‘Tis the season.

No not that season.

Halloween.

Since a lot of kids love to be scared, I’ve put together a list of recent and not-so-recent spooky boooooo-ks for Halloween that may just light your child’s (Halloween) fire.  

Omega Morales and the Curse of El Cucuy by Laekan Zea Kemp. (Available tomorrow!)  

When a child goes missing from a cemetery, and then another child is taken and then another, Omega discovers that the boogeyman, El Cucuy, is responsible…and she might be the only one who can stop him.  

Scarewaves by Trevor Henderson. (October 3, 2023)  

You don’t stay out after dark in Beacon Point…the small town that has been plagued by eerie local phenomena, disappearances, and strange creatures.

A group of kids comes face to face with the horrors and must follow clues to the town’s secret…before it eats them alive. 

The Odds by Lindsay Puckett. (September 2023) 

Begonia, Bug for short, was abandoned at a retirement home when she was a baby.

Everyone at Swamp Root Manor is odd—except Bug.

She’s still waiting for her Oddity to arrive.

But it better hurry up so she can use it to save the manor, which is about to run out of money, thanks to all of Bug’s hospital bills.

If that happens, Bug will be removed from the only home she’s ever known and all 52 of her grandparents.

Bug’s not about to let that happen, so she joins forces with an annoying boy to battle humans, ghosts, and self-doubt. 

Festergrimm by Taylor Thomas. (September 2022)  

(I reviewed this a few months ago. Find it here https://gaillfontana.com/thomas-taylor/)

A wax museum is being resurrected in Eerie-on-the-Sea…but at what cost?

What else is being resurrected there? 

Ophie’s Ghosts by Justina Ireland. (2021) 

Ophie used to live in the Georgia countryside before that awful night in 1922 when she lost both her home and her father.

That was the same night Ophie learned she can see ghosts.

Now she and her mother are living and working as maids at Daffodil Manor in Pittsburgh, which is haunted by memories and prejudices of the past and ghosts.

But Daffodil Manor may hold more secrets than Ophie bargained for. 

Long Lost by Jacqueline West. (2021) 

I was hooked when I read that this was a “sisterhood” mystery.

Fiona is miserable when her family moves to a new town, Lost Lake, to be closer to her older sister’s figure-skating club.

She finds salvation in the town’s library, a rambling old mansion, and learns her new town is full of secrets, including a tragic disappearance in the lake.

The story centers on the strong and often tumultuous bond between Fiona and her sister.  

Spooky books read by candlelight, a bowl of popcorn (or candy corn!): Life is charmed.   

Until next week, 

~Gail 

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