Posts Tagged spooky kidlit

10 Reasons I Love Middle Grade Spooky Books

By Samantha M Clark on September 8, 2023 / Articles, Book Lists, Fiction

We’re heading into the spooky season, but I’m a member of a group of writers, Spooky Middle Grade, that promotes the fact that spooky books are favorites year-round. We’re not the only ones who think that. Years ago I was listening to a panel of school librarians. When they were asked what genre of children’s books are asked for the most, they all agreed it was horror. Horror and spooky go hand-in-hand for middle-grade. I like to think of horror as the being on the scarier side of the spectrum with spooky lighter, but some people use them synonymously. So, here are 10 reasons why I love reading (and writing) middle-grade spooky books.

MG Spooky books can be funny

Laughter and scares are two sides of the same coin, and spooky middle-grade books shows that wonderfully. One of my favorites is THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF NESTOR LOPEZ by Adrianna Cuevas. This award-winning novel is as hilarious as it is spooky. I’m also excited to read DON’T WANT TO BE YOUR MONSTER by Deke Moulton. Called “humorous and delightfully spooky”, MONSTER was just released a couple months ago.

MG Spooky books can be mysteries or adventures

Many spooky middle-grade books are also mysteries, liked Fleur Bradley’s MIDNIGHT AT THE BARCLAY HOTEL, and Marina Cohen’s THE INN BETWEEN. And Janet Fox’s THE ARTIFACT HUNTERS and Sarah Cannon’s TWIST are both spooky and adventures.

MG Spooky books can deal with tough topics

Young readers are just learning how to deal with tough topics, like grief and depression, and many spooky middle grade books can be guides. Some of my favorites are Kim Ventrella’s SKELETON TREE, Ally Malinenko’s THIS APPEARING HOUSE, THE NIGHTMARE HOUSE by Sarah Allen, and Lora Senf’s THE CLACKITY. Bonus, Lora has a sequel, THE NIGHTHOUSE KEEPER, coming out on Oct. 17.

MG Spooky books have a spectrum of scary

I’ll admit it: I, a grown woman, found HIDE AND SEEKER by Daka Hermon pretty scary. (Of course, I was listening to the audiobook while alone painting a closed powder room with only a flashlight, so that could have contributed.) But I can’t wait to read Daka’s latest, NIGHTMARE KING, which came out on Tuesday. Lindsay Currie’s latest MG horror, IT FOUND US, looks like it’s going to be higher on the scary chart too, judging by the cover. But there are spooky titles that are lighter, like S.A. Larsen’s MOTLEY EDUCATION series, A TOUCH OF RUCKUS by Ash Van Otterloo, and NIGHT OF THE LIVING CUDDLE BUNNIES by Jonathan Rosen.

MG Spooky books can show us different cultures

I mentioned Adrianna Cuevas above, but her books deserve to be in this category as well. Her newest, MARI AND THE CURSE OF EL COCODRILO, weaves Cuban culture and myth into an adventure about breaking a curse and comes out on Oct. 3. One of my favorite spooky books from the past few years is JOSEPHINE AGAINST THE SEA by Shakirah Bourne. In this book, mythology from the Caribbean is written into a story about a mischievous girl in real-world Barbados.

MG Spooky books can be graphic novels

If you haven’t checked out the spooky fun in Ira Marcks’ SHARK SUMMER or Reina Telgemeier’s GHOSTS, you must! Not only are the stories great, but the artwork is fantastic and heightens the spookiness, but in a fun way. You should also read the WARREN THE 13TH series written by Tania Del Rio and illustrated by Will Staehle. They’re not graphic novels, but highly illustrated.

MG Spooky books make great series

Middle-grade readers love a good series, especially ones that also have fun scary worlds. There’s a reason why there are like a thousand Goosebumps books. But I also love the FRIGHT WATCH series by Lorien Lawrence, THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE by Jacqueline West, and Darcy Marks’ series of GROUNDED FOR ALL ETERNITY and the newer THE AFTERLIFE OF THE PARTY. A newer series I’m excited about comes from Rob Renzetti: The first book, THE HORRIBLE BAG OF TERRIBLE THINGS, came out this year and THE TWISTED TOWER OF ENDLESS TORMENT is due in 2024.

