, a decaying Victorian mansion, for what already seems like forever. They aren't allowed to leave the property or show themselves to anyone. But when a new caretaker comes to live there with his young daughter, Lissa, Diana is tempted to break the mysterious rules they live by and reveal herself so she can finally have a friend. Somehow, Diana must get Lissa's help if she and Georgie ever hope to release themselves from the secret that has bound them to the old Willis place for so long.
	The American Girl Mysteries (age 9-12) historical ... mystery ... spooky Characters from the American Girls series become embroiled in mysterious situations. title: The Stolen Sapphire: a Samantha Mystery by Sarah Masters Buckey F BUC
F BRI	Who Knew There'd Be Ghosts? (age 9-12) by Bill Brittain adventure ... spooky Three spunky youngsters join forces with two lively ghosts to save a historic mansion from being destroyed by a crooked antique dealer.
F PEC	The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp (age 9-12) by Richard Peck fantasy ... school ... friendship ... spooky Blossom, not the most popular member of her freshman class in 1914, travels ahead seventy years, and returns in time to make Halloween a memorable night for her classmates and teachers.
F PEC	Ghosts I Have Been (age 9-12) by Richard Peck school ... fantasy ... friendship ... spooky Blossom Culp is the outspoken outcast of Bluff City, always getting into trouble. No one wants to cross her, especially now that she's revealed that she can see the Unseen. Then Blossom herself is stunned, because her lie turns out to be truth. She actually does have second sight . . . and she is "on board" the sinking Titanic.
F PEC	The Ghost Belonged to Me (age 9-12) by Richard Peck historical ... spooky In 1913 in the Midwest a quartet of characters share adventures from exploding steamboats to "exorcizing" a ghost. "More death! More, if you do not stop it. Others lost, like me in the black water. Save them!" When Alexander first sees the eerie glow in the dormer window of the barn, it sets his heart pounding. And when he ventures into the barn in the dark of night, his breath catches in his throat. Suddenly Blossom Culp's words come back to him: "You can make contact with the Unseen...." Now there's a girl ghost standing right in front of him, telling him of great danger ahead. But is there time for Alexander to act on her warning?
F KEY	Escape to Witch Mountain (age 9-12) by Alexander Key spooky ... adventure ... science fiction Some terrifying experience has blocked Tony and Tia's memory of the past. But because they have supernatural powers, they are sure that they come from another world---and that their people still exist somewhere. Then Tony and Tia find that they must escape from men who want to use their special powers for evil. They begin a desperate search to find their true home---which leads them to the strange and mysterious Witch Mountain.
F IRV	Rip Van Winkle (age 9-12) by Washington Irving spooky ... identity ... folklore The adventures of henpecked farmer Rip Van Winkle who escapes to the hills for a day of hunting. After sleeping for twenty years, he awakens to find a changed world.
F MAT	The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (age 9-12) by Joanne Mattern identity ... spooky A retelling of the classic tale by Robert Louis Stevenson of a kind and well-respected doctor is transformed into a murderous madman by taking a secret drug of his own creation.
F IBB	Dial-a-Ghost (age 9-12) by Eva Ibbotson humor ... enterprise ... spooky The Dial-a-Ghost Agency finds good homes for ghosts. And Fulton and Frieda Snodde-Brittle are looking for a few frightening ghosts to accidentally scare their young cousin and heir, Oliver, to death. The ladies at the Dial-a-Ghost Agency have the perfect match: the Shriekers, two bloodstained and bickering horrors. But thanks to a mix-up at the agency, the Wilkinsons, a kind family of ghosts, arrive instead. Can they put a stop to the Snodde-Brittles' schemes before it's too late?
F COV	The Ghost in the Third Row (age 9-12) by Bruce Coville the arts ... mystery ... spooky Trying out for a part in a play is scary. But nothing compares to seeing a ghost in the audience! Nina learns that fifty years ago, an actress was murdered--on this very stage! Strange things begin to happen---scripts are ripped up, sets are knocked down, a costume is torn to pieces--and everyone thinks the ghost wants to stop the show. Everyone, except for Nina and her best friend, Chris, who do some ghost hunting. Only the Woman in White can lead them to the answer!
F COV	The Ghost in the Big Brass Bed (age 9-12) by Bruce Coville mystery ... spooky When sixth grader Nina Tanleven starts working at an antiques shop, she never expects to stumble onto a mystery ... or into danger. But that's exactly what happens when she and her best friend, Chris, go to pick up an antique wardrobe at old Miss Watson's. From the moment the girls set foot in the run-down mansion, they sense that it's haunted ... even before they discover the tower room with its big brass bed and grieving little girl ghost!
F SAI	Varjak Paw (age 9-12) by S. F. Said adventure ... action ... spooky ... magic Varjak Paw is a Mesopotamian Blue kitten. He lives high up in an old house on a hill. He's never left home, until his grandfather tells him about the Way ... a secret martial art for cats. Now Varjak must use the Way to survive in a city full of dangerous dogs, cat gangs, and strangest of all, the mysterious Vanishings. sequel: The Outlaw Varjak Paw
F CAR	Aunt Morbelia and the Screaming Skulls (age 9-12) by Joan Davenport Carris humor ... spooky ... family ... mystery The peaceful life of a boy with dyslexia is interrupted when his great-aunt, who has a morbid fascination with ghosts and death omens, moves in.
