Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
By Ransom Riggs

This is a real page-turner...and pretty spooky, too!
Jacob, 16 years old, was always been enchanted by his grandfather's crazy stories of growing up in an orphanage on a wind-swept island off the coast of Wales--along with a number of children with strange powers and abilities. Jacob has even seen the photos. But as he got older, his grandfather's stories seemed too fantastic to be true. After a mysterious "accident", Jacob is suddenly inspired to investigate the island and track down anyone still connected with the orphanage.
Set against the backdrop of World War II, this novel is a mix of fantasy, reality, mystery and horror...it will keep you guessing!!

This book is part of a trilogy; Hollow City and Library of Souls are the next two books. And Tales of the Peculiar is a collection of short stories that relates to the trilogy. Check them out!

The Lie Tree

The Lie Tree
By Frances Hardinge

The Lie Tree is part historical fiction, part fantasy--a mysterious, intriguingly dark story.
Fourteen year-old Faith Sunderly pretends to be a good, quiet girl because that's what is expected of her in Victorian England. But inside she is a gifted natural scientist, determined to win her famous scientist father's attention.
When he is mysteriously murdered, Faith does some detective work on her own. She discovers a fantastic tree her father has been hiding--a tree that feeds off of lies whispered to it in the dark. In order to learn more, and perhaps unable to resist the power of this strange specimen, Faith begins to spread her own lies. However, this becomes more dangerous that she ever could have imagined... 

All the Lovely Bad Ones

All the Lovely Bad Ones
By Mary Downing Hahn

It was fun to read this creepy ghost story, recommended to me by Fiona, an avid reader and regular in our middle school library.

Brother and sister Travis and Corey are spending the summer at their grandmother's inn in rural Vermont--and to make things a little more fun they decide to revive some old ghost stories by pretending to haunt the grounds. Little do they know they are awakening real ghosts with their pranks! A group of orphaned children inhabited the "poor farm" centuries ago and were treated cruelly by the farm's mistress, Miss Ada. The ghost-children, "the lovely bad ones," still long for justice and to be peacefully laid to rest. The horrible Miss Ada continues to mistreat them, though, even from beyond the grave...it's up to Travis and Corey to put an end to this head ghost, and to restore peace at the farm. Will they be brave enough?

The Thickety

The Thickety: A Path Begins
By J.A. White

Witchcraft, fantasy, horror, magic...this first book in the Thickety series (4 books altogether) is pretty gripping!

Kara Westfall, a young witch, must figure out whether her powers are evil or for good--or some strange combination of the two... Long ago her mother was murdered before her eyes by the community for being a witch, and Kara has always wondered about her mother's powers and how they were used. The community watches Kara closely to determine whether she should share the same fate as her mother.

Isolated on an island, the town Kara lives in with her dad and little brother borders a creepy forest, the "Thickety." In this magical forest live horrific beasts and strange beings. Kara must enter the Thickety in order to find out the answers she needs to know...

Doll Bones

Doll Bones
By Holly Black

I thought Doll Bones was just as great as it looks and sounds!
A creepy underlying story about a supposedly-murdered-girl-turned-into-a-ceremic-doll really makes for an excellent plot.
And the three middle school-aged friends, Zach, Poppy and Alice are very endearing and believable. Dealing with their own issues about growing up and getting too old to "play dolls", they embark upon an exciting adventure with many twists and turns, and some unexpected disappointments too.
An excellent book that truly kept me up--reading--at night!

P.S. I had to look up whether bone china is really made from bones...It is...!

Charlie Bone

Midnight for Charlie Bone
By Jenny Nimmo

I have heard for a while about how the Charlie Bone series is great for people who loved Harry Potter (like me)...but I haven't seen these books checked out much in the library for some reason...

So I thought I'd read the first one to see what it was all about.

And it was great! And I do think Harry Potter fans would enjoy the magic and mystery Charlie encounters in his bizarre boarding school for kids with "special (magical) abilities".

The series, called Children of the Red King, includes 8 books, beginning with this one. Give it a try! And let me know what you think of it!

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: 14 Amazing Authors Tell the Tales
By Chris Van Allsburg
AND Lemony Snicket, Tabitha King, Jon Scieszka, Sherman Alexie, Gregory Maguire, Cory Doctorow, Jules Feiffer, Linda Sue Park, Walter Dean Myers, Lois Lowry, Kate DiCamillo, M.T. Anderson, and Louis Sachar

 An "esteemed collection of highly decorated authors" have written short stories to accompany Chris Van Allsburg's intriguing and bizarre pictures from the original Mysteries of Harris Burdick...and the stories are just as intriguing and bizarre!
If you were ever inspired by Harris Burdick to think of your own stories to accompany those black-and-white drawings, you will probably enjoy this collection. The stories range from strange to funny to creepy, and beyond...