MG Spooky books help children build their bravery

Teachers, librarians and students often ask me why spooky middle-grade books are important, and I always tell them the same answer: Spooky MG books help children build their bravery in a safe place. Our real world can be very scary to kids. There are strange noises, zooming cars, tense conversations they don’t understand, dark closets and corners. Kids deal with these and more every day. When kids read books that scare them, however, if they get to a part that’s too scary, they can snap the book closed and walk away until they’re reading to face that fear again. And they will get ready quickly, because they’ll want to see how the story ends. Spooky middle-grade books are places where kids can explore their fears while knowing they’ll always have an exit.

MG Spooky books are great teaching tools

Spooky books encompass so many different types of story-telling, while also giving young readers really fun stories that they love. This makes them great teaching tools for plot, suspense techniques, and even language. My book THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST uses a lot of figurative language and I know teachers who use the book in their classrooms. To help, I developed some creative writing lesson examples from the book and they’re downloadable for free on my website.

MG Spooky books are written and read by awesome people

Yep, I’ve met some of the most wonderful people since my THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST came out. They like to write stories that give our readers goosebumps, but they also like to make readers laugh, be brave and feel. I’m honored to be among them.

What’s your favorite spooky middle-grade book?

WNDMG Wednesday — Interview with Debut Author Jude Atwood + a List of Great Spooky Fantasies

By K.D. Garcia on June 21, 2023 / Articles, WNDMG

Illustration by: Aixa Perez-Prado

“When Clara woke up Saturday morning, the dolls were staring at her with their cold, lifeless eyes.” —First line Maybe There are Witches.

I’m a sucker for a great opening line. When I read this one, I knew I had to read Maybe There are Witches. The imagery has prepared me to read a great spooky fantasy. Getting to know this debut author was even more of a treat.

MAYBE THERE ARE WITCHES

First, a little about the book:

A middle school girl moves to a small town and discovers that her great-great-great grandmother was executed there for witchcraft in the 1800s. After she finds a message addressed to her in a century-old book, she realizes that she and her two new friends must stop a deadly catastrophe predicted by a 19th-century witch. But as their adventure takes them through historic cemeteries, rural libraries, and high-octane academic bowl tournaments, something sinister is lurking, watching, and waiting…

Influences

This is your first book and you’ve created a fast-paced, high stakes story, with witches. That’s amazing. What books influenced you as an author?

I’ve always liked middle-grade books that have a bit of a puzzle to them, where the story unfurls a little at a time.

One of my favorites growing up was Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game, about a diverse group of characters in an apartment building who work in teams to win a rich man’s fortune.

I also loved the spooky Gothic mysteries that John Bellairs wrote, like The House with a Clock in Its Walls.

The House With a Clock In Its Walls (Lewis Barnavelt Book 1) by [John Bellairs, Edward Gorey]

My mom was an English teacher, and one year for Christmas she gave me a copy of Louis Sachar’s Holes. I was a grown-up—I had just finished grad school, in fact—but she thought I’d like it. She was right; I loved it!

Like those authors–and many more–I try to write books that have a whimsical sense of narrative complexity, with pieces that you can uncover and wrap your head around little by little.

Lessons Learned as an Author

That helps me understand what brought you to write this particular book. Can you tell me what you learned in the process?

I’d like to say that I learned how to write a book quickly and easily, but I am working on my second novel now, and I regret to inform you that it’s like a whole new process. Figuring out who the characters are and what their journey will be is a lot like meeting new people and exploring a new place, all from scratch.

However, I did learn that a huge, huge task—like writing a novel—is achievable if you just keep at it. There was a time when I was about 1/3 finished with Maybe There Are Witches and it felt like I might never finish. I’d write when I found the time, for a few hours a day, but what I’d finished seemed so small compared to what I had left to do. And then I’d put in another day of writing, and another, and eventually, I had a book. (And then of course I had to rework it into a second draft, and then a third—but you get the picture!)

