Halloween is just around the corner, and we could not be more excited! 

Fun costumes + lots of candy= an absolute blast for everyone!

We bring to you a special extension of our first spooky book list with children, middle-grade, and young adult readers in mind for an extra dose of Halloween fun!

Children’s Books:

  • It’s Halloween night, and witches, werewolves, zombies, and plenty of other creepy creatures are out and about! Where are they going? Connecting the children’s song “The Ants Went Marching” to early counting concepts, The Ghosts Went Floating is a rhyming, rhythmic romp perfect for the Halloween season.
  • She Wanted To Be Haunted by Marcus Ewert
  • Clarissa the cottage is adorable, bright pink with shiny windows and flowers growing all around her. But Clarissa doesn’t want to be adorable—being cute is boring. She’d rather be like her father, a creepy castle home to vampires and crypts. Or like her mother, a witch’s hut full of spells and smells. But her attempts to become haunted make her even cuter than before! Maybe it’s better to just be true to yourself…and THEN perhaps just the right friend will come along.
  • Frankenstein: A Monstrous Parody by Nathan Hale
  • Parody is the highest form of flattery.This laugh-out-loud funny and devilish send-up of Ludwig Bemelmans’s Madeline is for little monsters everywhere. Frankenstein is the scariest of all the monsters in Miss Devel’s castle. He can frighten anything–animals, parents, even rocks. Until one night, Miss Devel wakes up and runs downstairs to find that Frankenstein has lost his head!
  • Vampenguin by Lucy Ruth Cummins
  • On a Saturday morning, baby Dracula visits the zoo with his family, where baby Penguin lives with hers. But these intrepid young adventurers are not content with staying in their proper places. Instead, baby Dracula slips into the Penguin House to spend the day eating, swimming, and hanging around, while baby Penguin waddles into the stroller to explore the rest of the zoo. Dracula’s family doesn’t even notice the switch—will they bring the right baby home?
  • We’re Going On A Pumpkin Hunt by Goldie Hawk
  • Three trick-or-treaters are looking for the perfect pumpkin on a beautiful, Halloween night. They have to make their way through some sticky cobwebs, flying bats, and even a dark, spooky house! But they’re not scared. The trick-or-treaters eventually find their pumpkin and…a ghost!
  • Ghostbusters: A Paranormal Picture Book adapted by G. M. Berrow
  • Setting: New York City. Kid scientists Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler are investigating ghosts and other paranormal activity in the city. They see their first ghost (Slimer) in the NYC Public Library and that leads them to create the Ghostbusters, setting up their “club” in an old firehouse. Soon, business is booming as the kids are recruited to capture ghosts throughout the city. Winston Zeddemore and Janine Melnitz become the club’s first two important additions. But there is something sinister happening at an apartment building and the Ghostbusters must put a stop to it (and the Stay Puft marshmallow man) before the city is overrun with ghouls.
  • Skelly’s Halloween by David Martin,  Illustrated by Lori Richmond
  • A playful skeleton lives for trick-or-treating in this charming, laugh-out-loud picture book perfect for the Halloween season. Skelly the Skeleton wakes once a year to celebrate the best day of the year: Halloween. But when he has an accident that scatters him to pieces, he fears he might miss all the fun. Halloween humor and hijinks ensue as Skelly enlists the help of others to put himself back together. Perfect for read-alouds and with fresh, quirky art and a Humpty Dumpty–like plot, Skelly’s Halloween is sure to be a Halloween staple for years to come.
  • Five Little Pumpkins, Illustrated by Vanja Kragulj
  • Get in the Halloween spirit with Five Little Pumpkins! This board book features a classic Halloween song paired with soft, raised pumpkin pieces that gradually disappear as you turn the pages. Little ones will love reciting the rhyme while watching each pumpkin disappear in this tactile reading experience.
  • A Unicorn Named Sparkle and the Pumpkin Monster by Amy Young
  • Lucy and our favorite unicorn are back. Lucy and Sparkle love Halloween, especially at Frank’s Pumpkin Farm. They get to run through corn mazes, play games, decorate pumpkins, and most importantly: eat a lot of cider donuts. But Lucy and Sparkle discover one big difference between them: Lucy loves to be scared every once in a while. Sparkle? Not so much. When Lucy takes the scary part of Halloween one step too far for Sparkle, she must comfort her frightened unicorn pal—and win back his trust.