F SNY	The Witches of Worm (age 9-12) by Zilpha Keatley Snyder friendship ... magic ... spooky A lonely twelve-year-old is convinced that the cat she finds is possessed by a witch and is responsible for her own strange behavior.
F IRV	The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (age 9-12) by Washington Irving folklore ... spooky A superstitious schoolmaster, in love with a wealthy farmer's daughter, has a terrifying encounter with a headless horseman.
F COV	The Ghost Wore Gray (age 9-12) by Bruce Coville war ... historical ... spooky ... mystery Sixth-grader Nina Tanleven convinced her architect father to let her best friend Chris go with them to stay in the old inn he's restoring. On the afternoon they arrive, the girls find a faded Civil War photograph of a very handsome Confederate soldier. Nina and Cris are stunned when the ghost of the young soldier suddenly appears at the dinner table that night! They realize he's the ghost who they've heard haunts the inn. When he appears to them again--no one else can see him--Nina and Chris know that the ghost is trying to tell them something. But what? To find out, the girls begin investigating the old country inn. And soon they are swept up in a frightening mystery that began more than one hundred years ago--a mystery involving danger, greed, a hidden room... and a buried treasure!
F CAS	Behind the Attic Wall (age 9-12) by Sylvia Cassedy growing up ... family ... spooky In the bleak, forbidding house of her great-aunts, neglected twelve-year-old orphan Maggie hears ghostly voices and finds magic that awakens in her the capacity to love and be loved.
F BYA	McMummy (age 9-12) by Betsy Cromer Byars spooky ... humor ... science fiction ... enterprise Looking after an eccentric scientist's greenhouse does not seem any stranger than the other odd jobs taken by Mozie and his partner Battie--until Mozie discovers a large, mummy-shaped pod on one of the plants.
F COO	The Boggart (age 9-12) by Susan Cooper folklore ... humor ... spooky ... adventure When Emily and Jess Volnik's family inherits a remote, crumbling Scottish castle, they also inherit the Boggart: an invisible, mischievous spirit who's been playing tricks on residents of Castle Keep for generations. Then the Boggart is trapped in a rolltop desk and inadvertently shipped to the Volniks' home in Toronto, where nothing will ever be the same, for the Volniks or the Boggart. In a world that doesn't believe in magic, the Boggart's pranks wreak havoc. And even the newfound joys of peanut butter and pizza and fudge sauce eventually wear thin for the Boggart. He wants to go home, but his only hope lies in a risky and daring blend of modern technology and ancient magic.
F WRI	The Dollhouse Murders (age 9-12) by Betty Ren Wright spooky ... family ... mystery Catalog: A dollhouse filled with a ghostly light in the middle of the night and dolls that have moved from where she last left them lead Amy and her retarded sister to unravel the mystery surrounding grisly murders that took place years ago.
F WRI	Haunted Summer (age 9-12) by Betty Ren Wright family ... mystery ... spooky Catalog: Shy nine-year-old Abby surprises herself, her equally timid babysitter, and her older brother when they are haunted by a ghost that is trying to reclaim a stolen music box.
F SNY	The Headless Cupid (age 9-12) by Zilpha Keatley Snyder spooky ... mystery ... magic ... friendship When the four Stanley children meet Amanda, their new stepsister, they're amazed to learn that she studied witchcraft. They're stunned to see her dressed in a strange costume, carrying a pet crow, and surrounded by a pile of books about the supernatural. It's not long before Amanda promises to give witchcraft lessons to David, Janie, and the twins. But that's when strange things start happening in their old house. David suspects Amanda of causing mischief, until they learn that the house really was haunted a long time ago. Legend has it that a ghost cut the head off a wooden cupid on the stairway. Has the ghost returned to strike again? sequel: The Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case
F FLE	The Ghost in the Noonday Sun (age 9-12) by Sid Fleischman adventure ... spooky Twelve-year-old Oliver tries to escape from pirates who take him to an island to find the ghost and treasure of Gentleman Jack.
F BEL	The House With a Clock in Its Walls (age 9-12) by John Bellairs spooky ... magic ... mystery A boy goes to live with his magician uncle in a mansion that has a clock hidden in the walls which is ticking off the minutes until doomsday. sequel: The Figure in the Shadows sequel: The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring
F BOS	The Children of Green Knowe (age 9-12) by L. M. Boston spooky ... adventure ... fantasy This is the first thrilling and chilling tale of Green Knowe, a haunted manor deep in an overgrown garden in the English countryside. sequel: A Stranger at Green Knowe sequel: An Enemy at Green Knowe sequel: Treasure of Green Knowe

Walter Hays Elementary School, Sat Aug 25 11:55:30 2012 Other themes and genres