Clara’s Journey

In your story, Clara is thirteen years old, and she’s moved more than once in the past few years. At the beginning of the book, she and her mother move from California to a very small village in Illinois, into a house they inherited from her grandmother. What was important about having Clara go to places she’d never been and work with people she didn’t know?

I think that as soon as we’re aware of other human beings, when we’re very, very young, we begin this journey of figuring out how to get to know other people. In some ways, this is how we get to know ourselves.

In my own life, I know that sometimes people I found off-putting or rude at first became some of my best friends, and I also have some very close friends now who have told me their first impression of me was that I was cold or detached. I wanted Clara to be going through this process, learning to understand some new people, while she’s also uncovering her own family history.

Puzzles

You’ve told us you like books with puzzles. The kids in your book go on a quest that involves some puzzling and deciphering. I bet you really like puzzles.

I do! I like all sorts of puzzles, especially word games. And I think a lot of reading and writing involves the elements of puzzles—of figuring out what something means, or figuring out which word fits in a particular place. Rhymes, puns, jokes, even telling someone about your day and trying to get the right tone—it all involves figuring out the right words that fit in the right place.

The past is a puzzle, too. Any time you want to understand something you weren’t present for, you’ve got to, basically, look for clues and evaluate the evidence. You can talk to people who were there, or read about history, or visit places where something happened. It’s all about finding the pieces to understand a mystery, when you think about it.

Dogs or Cats?

Finally, one question for fun—dogs or cats?

I should preface this by saying that I respect all animals. When I was growing up on the farm in Illinois, we had lots of pets. We had cats and dogs, tropical fish, a parakeet, a turtle, a lizard, and even a pet cow named Taffy.

That said, today my heart belongs to my dog Koko, a mixed-breed black-and-white rescue dog who weighs about twenty pounds. She is very smart, and very sleepy.

Learn more about Jude and his projects at:

Website: https://judeatwood.tv/
Twitter: @JudeAtwood
Instagram: @JudeAtwoodSketches
Facebook: facebook.com/JudeAtwoodSketches

Interested in reading more Spooky Fantasies, check out:

Greenglass House by Kate Milford

“An abundantly diverting mystery seasoned with mild fantasy and just a little steampunk.” – Kirkus

Thomas Creeper & the Gloomsbury Secret by J.R. Potter

“A delightfully dark story, hilariously and matter-of-factly morbid, that evokes a modern setting with a decidedly old-fashioned feel.” -Booklist

Freddie vs. the Family Curse by Tracy Badua

“A spirited fantasy enriched with Filipino culture and history.” – Kirkus

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

“A Malaysian folk tale comes to life in this emotionally layered, chilling middle grade debut.” – HarperCollins

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

oraline by Neil Gaiman“A magnificently creepy fantasy pits a bright, bored little girl against a soul-eating horror that inhabits the reality right next door.” – Kirkus

If you’d like to learn more about writing spooky middle grade stories, check out this post.

ELEANOR, ALICE, & THE ROOSEVELT GHOSTS ~ An Interview With Author Dianne Salerni

By S. A. Larsen on December 3, 2020 / Author Interviews

One of my favorite things to do is talk about spooky middle grade books! So welcome to my interview with author Dianne Salerni and her latest book release ELEANOR, ALICE, & THE ROOSEVELT GHOSTS.

The Book📚

ELEANOR, ALICE, & THE ROOSEVELT GHOSTS

by Dianne Salerni

It’s 1898 in New York City and ghosts exist among humans.

When an unusual spirit takes up residence at their aunt’s house, thirteen-year-old Eleanor Roosevelt and her cousin Alice are suspicious. The girls don’t get along, but they know something is not right. This ghost is more than a pesky nuisance. The authorities claim he’s safe to be around, even as his mischievous behavior grows stranger and more menacing. Could their aunt and her unborn child be in danger?

Meanwhile, Eleanor and Alice discover a vengeful ghost in the house where Alice was born and her mother died. Is someone else haunting the family? Introverted Eleanor and unruly Alice develop an unlikely friendship as they explore the family’s dark, complicated history.

