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Back To School: A Book List for Grades 4-8

I know that in some places school doesn’t start until after Labor Day, but in Indiana, most schools are already in session, and the rest will be by sometime next week.

For kids, the end of summer vacation can be kind of a bummer, but for kids who love scary stories, there are lots of them set in schools. School isn’t a boring place there; it’s an adventure. A terrifying adventure, yes, but terrifying in a different way than the usual school fears and anxieties. Of course, after some of these school stories, it’s possible that young readers may see their neighborhood school in a more favorable light.  Here are a few suggestions for the tween crowd looking for a book for when it’s time for Drop Everything And Read.

 

Scary School series by Derek the Ghost (Derek Taylor Kent)

According to Rhonda Wilson, who reviewed the first two books for us (we’re waiting on the third) this is a fantastic series. You can visit the Scary School website here

#1 Scary School (reviewed here)

#2 Monsters on the March (reviewed here)

#3 The Northern Frights

 

Tales from Lovecraft Middle School series by Charles Gilman

This new series for tweens provides a gentle introduction to the world of Lovecraft.  H.P. Lovecraft scared the daylights out of me in high school, so double check to make sure you are not handing his original stories over, but this series has cool lenticular cover art, is delightfully creepy, and also has an awesome school librarian in it.

#1 Professor Gargoyle (reviewed here).

#2 Teacher’s Pest (I’m reading this now, and if you are creeped out by bugs, this will give you the willies).

#3 The Slither Sisters

#4 Substitute Creature

 

Bone Chillers series by Betsy Haynes and others

This out-of-print series, starring the students of Edgar Allan Poe High School, was published between 1994 and 1997, at the peak of the Goosebumps craze. It was good enough to inspire its own television show. You can probably find it used, if your library doesn’t still have it. As I mentioned in a previous post, though, libraries tend to hang on to books until a really ruthless weeder comes along, or the book is completely worn out. I know Bone Chillers was published in a hardcover library edition (probably a prebound version) because I had a few on the shelves when I was a school librarian.S

#1 Beware the Shopping Mall by Betsy Haynes
#2 Little Pet Shop of Horrors by Betsy Haynes

#3 Back to School by Betsy Haynes
#4 Frankenturkey by Betsy Haynes
#5 Strange Brew by Betsy Haynes
#6 Teacher Creature by Betsy Haynes
#7 Frankenturkey II by Betsy Haynes
#8 Welcome to Alien Inn by Betsy Haynes
#9 Attack of the Killer Ants by Betsy Haynes
#10 Slime Time by Betsy Haynes
#11 Toilet Terror by Betsy Haynes
#12 Night of the Living Clay by David Bergantino
#13 The Thing Under the Bed by Daniel Ehrenhaft
#14  A Terminal Case of the Uglies by David Bergantino
#15 Tiki Doll of Doom by Michael Burgan
#16 The Queen of the Gargoyles by Gene Hult
#17 Why I Quit the Baby-Sitters Club by Betsy Haynes
#18 Blowtorch@Psycho.Com by Sherry Shahan
#19 The Night Squawker by Dahlia Kosinski
#20 Scare Bear by Gene Hult
#21 The Dog Ate My Homework by Betsy Haynes
#22 Killer Clown of Kings County by Daniel Ehrenhaft
#23 Romeo and Ghouliette by Ryan Chipman

School of Fear series by Gitty Daneshveri

Four middle-school aged kids with severe phobias are sent to an exclusive and isolated school that promises to help them get past their fears. I have seen adult reviewers who have taken this premise quite seriously and have been very upset by its content. To be clear, these books are not intended as a mockery of the truly phobic, nor are they inspiring tales of therapeutic success– rather, they are a creepy, quirky, and sometimes funny, take on the “boarding school for last-chance students” story.

#1 School of Fear

#2 Class Is Not Dismissed!

#3 The Final Exam

 

Down a  Dark Hall by Lois Duncan (reviewed here)

Speaking of boarding schools, it’s hard to get creepier than with this tale of an exclusive school for the “gifted”, in a creepy old house in an isolated location and no way to contact anyone in the outside world, inhabited by artistically talented ghosts who possess the students to exercise their creative genius.