  • Poesy the Monster Slayer by Cory Doctorow
  • A monster slayer needs no bedtime! Once her parents are off to bed, Poesy excitedly awaits the monsters that creep into her room. With the knowledge she’s gained from her trusty Monster Book, and a few of her favorite toys, Poesy easily fends off a werewolf, vampire, and much more. But not even Poesy’s bubblegum perfume can defeat her sleep-deprived zombie parents!
  • Monster Munch, Illustrated by Allison Black
  • It’s Halloween, and Boo the Ghost is throwing a party for his monster friends! What snacks will the monsters munch on? Kids will love making monsters take big bites of classic Halloween snacks in this interactive, yummy, adventure.
  • Halloween Treat Hide-and-Seek
  • A popular kids’ guessing game meets Halloween! In this novelty board book, an interactive wheel hides sweet and spooky treats amid a variety of spirited scenes, from pumpkin patches to costume parties. After you hide a treat, it’s time to guess where it is! Did you find it? Lift the flap for the reveal in this game-in-a-book, then play again for hours of spooktacular fun!

Middle-grade readers:

  • Now wielding the Midnight Blade, Jack Sullivan and the gang are furiously searching for the villainous Thrull and his skeleton army. The clock is ticking: the enemy has begun constructing the Tower—a portal with the power to bring Rezzoch the Ancient, Destructor of Worlds, to our dimension. Equipped with a crucial clue discovered by June on her Wild Flight, the group does the once-unthinkable: they leave Wakefield behind and embark on an…EPIC ROAD TRIP! That means music blasting, kitschy roadside attractions, snacks snacks snacks, dangerous detours, and a slew of skeletons and monsters at every turn. But this is no ordinary post-apocalyptic joyride. Because soon, they are pursued by a new threat: the return of a monster they thought long dead, who has taken on a terrifying new form. Jack, June, Quint, and Dirk will be lucky to make it far enough to find the answers they seek. But when the future of the world depends on it, these heroes don’t pump the brakes—they go full throttle.
  • Whispering Pines by Heidi Lang and Kati Bartkowski
  • Rae’s father vanished without a trace—and Rae knows what happened to him. But no one believes her when she says that her father didn’t run off, that he was actually taken. Now, a year of therapy later, Rae’s mother decides they need a fresh start, and so they move to a new town in the hope that life can return to normal.
  • The problem is, there is nothing normal about the town of Whispering Pines. When several kids go missing and then show up like zombies with their eyes removed, many locals brush it off. Just another day in Whispering Pines. But Caden has a dark secret, one that may explain why someone is stealing eyes. And Rae, who knows how it feels to not be believed, may be just the person Caden needs to help him put things right.
  • 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.
  • Cattywampus by Ash Van Otterloo
  • In the town of Howler’s Hollow, conjuring magic is strictly off-limits. Only nothing makes Delpha McGill’s skin crawl more than rules. So when she finds her family’s secret book of hexes, she’s itching to use it to banish her mama’s money troubles. She just has to keep it quieter than a church mouse — not exactly Delpha’s specialty. Trouble is, Katybird Hearn is hankering to get her hands on the spell book, too. The daughter of a rival witching family, Katy has reasons of her own for wanting to learn forbidden magic, and she’s not going to let an age-old feud or Delpha’s contrary ways stop her. But their quarrel accidentally unleashes a hex so heinous it resurrects a graveyard full of angry Hearn and McGill ancestors bent on total destruction. If Delpha and Katy want to reverse the spell in time to save everyone in the Hollow from rampaging zombies, they’ll need to mend fences and work together.
  • Can You Survive a Zombie Apocalypse? : An Interactive Doomsday Adventure by Anthony Wacholtz
  • A wailing moan. A stumbling walk. A horrid stench. You never thought it could happen, but zombies walk the streets with an unending hunger for flesh. With a single bite or scratch, you’ll become one of the undead monsters. When YOU CHOOSE what to do next, will you be able to survive the zombie hordes?
