Scary Teens

If you're looking for the scariest stories you can get your hands on, your search is over. Accomplished storyteller Roberta Simpson Brown unfolds her thrilling stories for listeners of all ages.

These shivery tales were collected from the oral tradition, from people all over the Southwest, and represent the rich cultural diversity of the region, from the Ozarks to the Rio Grande, California to the Big Thicket.

Laura Amy Schlitz delivers this Horn Book Fanfare and Laura Amy Schlitz delivers this Horn Book Fanfare and Cybils Award-winning best-seller that whisks 11-year-old Maud Flynn from a cold New England orphanage and into the stately mansion of three wealthy spinsters. After the Hawthorne sisters adopt her in 1909, they tell her she's their secret child. She must remain indoors at all times and must never stand in front of windows. Maud doesn't mind their restrictions. But she does wonder what could possibly require such secrecy.

Teenager Murray Keifer just doesn't fit in at school. And it doesn't help that his mother is too busy entertaining male friends to be involved in his life. His only friends are "Dearly" and "Beloved": dead people buried in the local cemetery. That's right, Murray talks to the dead. But Murray's peaceful and unusual world is torn asunder when he hears the voice of missing teen Nikki Parker, buried in someone else's grave.

Former teachers Richard and Judy Dockrey Young bring their frightening performances alive on tape with 14 ghost stories from the American Southeast.

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.

Being the new kid at school is hard, but Sophie has a secret weapon: her vivid imagination and her oversized, trusted Big Book of Monsters, an encyclopedia of myths and legends from all over the world. Sophie is convinced she is a monster because of the monster mark on her face. At least that's what she calls it. The doctors call it a blood tumor, and it covers almost half of her face. The Big Book of Monsters gives Sophie the idea that there might be a cure for her monster mark.

Everybody loves scary stories, and nobody loves them more than children. Storytellers Richard and Judy Dockery Young gathered these stories from the most discerning of critics: the children themselves. These are the tales kids tell most often and most often ask to be told.

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.

Dru Anderson is a very special girl - even if she doesn't always feel it. Gifted with "the touch", Dru travels about with her dad, hunting all manner of things that go bump in the night. But then her dad turns up dead - or, er, undead - and everything changes.

Lili St. Crow staked her place among writers of dark fantasy with the release of Strange Angels, the first book featuring night hunter Dru Anderson. Here teen Dru returns, a little wiser but still beset by supernatural terrors that would have most girls her age running for cover. What else would you expect for someone with nonhuman blood coursing through her veins?

Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends forever. And for almost as long, they’ve been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her. But they are in middle school now. Zach’s father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over, until Poppy declares she’s been having dreams about the Queen - and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the bone-china doll is buried in her empty grave.

It’s time for Joss McMillan to prove himself as a Slayer. He failed to kill the vampire Vladimir Tod, but now he’s getting a second chance to make things right. He is in New York City, sent by the Slayer Society to hunt down a serial-killing vampire. Joss will lead his Slayer team and stop the murderer. But all is not as it appears. When the team discovers that there is more than one suspect on the killing rampage, Joss must use all his skill to save the innocent people of New York City. Joss’s status as a Slayer - and his very life - depend on it.

You have been given access to secret files buried deep within the archives. Disturbing stories never meant for the light of day. Stories of evil grandparents and unsettling homework. A string of deaths, seemingly unrelated. Walls squirm, as if alive. A cursed wish comes true. Ordinary people behave oddly, even family and your closest friends. These stories share a common fate. All the children are met with tragedy. Coincidence? Or could these nightmares be connected by something more sinister than you dare to imagine? A dark and chilling mystery awaits.

Against the ominous backdrop of the influenza epidemic of 1918, Elsie, the class tattletale, liar, and thief, claims the new girl at school, Annie, as her best friend. But Annie soon makes other friends as well and finds herself joining them in teasing and tormenting Elsie, who later succumbs to the epidemic and dies. Elsie is not absent from school long, though. She soon returns there as a ghost, ready to reclaim Annie's friendship and to punish all the girls who bullied her.

The haunted season has arrived in the Antler Wood. No fox kit is safe. When Mia and Uly are separated from their litters, they discover a dangerous world full of monsters. In order to find a den to call home, they must venture through field and forest, facing unspeakable things that dwell in the darkness: a zombie who hungers for their flesh, a witch who tries to steal their skins, a ghost who hunts them through the snow...and other things too scary to mention.

Devin and his sister Violet are visiting their Uncle Jack in an old house by the seashore. Jack was a sailor and he has collected strange and fascinating items from the sea. Exploring a back room, Devin and Violet discover a locked trunk. A pirate's chest. They manage to get it open - and see that it's filled with antique jack-in-the-boxes. Huh? Up pops a very ugly, mean-looking puppet, an old pirate with a dirty red bandana over his long greasy hair. "Thanks for letting Sailor Jack out!" he rasps. Will Jack return them to their uncle? Just how much is a pirate's promise worth?

Cathy O’Connor has seen it all. Her dad owns the local Haunted Horror Museum, a popular location filled with spooky items. The museum has been trying to get its hands on a real mummy for a long time. And this year, a mysterious mummy, Arragotus, has arrived. But when Slappy is dropped at the museum’s doorstep the night before Cathy’s class is coming, scary things start to happen. The dummy meets the mummy, and nobody is safe. Will it be a wrap for Cathy’s friends and family?

Magic is fading from the Wild Wood. To renew it, goblins must perform an ancient ritual involving the rarest of their kind - a newborn changeling. But when the fateful night arrives to trade a human baby for a goblin one, something goes terribly wrong. After laying the changeling in a human infant's crib, the goblin Kull is briefly distracted from his task. By the time he turns back, the changeling has already perfectly mimicked the human child. Too perfectly: Kull cannot tell them apart. Not knowing which to bring back, he leaves both babies behind.