Spine-tinglers and Spooky Stories booklist
Beware of the scare!
This month we have selected our favourite Spine-tinglers and spooky stories to get you in the mood for all of the creepy fun you may have around the 31 October for Halloween.
We have picked the best books to help give you goose bumps and send shivers up your spine or to help you with your Halloween plans.
Some of the picks are for older children so make sure you check the ages and carefully read the blurb of the book to see if it may be too scary.
You can get involved too – you may want to hold your own spine-tinglers session with your friends where you read one of these books out loud.
Take a look at some of our recommendations:
Into the Forest by Anthony Browne
One night a boy is woken by a terrible sound. A storm is breaking, lightning flashing across the sky. In the morning Dad is gone and Mum doesn’t seem to know when he’ll be back. The next day Mum asks her son to take a cake to his sick grandma. “Don’t go into the forest,” she warns. “Go the long way round.” But, for the first time, the boy chooses to take the path into the forest, where he meets a variety of fairy tale characters.
The Witches by Roald Dahl and Quinten Blake
BEWARE.
Real witches dress in ordinary clothes and look like ordinary women. But they are not ordinary. They are always plotting and scheming with murderous, bloodthirsty thoughts – and they hate children.
The Grand High Witch hates children most of all and plans to make every single one of YOU disappear.
Only one boy and his grandmother can stop her, but if their plan fails the Grand High Witch will frizzle them like fritters, and then what…?
The Imaginary by A.F.Harrold and Emily Gravett
Rudger is Amanda’s best friend. He doesn’t exist, but nobody’s perfect.
Only Amanda can see her imaginary friend – until the sinister Mr Bunting arrives at Amanda’s door. Mr Bunting hunts imaginaries. Rumour says that he eats them. And he’s sniffed out Rudger. Soon Rudger is alone, and running for his imaginary life. But can a boy who isn’t there survive without a friend to dream him up?
Night of the Living Ted by Barry Hutchinson
When Lisa Marie and her step-brother Vernon pop into town to get their dad a birthday present, they discover the Create-a-Ted shop is offering free Halloween bears! Making two grisly bears for themselves and choosing an Elvis bear named Bearvis for Dad, they head home.
That night the shopkeeper brings the bears to life for nefarious purposes … but Vernon’s bear, Grizz, doesn’t want to be a slave to humans – he wants to rule the world! Converting the shopkeeper’s Stuff-U-Lator into a machine for turning living matter into stuffed bears, he begins to prowl the streets.
Can the children and Bearvis save themselves – and the world – from being stuffed?
The Secret of the Purple Lake is a collection of five interlinked stories that take us from Ghana to Orkney, and from Spain to Norway and Thailand. As a minor character from one story assumes a major role in the next, we meet a fascinating cast, including Imoro the magic elephant, the Walrus Prince, and the Wild Princesses of Rousay.
The protagonist of the opening tale, The Fisherman’s Daughter, has to retrieve her dead father’s bones from the bottom of the sea, in order to bring harmony back to her seaside village. In fulfilling her task, she must evade the clutches of The Fish-man of the Purple Lake. The Fish-man, a monstrous creature with the body of a man and the head of a fish, was once a beautiful boy from the Sahel, and has his own story about how he became the Fish-man.
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively
James is fed up. His family has moved to a new cottage – with grounds that are great for excavations, and trees that are perfect for climbing – and stuff is happening. Stuff that is normally the kind of thing he does. And he’s getting blamed for it.
But it’s not him who’s writing strange things on shopping lists and fences. It’s not him who smashes bottles and pours tea in the Vicar’s lap. It’s a ghost – honestly.
Thomas Kempe the apothecary has returned and he wants James to be his apprentice. No one else believes in ghosts. It’s up to James to get rid of him. Or he’ll have no pocket money or pudding ever again.
The Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross
When Dinah is fostered by the Hunters she thinks her biggest problem will be fitting in with her foster-brothers, Lloyd and Harvey. However, once she starts at her new school it’s clear that there’s more to worry about. All the children, apart from a handful including Lloyd and Harvey, are too well-behaved – robotic almost – and oddly keen to please the creepy headmaster.
The three children set out to discover the nature of his influence over everyone… but then Dinah finds herself saying and doing things she has no power over. Soon they uncover the headmaster’s wicked plan. Controlling the school is just a practice run. He has set his sights on dominating the entire nation! The children must foil him before he succeeds… but with Dinah under his spell they’ve got a challenge on their hands.
Creepy Creatures (Goosebumps Graphix) by R.L. Stine
Watch your back! Three of Goosebumps’ scariest monsters come alive in this howling, growling, spine-chilling comic book! This anthology contains The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena and The Werewolf of Fever Swamp.
We hope that you enjoy reading about these fantastic books – which book would you like to read first?
Make sure you leave a review after you read a book and let everyone know what you think.