 

Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys series by Julie Gardner Berry and Sally Gardner

Yet another “boarding school for last-chance students” story, this time heavily illustrated and leaning on the gross-out factor.  In this series, the hard cases that public schools haven’t been able to reach are entrusted to the care of a fascinating group of educators, all of whom are monsters.

#1 The Rat Brain Fiasco (reviewed here)

#2 Curse of the Bizarro Beetle (reviewed here)

#3 The Colossal Fossil Freakout

#4 The Trouble With Squids

 

Ivy and Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go by Annie Barrows

This title in the Ivy and Bean series is mind-bending. Ivy and Bean are best friends, on totally opposite ends of the personality spectrum. Ivy is shy and imaginative, while Bean is always ready for action. In this book, Ivy claims to have seen a ghost in the girls’ bathroom at school. Bean enthusiastically helps her spread the story until the two of them manage to terrify their entire class out of using the bathroom. Naturally, an exorcism is in order. Middle schoolers will find it too young, but fourth graders can still enjoy it.

The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp by Richard Peck

This is not my favorite of the Blossom Culp books (that would be Ghosts I Have Been) but it’s a great school story, in a totally dated kind of way. In it, Blossom, who is psychic, and who has been convinced to do fortunetelling in her school’s haunted house, time travels to the future. Well, her future. Her future would be in the present time, which in this case was the time that the book was written. In the 1980’s. And she goes to school with the kid who has promised to help her get back home. The entire thing is a blast from the past now, but it’s still fun.

Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow by James Howe

Bunnicula, the vampire rabbit who is a threat to vegetables everywhere, has really evolved, developing spinoff series, easy readers, and much more. Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow returns us to the world of Chester, Howie, Harold, and the Monroe family. In this book, the Monroes are playing host to M.T. Graves, the author of the FleshCrawlers series, who is there for a school visit. Graves brings along his pet, a strange, silent bird named Edgar Allan Crow. As usual, mystery, suspense, and humor combine to create another excellent Bunnicula story.

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Maybe you don’t think of Matilda as a scary book . But although it’s sometimes hard to remember how scary Roald Dahl actually is, he touches on some very dark themes and very extreme plotlines in his books. It’s an understatement to say that Miss Trunchbull, the principal of Matilda’s school, is memorable, in the worst way possible.

 

Infestation by Tim Bradley

And now, one last “boarding school for last-chance students” story, which is also an homage to monster movies.  Imagine Louis Sachar’s Holes, but with an insect invasion.

 

As always, look these books over to make sure they’re right for you (or your child) since they’re all over the spectrum. Some of them are good for nine year olds, and a little young for middle schoolers: others will be more appropriate for kids on the upper end of the age range. Good luck getting back into the school routine, and may your own school be refreshingly free of insects, ghosts, monsters, and ominous black birds.

 

 

 

Posted on August 8, 2013 by , Reply

Summer Reading Is Killing Me, Part One

You know it’s coming up soon. The summer reading lists from school, the summer reading programs at the library (and in other places too– my kids’ tae kwon do studio holds a summer reading program, if you can believe it)!

What to do for the kid who wants a scary book for his summer reading? On the Indiana K-2 state recommended reading list, the only book that probably qualifies is Where the Wild Things Are. So is there anything out there that didn’t win the Newbery Award that a monster-loving kid could get into? Of course there is!

Between the point where all reading is grown-ups reading aloud to kids, to the point where kids are fluently reading chapter books, is a transitional category of books called easy readers. Easy readers were pioneered by Dr. Seuss and Else Holmelund Minarik and have been a blossoming category of books ever since. They’ve come a long way since Margaret Hillert’s Happy Birthday, Dear Dragon.

 

 

And here are a few books that might catch your early reader’s interest.

 

There Is a Bird On Your Head! (Elephant and Piggie) by Mo Willems

Before getting specific to monsters, chills and thrills, first I have to recommend above and beyond almost any other easy reader the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems. They are so absurdly funny that you probably won’t mind reading them over and over again and again. And your first grader will probably be able to read them to you, too.  There Is a Bird on Your Head! won a Geisel Award, and for good reason. You just cannot go wrong with Mo Willems. Unfortunately, once you’ve read all of the books, you will find there really isn’t anything else like them. I asked the librarian at our library, and she couldn’t come up with anything. If you do find something that measures up, I want to know!