A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD GOLD STANDARD SELECTION

The Interview🎙️

It’s wonderful to chat with you again, Dianne! Welcome to the Mixed-Up Files. How about we begin by you telling our readers a bit about your two main characters, Eleanor and Alice.

Eleanor and Alice Roosevelt were both touched by tragedy when very young. Eleanor was orphaned by the age of eight and thereafter lived with an oppressive grandmother. Alice’s mother died shortly after her birth, and Alice thereafter viewed herself as an extra appendage in a large family consisting of an acerbic step-mother, five half-siblings, and a distant father.

Both girls felt abandoned, unloved, and unworthy. However, this manifested differently in the two girls. While Eleanor was introverted, awkward, and tried to blend into the wallpaper, Alice acted out in so many outlandish ways that relations described her as a guttersnipe, a hellion, and a wild animal put into good clothes.

I will say that I loved how you portrayed the girls so differently. Yet, as the story moves forward, their similarities also come to a ghostly light.👻

What five words best describes Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghost?

Feisty females versus deceitful ghosts.

Ooh . . . perfect!

Like most of your books, Eleanor’s story is grounded in historical elements. How do you see the value in history and its importance to stories like Eleanor’s?

Every time we remember that historical people were no different from people today – in temperament, in complexity, in motivation – we learn more about ourselves and our future. In fact, the appeal of the musical Hamilton is in how it humanizes people who have otherwise been reduced to icons by the weight of U.S. history. So, when we look at an inspirational American figure like Eleanor Roosevelt and remember that she was once a neglected, insecure adolescent, I pray that it gives hope to the neglected and insecure adolescents of today.

You share this really cool ghost or entity lamp in the book. Please tell the readers about it.

The Edison Lamp is a made-up invention in my alternate history. It detects the “eruption” of a ghost in a house, which seems like the sort of practical device Thomas Edison would invent in this alternate reality. The timely detection of a new haunting is essential for survival, because some ghosts are deadly. Consider the Edison Lamp the equivalent to a smoke alarm or CO2 detector.

This was one of my favorite elements of the book! It’s super cool.

Did you discover any other eerie gadgets from the past?

In approximately 1901, Nikola Tesla invented a very basic radio receiver that was open to a wide range of frequencies. (For real, not just in my alternate history.) Apparently, the noises he picked up on this receiver disturbed him. He wrote, “My first observations positively terrified me as there was present in them something mysterious, not to say supernatural, and I was alone in my laboratory at night.”

Tesla historians later dubbed this device a “spirit radio.” I borrowed this invention for Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts, although I had to move the invention to 1898 and couldn’t call it a “spirit radio,” since radios hadn’t been invented yet.

“What is that?” Alice wants to know.

“A spirit telegraph,” Miss Bly says jokingly.

“It’s a means of hearing what the house has to say,” Tesla corrects her.

I remember reading something years ago about a “spirit radio”. Like I mentioned – super cool. You inserted a fun and effective ‘ghost world’ into your real-world building. Would you share how you made it all fit together?

I started with the children’s primer, Types of Ghosts and How They Fade, which was the very first thing I wrote when I started brainstorming this book. It describes the types of ghosts: Friendly, Unaware, and Vengeful. Since my premise is that ghosts are part of ordinary life, I set about weaving ghosts into the fabric of this world. Ex: a nursery rhyme to teach the children the types of ghosts, technology to detect ghosts, ghosts inserted into well-known literature (I tweaked Great Expectations), government agencies to deal with hauntings, ghosts inserted into historical events (Was the U.S.S. Maine destroyed by a Vengeful?), and even a branch of law enforcement called SWAT teams – Supernatural Weapons and Tactics.

What was the hardest part about writing this book?

In question #6, I described what was necessary to weave ghosts into this world. This book contains interstitial material – text between the chapters – consisting of newspaper articles and ads, letters, and census tables. Earlier versions went a little overboard. I included extra world-building interstitial material like textbook excerpts, slightly altered contemporary literature, etc. But it was too much.