  • What’s the Matter with Newton? by Mark Young
  • In the first book in the series, What’s the Matter with Newton?, Newton Warp is a mystery, even to himself: He wakes up one day in the library with no idea of who he is, how he got there, or where he came from. Newton is quickly assigned to a dorm and makes a friend: Shelly Ravenholt, who creates living, breathing monsters for fun. He’s eager to find out who his family is, but this is high school after all, and he soon has other problems: Newton has to create a last-minute project for the Mad Science Fair and Shelly’s friend Theremin (a robot) is really jealous of him. And that’s not all: the other students at Franken-Sci High soon realize that Newton has a few useful, but surprising quirks. Wherever Newton came from, they start to suspect that he’s not entirely human!
  • Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker
  • A Newbery Honor-winning middle-grade novel that follows fox kits Mia and Uly as they fight for survival across eight interconnected stories inspired by classic horror tropes.Christian McKay Heidicker draws inspiration from witches, vampires, H. P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allen Poe to craft his middle-grade debut, a chilling portrait of survival and an unforgettable tale of friendship.
  • When fox kits Mia and Uly are separated from their litters, they quickly learn that the world is a dangerous place filled with monsters. As the young foxes travel across field and forest in search of a home, they’ll face a zombie who hungers for their tender flesh, a witch who wants to wear their skins, a ghost who haunts and hunts them, and so much more.
  • Fox kit 0-730 loves the old stories about Mia and Uly and hungers for a life filled with adventure. But on the Farm, foxes know only the safety of their wire dens. When O-370 slips free of his cage, he witnesses the gruesome reality awaiting all of the Farm’s foxes and narrowly escapes with his life. In a nearby suburb, young Cozy and her skulk are facing an unknown danger, a being that can blend in with the scenery and can speak with a fox’s voice. Something that hunts foxes. Forced to flee their den, they travel to a terrifying new world: the City. There, Cozy and O-370’s lives will intersect, and they’ll need to stick together if they’re to survive the monsters that lurk among the City’s shadows. And they’ll quickly discover that there are no cautionary tales to prepare them for the most dangerous creatures of all: humans.
  • Stuffed by Liz Braswell
  • Everyone thinks that Clark is too old to still play with stuffed animals. He’s almost eleven! Bullies target him at school while his mother tries increasingly un-subtle ways to wean him off his toys and introduce more “normal” interests. But Clark can’t shake the feeling that his stuffed friends are important, even necessary. Sometimes they move around in the night, and sometimes in the morning they look a little worse for wear, as if they’ve engaged in battle. And it turns out . . . he’s right.
  • Clark’s dad is under attack by a nefarious, shadowy monster called a King Derker, and only Clark’s stuffies are able to fight him off. The problem is, no one believes Clark, and when his mom attempts to rid the house of stuffed animals to try to get him to grow up, she’s actually putting Clark’s dad and the entire household in mortal peril. Now it’s up to Clark’s grandma-made sock animal, Foon, to save the day. Luckily, being handmade by a loved one gives Foon extra battle points, but he’s still a brand-new stuffy. Does he have what it takes to rid Clark’s house of all its monsters?
  • Clark can’t wait to go away to camp this year. For the first time ever, he has actual friends to hang out with. Catherine-Lucille and D. A. will both be at Camp I Can with Clark, and C. L. has already promised to induct him into her exclusive camp club—the one for campers who know everything there is to know about the world of Monsters and how Stuffies protect kids from them. And now that he knows (or suspects . . . very strongly) that his grandma-made Stuffy, Foon, heroically saved his own father from a horrible fate, Clark is obviously bringing Foon to camp along with him.
  • But once Clark gets to camp, he and his friends discover things are off. There are strange, gooey findings in some of the bunks, the adults are acting weird, and, worst of all, their Stuffies and dolls go missing right at the moment they need them the most—when they go on the intersession camping trip and end up trapped in a creepy old cabin. What Clark and his friends don’t know, and what the mighty Foon soon discovers, is that the Monsters have launched a revenge campaign against Foon—a campaign that entails sucking the very life out of Clark. Now it’s up to Foon to enter the World of Darkness and take on the Monster in charge in order to stop the plot and save Clark’s life.
  • In the hottest hour of the hottest day of the year, a fateful wind blows into Oaxaca City. It whistles down cobbled streets and rustles the jacaranda trees before slipping into the window of an eleven-year-old girl named Clara. 