 

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

Maybe you never considered this interpretation, but a lot has been written about the creepiness of  this book, with a giant intruder breaking in to the children’s house while their mother is gone, and causing havoc.

 

Spooky Hayride by Brian James (Level 1)

Who spooks who?  How spooky IS the hayride, anyway? This book uses very simple and limited vocabulary and still tells a story with wit.

 

Looking for Bigfoot by Bonnie Worth (Level 4)

Kids transitioning to easy chapter books may miss out on some of the more complex easy readers. Looking for Bigfoot is aimed at kids who can read paragraphs independently and is as long as some of the shorter chapter books, at almost 50 pages. This is more of a nonfiction title about the mysterious cryptid than a scary story, but monster loving kids may still get into it.

 

Beastly Tales:  Yeti, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster (Eyewitness Readers) by Malcolm Yorke (Level 3)

When it comes to Bigfoot, there’s no such thing as too much, at least in this house.

 

In a Dark, Dark, Room and Other Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz (Level 2)

Alvin Schwartz’s name should be familiar: he’s the guy who compiled the classic Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and its sequels. We get questions here every once in awhile where someone who can’t remember its name describes a story from this book. It may have been around long enough for you to remember reading it as a kid yourself, but it never gets old.

 

Ghosts! Ghostly Tales from Folklore by Alvin Schwartz (Level 2)

Alvin Schwartz collects together ghost stories for early readers.

 

No More Monsters for Me! by Peggy Parrish (Level 1)

This is a classic I Can Read story.  Minneapolis Simpkin desperately wants a pet, and when she encounters a monster, she sneaks it into her house. Sneaking a monster into the house, she discovers, really is not a good idea.

 

I Spy A Scary Monster (I Spy)  by Jean Marzollo (Level 1)

It’s I Spy–you can’t go wrong! You can read this with the earliest readers. The objects they are supposed to find in the photographic spread  on the page opposing are pictured next to the clue, so words can be matched with pictures, and then discovered in the photo.

 

Amanda Pig and the Awful, Scary Monster (Oliver and Amanda) by Jean Van Leeuwen (Level 3)

Amanda overcomes her fear of bedtime monsters when Oliver helps her build a monster trap.

 

The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches by Alice Low (Level 4)

Alice Low wrote several children’s books with witches as characters. According to a reviewer at Publisher’s Weekly, this is “an irresistible way to add joy to the scarey fall holiday.” But you can also read it as a way to add joy to your summer holiday.

Three Claws in the City (Meet the Monsters of the World) by Cari Meister (Level 3)

This is one of a series about some monsters that are more funny than frightening. Their look: cartoony. Their names: Snorp, Ora, Moopy, and Three Claws. The publishing imprint, Stone Arch, also published the early graphic novel series Monster and Me by Robert Marsh.

 

Don’t Go In The Water! (Easy-to-Read Spooky Tales) by Veronika Martenova Charles

This book is also part of a series of ten books, and the books, while labeled “easy to read,” have not been leveled. They are 56 pages long, which is long for an easy reader, but the books, depending on the child, are readable by first and second graders. Each book has three ‘spooky tales,’ loosely related to a folktale, and the ending of the last story is open ended. These would probably be appreciated most by the kids who REALLY are looking to be spooked, and not just those who want a mildly funny monster story.

 

The Vampire Bunny (Bunnicula and Friends) by James Howe and Jeff Mack (Level 3)

Who knew that James Howe’s classic middle-grade novel Bunnicula would spawn so many sequels and spin-offs? This is one of an entire series of Level 3 easy readers starring the characters from the original novel. This one follows the plot of the book fairly closely.

 

Hope that gets your early reader started for summer reading! Enjoy!

 

 

 

Posted on May 7, 2013 by , Reply

Moms vs. Zombies, Mother’s Day Edition: Mother May I?

Welcome to the final entry in our Mother’s Day lineup. Today our zombie editor, Michele Lee, shares with us her thoughts about building a culture of reading and writing when you’re a horror-loving mom.