Harry Potter

 

Harry Potter series

By J.K. Rowling

What a wonderful summer project! I savored each and every book, one right after the other, whenever I could snatch some time for myself. And I loved them more than I thought I would. Humor, wit, problem-solving, magic, friendship, love, danger, horror...it's all there. Now I just have to find time to see all the movies!

The Arrival

The Arrival is told purely through pictures--no words at all. The illustrations, as usual, are captivating, whimsical, and full of wild details. This is the story of one man who leaves his wife and little daughter to seek out a better life in a new place...the settings are fantastical, with creepy beasts and other threats, and bizarre contraptions for traveling, and everyday use. The man must make his way through this strange new "city", and luckily he meets some other immigrants who help him out. They tell their own stories of arrival. Finally, the man has enough money to send to his family in a "letter," and he waits for their arrival...This graphic novel really blew me away, I have to say. It is beautiful.

The Arrival By Shaun Tan
I just love Shaun Tan's books. And this one is really brilliant.

The Haunted Playground

The Haunted Playground
By Shaun Tan

 

I'm a big fan of Shaun Tan's books and artwork (I was excited to find out we were actually born the same year!) so after reading Tales from Outer Suburbia, I thought I'd check out this other little book I found, also by Tan.  It's an easier read, a short and spooky ghost story which takes place in a giant playground.  Gavin, who starts off hunting for lost coins and jewelry in the sand with his new metal detector, ends up discovering something else entirely...and the "ghost" children who hang out at night in the playground decide they want him to stay and play with them--forever!

Blood and Chocolate

 

Blood and Chocolate
By Annette Curtis Klause

16-year-old Vivian is a beautiful, strong and confident high school student--and a sleek werewolf by night.  When she falls in love with a boy at school, a "meat-boy," her life gets more complicated.  She must decide whether or not to share her real identity with gentle Aiden, and what consequences this could have for the rest of her pack...
Recommended for ages 13 and up.

Ghostopolis

Ghostopolis
By Doug TenNapel

 Ghostopolis is a spooky, wondrous adventure in the afterlife, where a boy named Garth Hale finds himself unintentionally zapped by a Supernatural Immigration Task Force agent.  Grotesque and creepy creatures inhabit the pages of this very cool graphic novel, while Garth tries to find a way back home...

I heard this book will soon be a movie!

The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book
By Neil Gaiman

This is a spooky story of a young boy named Nobody Owens, raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his family is murdered one night...the killer, a creepy man named simply Jack, continues to search for the toddler who escaped from the house.
Luckily, the ghosts who adopt Bod, as Nobody is nicknamed, are protective and kind, and offer him all...or almost all...of the "comforts" a boy would need growing up.  He has many bizarre experiences and adventures with otherworldly beings before he must confront the murderer of his family...

Twilight

Twilight;  The Graphic Novel, Volume 1
By Stephenie Meyer
Art and adaptation by Young Kim

I thought I'd check out what the Twilight series is all about...without actually reading the hefty novels (yet)!  Bella, the new girl in a small town high school on the Olympic Peninsula, meets Edward Cullen on her first day.  There's an instant connection, but love doesn't come easily--since Edward is not actually human...  The illustrations in this book are beautiful and chilling, full of facial expressions and lots of cool details of eyes.  Sometimes it was hard to figure out who's talking, as the speech bubbles are sort of stylized.  
(ISBN: 978-0-7595-2943-4)

Coraline

Coraline
By Neil Gaiman

This is definitely a book about facing your fears, and real bravery.  "When you're scared but you still do it anyway," says Coraline, "that's brave."  In this wild, creepy fantasy, a little girl discovers a parallel world behind a door in her house.  On the other side, Coraline's "other parents" are scheming to keep her and destroy her real parents.  They have already stolen the souls of some other children, who appear as ghosts and explain some of this to Coraline.  The adventure Coraline embarks upon requires her to outsmart the other mother, which she does, along with the help of a friendly and coy black cat.  Along the way she encounters rats, monsters, cobwebs, magical toys, and bizarre neighbors.  But by far the spookiest thing about the story, for me, was that Coraline's other parents have giant black buttons instead of eyes--and they want to sew buttons onto Coraline, too.
I love Coraline's even-keel, go-getter attitude.  She doesn't skip a beat when she has to report her parents missing to an unconvinced police officer.  And though she is scared, she doesn't hesitate to walk right into danger in order to do what needs to be done.  She is really smart and brave, but also has her moments of breaking down and needing friends and advice from others.  Which she finds, luckily.
Perhaps it's a story of appreciating what you have, even when it's not perfect.  Coraline wishes her real parents would understand her better and have more time for her, but when she temporarily loses them, she realizes how much she loves them--and how much they love her.
(ISBN: 978-0-06-1139-37-6)