  • Unbeknownst to her, Clara has been marked for la Lotería. Life and Death deal the Lotería cards but once a year, and the stakes could not be higher. Every card reveals a new twist in Clara’s fate—a scorpion, an arrow, a blood-red rose. If Life wins, Clara will live to a ripe old age. If Death prevails, she’ll flicker out like a candle. But Clara knows none of this. All she knows is that her young cousin Esteban has vanished, and she’ll do whatever it takes to save him, traveling to the mythical Kingdom of Las Pozas, where every action has a price, and every choice has consequences. And though it seems her fate is sealed, Clara just might have what it takes to shatter the game and choose a new path.
  • Mirabelle is part of a very unusual family. Between Uncle Bertram transforming into a ferocious grizzly bear and Aunt Eliza’s body being made entirely of spiders, it’s safe to say they are an extraordinary lot. To the human residents of Rookhaven Village, the family is a threat. So long ago, a treaty was made—in return for food, the monsters won’t eat the townspeople—and an invisible glamour was set around the Manor to keep strangers out. But the glamour serves another purpose: to keep the family hidden from those who’d do them harm. When two orphans—Jem and Tom—stumble upon a tear in the magic and open a door that was meant to stay locked, Rookhaven manor is put in grave danger.
  • Amira & Hamza: The War to Save the Worlds by Samira Ahmed
  • On the day of a rare super blue blood moon eclipse, twelve-year-old Amira and her little brother, Hamza, can’t stop their bickering while attending a special exhibit on medieval Islamic astronomy. While stargazer Amira is wowed by the amazing gadgets, a bored Hamza wanders off, stumbling across the mesmerizing and forbidden Box of the Moon. Amira can only watch in horror as Hamza grabs the defunct box and it springs to life, setting off a series of events that could shatter their world—literally.
  • Suddenly, day turns to night, everyone around Amira and Hamza falls under a sleep spell, and a chunk of the moon breaks off, hurtling toward them at lightning speed, as they come face-to-face with two otherworldly creatures: jinn.
  • The jinn reveal that the siblings have a role to play in an ancient prophecy. Together, they must journey to the mystical land of Qaf, battle a great evil, and end a civil war to prevent the moon—the stopper between realms—from breaking apart and unleashing terrifying jinn, devs, and ghuls onto earth. Or they might have to say goodbye to their parents and life as they know it, forever.…
  • When Nathan goes to visit his grandma, Nali, at her mobile summer home on the Navajo reservation, he knows he’s in for a pretty uneventful summer. Still, he loves spending time with Nali, and with his uncle Jet—though it’s clear when Jet arrives that he brings his problems with him. One night, while lost in the nearby desert, Nathan finds something extraordinary. A Holy Being from the Navajo Creation Story—a Water Monster—in need of help. Now Nathan must summon all his courage to save his new friend. With the help of other Navajo Holy Beings, Nathan is determined to save the Water Monster, and to help Uncle Jet heal from his own pain.
  • Beasts and Beauty by Soman Chainani
  • Twelve tales, twelve dangerous tales of mystery, magic, and rebellious hearts. Each twists like a spindle to reveal truths full of warning and triumph, truths that free hearts long kept tame, truths that explore life…and death.

Young Adult Readers

  • Katrell can talk to the dead. And she wishes it made more money. She’s been able to support her unemployed mother—and Mom’s deadbeat-boyfriend-of-the-week—so far, but it isn’t enough. Money’s still tight, and to complicate things, Katrell has started to draw attention. Not from this world—from beyond. And it comes with a warning: STOP or there will be consequences. Katrell is willing to call the ghosts on their bluff; she has no choice. What do ghosts know of having sleep for dinner? But when her next summoning accidentally raises someone from the dead, Katrell realizes that a live body is worth a lot more than a dead apparition. And, warning or not, she has no intention of letting this lucrative new business go. Only magic isn’t free, and dark forces are coming to collect. Now Katrell faces a choice: resign herself to poverty, or confront the darkness before it’s too late.
  • Crossbones by Kimberly Vale
  • The Blood Bell tolls, marking the death of the pirate king and the start of the Trials—a heart-stopping competition where the reward is the Bone Crown. Only one contender can claim the coveted island throne; each will gamble life and limb to win.