Michele Lee is the author of Rot and mother of budding writer Rose Lee. She is also a book reviewer in addition to her role as zombie editor for MonsterLibrarian.com.

Mother May I?

By Michele Lee

As if it’s not bad enough that we parent these days in the spotlight of public scrutiny,  there comes a point where you hear the dreaded words “You read what?”

It’s hard to avoid zombies, werewolves, vampires and ghouls these days. The kids even have their own versions, the Poison Apple books from Scholastic, Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie by David Lubar, The Zombie Chasers, Zombiekins, and. of course, Zombie Butts from Uranus by Andy Griffiths. This isn’t a new thing. In my younger days we had There’s a Batwing in my Lunchbox by Ann Hodgman, Bunnicula by James Howe and The Little Vampire.

We grew up with it. While those a generation older than us teethed on Stephen King, we blossomed from elementary monsters to R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike and Richie Tankersley Cusick. Don’t forget that L.J. Smith and her Vampire Diaries were ours first. On our side of things we wonder how the Jason and Freddy-loving teens became the same parents who sneer at our zombie T-shirts and look at us with suspicion when they see us reading the latest Brian Keene in front of our kids.

As parents, we’ve already been there, wondering where’s the limit for our adorable little spawn. Of course we don’t let them watch a Saw marathon. We don’t read Laurell K. Hamilton to them before bed every night either. But the nature of kids is to idolize us adults (which is at once one of the most awesome, and scariest parts of being a parent) so of course, things bleed.

Two years ago now (almost to the day) while I was editing Rot for its launch, my daughter decided she was going to write a zombie story too. She even asked me how to spell zombie, so she could write it on her to do list (and you better believe I have pictures of that in her scrapbook). Rot is not in any way at all appropriate for a kid to read, and I’d been very careful not to let her hear me reading it out loud. But she knew, and had seen the illustrations, and she wanted to write a zombie book too.

What came out was a most excellent story, that I promptly paid her a dollar to let me publish on my blog (because money flows to the writer). Enthusiastic, she pitched me a sequel (with evil ballerinas!). Write it, I said. And she lost interest. She was five.

Does she still know about zombies and vampires and what kind of things I write? Sure. She can grab the books my work is in, stare down the occasional meat puppet on the cover and wave it at me, exclaiming “This is your book, Mom.” But she doesn’t see terrifying tales of torture and sickness and blood-curdling terror. They’re things Mom has done that we all should be proud of, like her spelling tests and her brother’s artwork.

Kids get scared, but they are not adults and they do not think the same way. Scary and gross to kids are snot monsters that swallow hamsters (who are later saved by people wearing underwear and capes). Scary is something the world teaches them.

My daughter, accidentally one night, saw most of Repo: the Genetic Opera. She woke up in the middle of the night, and I was watching it and didn’t see her sitting in the doorway, fascinated. Ask her what it’s about and she’ll say there’s a pretty, blind woman who sings songs and tries to help a girl who finds out her dad is a bad guy. It’s not the blood, the repossessing of organs, the corporate greed, the hedonism or the addiction that scares her. And the bit where Paris Hilton’s face falls off? That’s just silly. Really, she doesn’t think the movie is that scary at all, just sad. The bit that resonated with her was the girl holding on to her dad crying because he wasn’t what she thought he was.

When kids are scared, it’s personal. Generally, they aren’t scared of monsters and blood, they’re scared of mom and dad abandoning them, or letting people down themselves. You know how kids always assume if something bad happens then they must have done something wrong? They aren’t scared of the same things we are because they haven’t connected with the real scary things in the outside world. My daughter wasn’t scared about 9/11 because she had no clue what it was, but I don’t know an adult who wasn’t.

When you’re a horror-loving parent, the wicked, inhuman beasties remind your kids of you, a person they trust and love. I don’t advocate having a popcorn and showing-of-Chucky night for family time, but if your kids want their own scary stories, how is sharing time, and a small piece of something you love with them, so wrong?

Besides, they need to be prepared for the zombie apocalypse too, right?

Posted on May 8, 2011 by , Reply