Scary Science Fiction

Imagine a Depression-era town where it hasn't rained for years. A pale rainmaker with other-worldly eyes brings rain to the countryside and mesmerizes the townspeople, but the children begin to disappear one by one. Only young Robert Steelgate is able to resist the rainmaker's spell and begin the struggle to discover what has happened to his missing brother and the other children.

Billy can’t wait to start frog dissections at school. It’ll be so slimy and gross! But his rowdy behavior earns him a boring alternate lab assignment instead. Now he’s out for revenge against the science teacher, spooky Ms. Wilson, with plans to leave a “witches' stew” of half-dissected amphibians on her desk. But when he sneaks into the classroom at night, something moves. Then it croaks. The frogs have come back to life!

Furnace Penitentiary: the world's most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface. Convicted of a murder he didn't commit, sentenced to life without parole, "new fish" Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries.

A group of six young miners are exploring Asteroid AX245 to find the mineral ixonium. It is the most valuable substance in the galaxy and is used to power interstellar travel. The group splits into three teams to explore some tunnels in the asteroid’s surface. But just before one team begins digging into the rock, they receive an urgent message. The other team reports seeing a black, gooey substance oozing out of the rock. Their report is cut off by their loud screams—and then total silence. What happened to Team Gamma? And what is the black goo that seems to have a will of its own?

Sam can't wait to go on her first cruise...sun, fun, and lots of good food. But when some slimy guests show up, Sam's excitement turns into fear. Do these gooey blob monsters want more than just the all-you-can-eat buffet?

When a zombie followed August DuPont home one day, he didn't expect her to stick around. But Claudette is in no hurry to leave August's side. And when he decides to go to Croissant City in search of the elusive Zombie Stone, Claudette joins him. It's a good thing she does, because no sooner had August set out than a mysterious white alligator began to follow him. Reptiles aren't the only creatures to look out for, though. When August is reunited with his dour cousins the Malveaus, and their menacing mother, Orchid, finding the stone before they do takes on a new urgency.

The second volume in the Dark Visions trilogy follows Kaitlyn Fairchild and her four friends as they listen to the psychic voices calling them and travel to an isolated house - where terror awaits.

Liv has been dealing with a lot lately. She and her family have just moved in with her mother's new boyfriend in London, and she's starting over (again) at a new school. But Liv isn't sure that explains her dreams, which have gone from odd to...well, bizarre. Lately her nighttime hours have been filled with talking stone statues, mysterious corridors, and creepy rituals conducted by four boys in a graveyard. The strangest part is that Liv recognizes the boys....

Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz's gothic novel in the grand Victorian tradition, Spledors and Glooms, is set in London and centered around the disappearance of a 12-year-old girl, who goes missing. Two children realize it is their guardian, a Venetian-born puppeteer and magician, who has kidnapped her and used his dark powers to imprison her mind and body in the form of a puppet and strive to return her to human form.

In Mexico, fitting in might be easier than Jed imagined, with holidays such as Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Here, a rising eighth-grade zombie boy and his zombie dog won't draw that much attention. But then Tread unwittingly sets off Mexico's Chupacabra Defense Network, and Jed accidentally collides with a bus. So much for blending in. The unusual pair catch the eye of a professional wrestler, who challenges Jed to a fight!

Jed's not your typical middle school geek. He is, to use the politically correct term, cardiovascularly challenged. And while his parents have attempted to shield him from the implications of being different for as long as they could (Jed was eight and at a friend's sister's birthday party when he blew his lips off onto the cake in front of everyone, finally prompting the "big talk" from his parents and an emergency superglue repair by his dad), seventh grade at Pine Hollow Middle School as a target of Robbie the supreme school bully and his pack of moronic toadies is rapidly becoming unbearable.

From R.L. Stine, the master of horror for young listeners, comes ten brand new stories that are sure to have you keeping the light on at bedtime tonight. A boy thinks that a dream factory will help him make his slumber more fun...but what's the line between dream and nightmare? Two kids find an abandoned shack on the side of the road and are determined to make it their new treehouse... but is it as abandoned as it seems? A boy wants to impress a birthday party with this amateur magician skills...but how far will he go to wow the crowd?

Cordelia Liu’s first year at Shadow School was a success. She studied hard and made friends. She also sent hundreds of ghosts into the afterlife, because Shadow School isn’t a normal school, and Cordelia Liu isn’t a normal girl. But her second year is already different. Ghosts are refusing to move on, the teachers are acting weird, and Cordelia’s best friends, Benji and Agnes, aren’t as interested in rescuing the ghosts as they used to be.

Spark is not your average teddy bear. She's soft and cuddly, sure, but she's also a fierce warrior. At night she fulfills her sacred duty: to protect the household from monsters. But Spark's owner Loretta is growing up and thinks she doesn't need her old teddy anymore. When a monster unlike any other descends on the quiet home, everything changes. Children are going missing, and the monster wants Loretta next. Only Spark can stop it. She must call upon the ancient League of Ursus - a secret alliance of teddy bears who are pledged to protect their human friends

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.

What begins with a sense that Michael's deceased grandfather might be inhabiting his body soon escalates to "slipping" into to the river of the dead. When Michael slips, he relives moments of his grandfather's life and tries to help him find peace. But each time he ventures into the river it's harder to come out again. Michael will have to depend on an unlikely group of friends to keep him from slipping... permanently. A penetrating twist on the classic ghost story, full of humor and insight about family relationships.

Achim is 11 years old when he moves from the orphanage to the house by the sea. Here everything is strange and new. But one day he discovers an unusual door that leads to a circular room with walls made of rough stone. The light coming through the window is hazy, as if the room is under water. It is a magic room - which he calls “The Adopted Room” - belonging to another world. And on a bed in the room sits a boy who is waiting to take Achim with him into the realm of the powerful Nameless One.

What is it about the old Wilder Creek Bridge that makes Lewis Barnavelt so curious - and so afraid? When Lewis and his best friend Rose Rita Pottinger set out to explore the bridge and the deserted farm nearby, they discover shocking secrets - and a horrifying monster. Even Lewis's Uncle Jonathan and the magical Mrs. Zimmermann may not be able to vanquish this ferocious creature!

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?

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.