  • Captain. Sister. Maiden. Csilla Abado yearns to prove her strength to the seasoned pirates who balk at her youth and to her elder sister who has always craved Csilla’s captainship. She will risk everything to become the first pirate queen, no matter the cost. 
  • Dealer. Son. Legacy. Kane Blackwater wants to leave behind the dirty gold and shady trades he’s made to keep his father’s ship, the Iron Jewel, alive. The Trials represent a new beginning—yet rumors of a secret heir are swirling, threatening his hopes of becoming the pirate king.
  • Stowaway. Daughter. Storm. Lorelei Penny longs for nothing more than to avenge her mother’s death. Stowing away on the Iron Jewel was supposed to get her closer to the killer, but instead she finds herself caught up in the deadly battle where loyalty and desire collide.
  • Thirteen of YA’s most celebrated names reimagine Edgar Allan Poe’s most surprising, unsettling, and popular tales for a new generation. Contributors include:
      •  Dahlia Adler (reimagining “Ligeia”)
      • Kendare Blake (“Metzengerstein”)
      • Rin Chupeco (“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”)
      • Lamar Giles (“The Oval Portrait”)
      • Tessa Gratton (“Annabel Lee”)
      • Tiffany D. Jackson (“The Cask of Amontillado”)
      • Stephanie Kuehn (“The Tell-Tale Heart”)
      • amanda lovelace ( “The Raven”)
      • Emily Lloyd-Jones (“The Purloined Letter”)
      • Hillary Monahan (“The Masque of the Red Death”)
      • Marieke Nijkamp (“Hop-Frog”)
      • Caleb Roehrig (“The Pit and the Pendulum”)
      • Fran Wilde (“The Fall of the House of Usher”)

  • After so many years yearning for the gift of magic, Arrah has the one thing she’s always wanted—at a terrible price. Now the last surviving witchdoctor, she’s been left to pick up the shattered pieces of a family that betrayed her, a kingdom in shambles, and long-buried secrets about who she is. Desperate not to repeat her mother’s mistakes, Arrah must return to the tribal lands to search for help from the remnants of her parents’ people. But the Demon King’s shadow looms closer than she thinks. And as Arrah struggles to unravel her connection to him, defeating him begins to seem more and more impossible—if it’s something she can bring herself to do at all.
  • What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo
  • Eleanor Zarrin has been distanced from her family for years. When she returns home after a violent incident at boarding school, trying to fit back into the space she left becomes even more difficult when their headstrong matriarch unexpectedly dies. Eleanor’s bloodthirsty family is left unchecked for the first time in decades, and when her Grandmere arrives to help the family adjust, it’s clear that something dark is lurking beneath her genteel exterior. Eleanor learns that she has inherited her Grandmere’s terrifying gift, which allows her to control people by devouring them whole. Now she must make a choice between following in her Grandmere’s footsteps, or taking a stand, and saving her family from the monster she invited into their home.
  • In the Ravenous Dark by A.M. Strickland
  • In Thanopolis, those gifted with magic are assigned undead spirits to guard them—and control them. Ever since Rovan’s father died trying to keep her from this fate, she’s hidden her magic. But when she accidentally reveals her powers, she’s bound to a spirit and thrust into a world of palace intrigue and deception. Desperate to escape, Rovan finds herself falling for two people she can’t fully trust: Lydea, a beguiling, rebellious princess; and Ivrilos, the handsome spirit with the ability to control Rovan, body and soul. Together, they uncover a secret that will destroy Thanopolis. To save them all, Rovan will have to start a rebellion in both the mortal world and the underworld, and find a way to trust the princess and spirit battling for her heart—if she doesn’t betray them first.
  • Out Of Salem By Hal Schrieve
  • Genderqueer fourteen-year-old Z Chilworth has to adjust quickly to their new status as a zombie after waking from death from a car crash that killed their parents and sisters. Always a talented witch, Z now can barely perform magic and is rapidly decaying. Faced with rejection from their remaining family members and old friends, Z moves in with their mother’s friend, Mrs. Dunnigan, and befriends Aysel, a loud would-be-goth classmate who is, like Z, a loner. As Z struggles to find a way to repair the broken magical seal holding their body together, Aysel fears that her classmates will discover her status as an unregistered werewolf. When a local psychiatrist is murdered by what seems to be werewolves, the town of Salem, Oregon, becomes even more hostile to “monsters,” and Z and Aysel are driven together in an attempt to survive a place where most people wish that neither of them existed.
  • Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
  • Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen. That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right. Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.
  • A Dark and Starless Forest, by Sarah Hollowell
  • Derry and her eight siblings live in an isolated house by the lake, separated from the rest of the world by an eerie and menacing forest. Frank, the man who raised them after their families abandoned them, says it’s for their own good. After all, the world isn’t safe for people with magic. And Derry feels safe—most of the time. Until the night her eldest sister disappears. Jane and Derry swore to each other that they’d never go into the forest, not after their last trip ended in blood, but Derry is sure she saw Jane walk into the trees. When another sibling goes missing and Frank’s true colors start to show, feeling safe is no longer an option. Derry will risk anything to protect the family she has left. Even if that means returning to the forest that has started calling to Derry in her missing siblings’ voices. As Derry spends more time amidst the trees, her magic grows more powerful . . . and so does the darkness inside her, the viciousness she wants to pretend doesn’t exist. But saving her siblings from the forest and from Frank might mean embracing the darkness. And that just might be the most dangerous thing of all.
  • The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon
  • In Asalin, fae rule and witches like Wyatt Croft…don’t. Wyatt’s betrothal to his best friend, fae prince Emyr North, was supposed to change that. But when Wyatt lost control of his magic one devastating night, he fled to the human world. Now a coldly distant Emyr has hunted him down. Despite transgender Wyatt’s newfound identity and troubling past, Emyr has no intention of dissolving their engagement. In fact, he claims they must marry now or risk losing the throne. Jaded, Wyatt strikes a deal with the enemy, hoping to escape Asalin forever. But as he gets to know Emyr, Wyatt realizes the boy he once loved may still exist. And as the witches face worsening conditions, he must decide once and for all what’s more important—his people or his freedom.
  • White Fox by Sara Faring
  • After their world-famous mother disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Manon and Thais left their remote Mediterranean home—sent away by their pharma-tech tycoon father. Opposites in every way, the sisters drifted apart in their grief. Yet their mother’s unfinished story still haunts them both, and they can’t put to rest the possibility that she is still alive. Lured home a decade later, Manon and Thais discover their mother’s legendary last work, long thought lost: White Fox, a screenplay filled with enigmatic metaphors. The clues in this dark fairytale draw them deep into society’s surreal underbelly, into the twisted secrets hidden by their glittering family, to reveal the truth about their mother—and themselves.
  • Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena
  • Gul has a star-shaped birthmark on her arm, and in her kingdom, marked girls are disappearing. Gul’s mark caused her parents’ murder at the hands of the king’s army, and forced her into hiding. When a group of rebel women rescue her to train her in warrior magic, Gul only wants one thing: revenge. Cavas is ready to sign his life over to the king’s army in exchange for money and medicine for his sick father. But when he meets Gul in the capital’s bazaar, their chemistry grows, and he becomes entangled in a mission of vengeance—and discovers magic he never expected. Dangerous circumstances bring them together. . .deadly secrets may tear them apart. Exploring identity, class struggles, and romance, Hunted by the Sky is a gripping adventure set in a world inspired by medieval India.
  • Swallow by Sam Schill
  • The stares, the snickers, the constant teasing—combined with Mildred’s own self-doubt and absentee parents—takes its toll. Stumbling upon the Crossroads Magicks shop, Mildred decides she will no longer simply endure the bullying and skeptically buys a revenge curse. But when she begins to lose her memory and Roanoke students are found brutally murdered, Mildred realizes that she may have bought more than she bargained for. With time running out, Mildred will have to stop the terrible forces she’s unleashed or lose her soul forever.
  • Horrid by Katrina Leno
  • Following her father’s death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor’s doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone . . . and more tormented. As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane’s mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won’t reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the “storage room” her mom has kept locked isn’t for storage at all—it’s a little girl’s bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears . . . Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more . . . horrid?
  • Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
  • It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where men select wives based on the level of finery a girl displays. If a suitable match is not found, the girls left behind are forfeited—never heard from again. Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. When she flees the ball in a moment of desperation, she begins a journey that reveals the dark secrets of Cinderella’s tale and leads her to a love she never expected. Her only hope is to destroy the king once and for all. This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they’ve been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.
Happy Halloween: Part 2!

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