The hardest part was letting go of all the world-building content that didn’t enhance or advance the story – no matter how clever (sob!) it was.

Ooh, I hope you saved that WB content for another story!

For Our Teachers and Authors🎒

As a former schoolteacher, what do you see as the greatest challenge for students, today?

This year, it’s the same as it is for the rest of us – grief for the loss of our lives before the pandemic. Extroverts are feeling it the worst, I believe. But even introverts—like me and Eleanor—are feeling the loss of everything we hoped to do and can’t. Whatever we can do to encourage and maintain personal connections with even the shyest of us students is more essential than ever.

With the current educational challenges facing teachers and parents, how can they encourage middle schoolers to engage in more independent reading and writing?

Authors have been available to readers online since the advent of social media, and many readers (on their own or encouraged by teachers) have used this opportunity to connect. But others have not, simply through lack of time. Now that so much of the educational experience is, by necessity, online, why not make use of that opportunity? If authors are offering virtual visits and online workshops, schedule them! If there are writing opportunities – contests, NaNoWriMo, seminars – help students connect with them.

Inquiring Minds Want To Know

From your personal experience, what middle grade book is a must read?

With a publication date of 2000, it’s getting dated, but during my last ten years of teaching, I read No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman aloud to both my reading classes at the beginning of every year. Written in 4 different POVs (including an adult – gasp! – isn’t that forbidden in MG books?!), it’s not only an opportunity for POV discussion but also a remarkably funny mystery and scathing review on classic literature. In the words of protagonist Wallace Wallace:“The dog always dies. Go to the library and pick out a book with an award sticker and a dog on the cover. Trust me, that dog is going down.”

*Note to self – No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman

Have to ask: do YOU believe in ghosts?

I didn’t. I was a big skeptic, until I took a ghost hunting class from my local community college, went on a field trip to a supposedly haunted house, and came back with an unexplained voice on my audio recording. Nobody else who was present recorded this voice. The other recordings registered silence while mine – and only mine – includes a ghostly but humorous message.

You can hear the whole story AND the ghost voice on my YouTube video: https://tinyurl.com/yxnhjgja

Whoa . . . Everyone, you can head over to watch right after our last question. I know I’m going to check it out.

Lastly, what can readers expect to see from you next?🔮

My next book, Jadie in Five Dimensions, will be published in the fall of 2021 from Holiday House. It’s a twisty, multi-dimensional sci-fi adventure based on the premise that our 3-dimensional universe exists inside a larger 4-dimensional universe, the way Russian dolls nest together.

Jadie Martin, an abandoned infant, was rescued from certain death by benevolent beings from the fourth dimension and placed into a loving adoptive family. Now age 13, Jadie serves as an Agent for the four-dimensional Overseers, performing missions calculated to guide her world toward a brighter future.

Except — when Jadie switches assignments with another Agent, she discovers her origin story is a lie. Her birth family has suffered multiple tragedies engineered from 4-space, including the loss of their baby girl. Now doubting her benefactors, Jadie anonymously observes her long-lost family. Why are they important? What are the true intentions of the Overseers? And what will huge, all-powerful four-dimensional beings do to a small rebellious human girl when they realize she’s interfering with their plans?

This sounds so exciting! Can’t wait to read. Thank you so much for joining us and for sharing Eleanor and Alice’s story with us.

If you’d like to read about another #spookymg book, you can go HERE.

About The Author✒️

DIANNE K. SALERNI is the author of middle grade and YA novels, including Eleanor, Alice, & the Roosevelt Ghosts, The Eighth Day Series, The Caged Graves, and We Hear the Dead. Her seventh book, Jadie in Five Dimensions, will release in the fall of 2021. Dianne was a public school teacher for 25 years before leaving the profession to spend more time hanging around creepy cemeteries and climbing 2000 year-old pyramids in the name of book research. WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER

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Posts Tagged spooky kidlit

10 Reasons I Love Middle Grade Spooky Books

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WNDMG Wednesday — Interview with Debut Author Jude Atwood + a List of Great Spooky Fantasies