Scary Fantasy

Kelly Crosby is the new kid in school. So far, it’s not going so well. He’s already gotten lost, had trouble making friends, and annoyed the monster that lives in the school basement. That’s right. This new school has a monster. Every year, at a party called Friiight Night, one (un)lucky kid is chosen to be the monster’s special guest of honor. Guess whose luck is about to run out?

Norton Juster - the acclaimed author of such children’s classics as The Phantom Toll Booth and The Hello, Goodbye Window - tells the story of a really rotten ogre. Huge and ugly, the angry ogre is always hungry - and utterly merciless. As he greedily gobbles up the people in his path, he seems unstoppable. And then one day, the ogre takes a wrong turn and encounters a kind and friendly young lady who does her best to help him.

It’s another sucky year at Bathory High for Vladimir Tod. The evil vampire D’Ablo is hunting for the ritual that could steal Vlad’s powers. His best friend Henry doesn’t want to be his drudge anymore. And as if all that weren’t enough, it’s getting harder for Vlad to resist feeding on the people around him. When months go by with no word from Uncle Otis and D’Ablo shows up demanding Vlad’s father’s journal, Vlad realizes that having a normal high school year is the least of his concerns.

A host of the smartest young adult authors come together in this collection of scary stories and psychological thrillers curated by Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea's April Genevieve Tucholke. Each story draws from a classic tale or two - sometimes of the horror genre, sometimes not - to inspire something new and fresh and terrifying. There are no superficial scares here; these are stories that will make you think even as they keep you on the edge of your seat.

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, with no electricity or cell service. 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 someone extraordinary: a Holy Being from the Navajo Creation Story - a Water Monster - in need of help.

Frankie Miller and his friends have a Magic Club. They meet every week to learn new tricks and perform for each other. It's supposed to be fun, but there's always one problem: Ari Goodwin. He's a pest! He ruins their tricks and makes fun of them. When Frankie's friend Melody Richmond finds a recipe in an old book to turn a person invisible, they decide to try it out on Ari. But he's on to them. He's switched the cups and now Frankie's the one who's invisible. There must be an antidote in the book, but Melody can't find it. It's missing! Now Frankie is changing, and he wants revenge.

For sixth-grader Nina Tanleven, nothing is scarier than auditioning for a play at the famous old Grand Theater. But Nina changes her mind when she climbs on stage to audition - and sees a ghost sitting in the audience! Then, even stranger things happen. Scripts are ripped up, sets are knocked down, and everyone fears the ghost wants to stop the play. Everyone, of course, except Nina and her best friend Chris.

Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she’s here. No one can hear her scream. A terrifying tale in the tradition of Carrie and The Exorcist.

Stephanie's uncle Gordon is a writer of horror fiction. But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that, while he may have written horror, it certainly wasn't fiction. Pursued by evil forces intent on recovering a mysterious key, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source, the wisecracking skeleton of a dead wizard.

The sea is calm, the air is fresh, and the bobbing boat feels like a living creature underneath Johnny Dixon’s feet. Johnny hardly ever sees his father, who trains Air Force pilots in Colorado, and their annual Florida fishing trip is the highlight of his year. They’re on their way back to Duston Heights, Massachusetts, where Johnny lives with his grandparents, when a visit to a fortune-teller puts a terrible fright into Johnny. Inside the seer’s crystal ball, he sees a grinning ghost who cackles out a fearsome message: “The universe shall be mine!”

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now armed with his father's mysterious and deadly atheme, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay. Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage.

Serafina has never had a reason to disobey her pa and venture beyond the grounds of Biltmore Estate. There's plenty to explore in her grand home, but she must take care to never be seen. None of the rich folk upstairs know that Serafina exists; she and her pa, the estate's maintenance man, have lived in the basement for as long as Serafina can remember. She has learned to sneak and hide.

Seventeen-year-old Josephine Jagger is a talented writer with special abilities she doesn't fully understand. Over the years she has developed methods to cope with the voices she hears in her head, but the old house her family has inherited in Vermont makes Josephine question what's real and what's not more than anything she's ever encountered before. It's filled with shadows, and whispers, and the unshakable feeling of being watched. Josephine then catches her first glimpse of a shadowy woman with long hair, pale skin, an impossibly wide smile and hollow pits for eyes.

Make story time a little spookier with the number one best-selling chapter book series of all time! Every visit to the magic tree house leads to a time-travel adventure! Jack and Annie are on a mission to find - and inspire - a musician that brings happiness to millions of people. After traveling to New Orleans, Jack and Annie come head to head with some real ghosts, and discover the world of jazz when they meet a young Louis Armstrong.

When all the town pets (including Fitz) go missing, Will suspects there’s something sinister going on. So he joins forces with outcast Ivy and super-smart Linus to uncover the ancient secrets of East Emerson. Besides, nothing bad could happen when three sixth graders team up against monsters, magic, myths, and mad science . . . right?

Fed up with her wild behavior, 16-year-old Lex’s parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than shoveling manure. He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach Lex the family business. She quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next.

After the devastating events on Prism Lake, Grady and the other survivors head south, hoping to find safety in one of the rumored "Cities of Light". But as they embark on their journey, they quickly discover the monsters aren't the only things out in the snow they must fear.

A gate has been opened. The Old Ones have been released. And now the third and fourth of The Five -- twins with a mysterious psychic bond -- are joining the fight....Hailed "a master of edge-of-your-seat writing" by Booklist, Anthony Horowitz pens the New York Times best-selling Gatekeepers series, With Nightrise, he amplifies the suspense as an evil group strives to imprison and control the psychic twins, Scott and Jamie.

New York Times best-selling authors Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs team up to co-author this thrilling first book in a darkly suspenseful middle grade series. Everyone in Timbers knows Still Cove is off-limits, with its creepy Beast sightings and equally terrifying legends. But when a bullying incident sends 12-year-old Nico Holland over a cliff and into Still Cove's icy waters, friends Tyler and Emma - and even Opal Walsh, who usually runs with the popular kids - rush to his rescue...and discover a mysterious island hiding in the murky, swirling mists below.

For Cassie and her Circle of witches, it's hard to imagine life in New Salem getting any worse. A band of powerful witch hunters is targeting the group, determined to destroy them one by one. And Cassie's half-sister, Scarlett, won't rest until she has a spot in the Circle - even if she has to kill Cassie to get it. The Circle's only hope against their enemies is Cassie's father's Book of Shadows - an ancient guide to the world of dark magic. But Cassie soon discovers that opening the book has grave consequences.