Get Into the Halloween Spirit with These 5 Ghostly Middle Grade Novels
Halloween is right around the corner. While I grew up reading Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and the latest Goosebumps books when I was a kid, there are now many middle grade novels to choose from to get into the Halloween spirit. Here are five recent ones that I loved.
The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night by Steven Banbury
This perfect cozy Halloween read gave me The Nightmare Before Christmas vibes. Eve is an orphan who is adopted by the Pumpkin King on Halloween and taken to live in his kingdom, Hallowell Valley, where other spooky creatures and figures from fables live. Now she is a pumpkin princess, and as she learns about her new world, she uncovers a plot that could put it all at risk.
The Night Train by Lorelei Savaryn
This is another middle grade novel set on Halloween, but a bit scarier than the first book. When their grandmother dies, twins Maddie and Nat inherit her ability to see ghosts. Nat embraces the gift, but Maddie tries to ignore it. Their parents host a YouTube home renovation show, and they’re hoping to make it big with a series deal. They choose a home to renovate with a spooky past: it was formerly the home of a train signalman whose past failure caused two trains to crash in the 1800s on Halloween, or so the story goes. Every 13 years, the townsfolk reenact what happened on the train on Halloween. It’s the perfect backdrop for a home renovation. But when Maddie and Nat see the signalman’s daughter’s ghost in the home, things begin to go awry. Can they figure out what really happened that night before it’s too late?
The Skeleton Flute by Damara Allen
I’m almost finished with this middle grade horror, and I’m loving it. It’s a retelling of “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” set in the contemporary town of Stapleton. After a fun day of skipping school to go to the beach, Sam’s parents announce to the entire family—Sam, his younger brother Grayson, and his toddler sister Addie—that they’re separating. Sam rushes off on his bike, holding back tears, and meets a strange man on a trail. The man gives him a bone flute and tells him he should make a wish and blow it. Sam dismisses the idea but, later makes the wish for his parents to be back together and blows on the flute. When he wakes up the next morning, his parents are back together, but his siblings are gone. It’s like they’d never been born. This is a lovely, eerie read, but not too scary.
The Haunted States of America by Ellen Hopkins & Solomon Hughes
This is for kids who love Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. It’s an anthology of urban legends from each of the 50 U.S. states plus Puerto Rico and D.C., written by 52 authors. Authors include Ellen Hopkins, Freeman Ng, Dusti Bowling, Padma Venkatraman, Giselle Liza Anatol, and more. Some are established middle grade authors, while other authors are new. The stories are imaginative, and you can tell the authors had a lot of fun writing them. Some of the stories are downright scary, while others are much tamer (though still good). Urban legends include retellings of La Llorona, the Jersey Devil, Bigfoot, ghost stories, haunted houses, and more.
Hungry Bones by Louise Hung
This is a fantastic middle grade horror told from two perspectives: Molly Teng, who has unhappily moved from Maine to Texas with her mother, and Jade, the hungry ghost that has haunted the house Molly has moved into for 120 years. Unfortunately for Molly, she can see ghosts. When Molly, who is Chinese American, learns from one of the few others in town who is also Chinese American that Jade must be a hungry ghost, Molly begins to feed Jade. Molly is irritated with her mom for moving them to Texas where there’s no one else like her, and also for ignoring her ghost-seeing abilities. This is a beautifully written middle grade with lots of themes to dig into.
