13 Spooky Middle Grade Books for the Haunting Season

When Lexie’s grandmother drops her off at the wrong summer camp, she finds herself surrounded by ghosts and ghouls. Good thing she doesn’t scare easily! Alongside her new werewolf best friend and other fellow campers, Lexie earns her badges in writing pen pal letters to the dead and swimming with the local kraken. But a goody two-shoes new camp director is going to ruin everything unless they can use all their otherworldly skills to stop her and save Camp Croak from her dastardly plans. Good thing they know a thing or two about sabotage!

Adorably creepy illustrations compliment this fun story about finding unusual new friends and belonging at camp.

After losing what she believed to be an unlosable poker game (thanks to a magic card in her possession), Lucy Goodly is forced to go work for Mr. Grave to make up her debt. Mystery, magic, and a mechanical raven mingle as Lucy tries to solve a series of missing children cases, which Mr. Grave may or may not be involved in. Unfortunately, Lucy’s keen mind and speculations sometimes have her jumping to conclusions before the whole truth is uncovered. But strange goings on abound at Grave Hall, and whatever the case may be, Lucy is determined to get to the bottom of it—and maybe with the help of a little magic along the way.

Stay away from small spaces—that’s what what the bus driver tells them when it breaks down, stranding Ollie and her fellow classmates at a local farm with a haunted history. And the creepy situation only gets creepier when the strange book Ollie recently rescued from a woman trying to throw it into a river turns out to be somewhat less than fictional. The brothers from her book are buried at this farm. Coincidence? Probably not. And does that mean the sinister Smiling Man they made a deal with is real, too? As Ollie and two of her classmates heed the warning of her once broken wristwatch—RUN—and flee into the woods, one question remains: who is the Smiling Man and what, exactly, does he want with them?

This hair-raising adventure is sure to keep you reading way past your bedtime—but may be a little too spooky for younger readers.

Rumor is, the Raine family’s new house is haunted. Harper has a bad feeling about it—not that she believes in ghosts or anything. But when her younger brother starts acting strangely, Harper knows she has to figure out what exactly is going on before anything happens to him. As if it wasn’t enough being the new girl in the creepy house, now she’s going to be spending 7th grade researching spirits and trying to save her little brother from a bunch of dangerous ghosts.

Monsters don’t exist in Lucille—that’s what the adults say, anyway. Jam’s never had any reason to doubt that before. But when a creature made of paint and claws and horns emerges from one of her mother’s paintings, claiming to be a monster hunter, Jam begins to question everything she’s been told. After all, if this creature called Pet is right, a monster exists in Lucille even now. And, horrifyingly, it might be living in plain sight. But with all the adults determined to turn a blind eye, Jam and Pet have to take matters into their own hands to prevent something terrible from happening.

This book is often classified as YA, and, as it deals with some more mature and disturbing subjects, would probably be better suited to older middle graders. That said, it has a lot of crossover appeal and would make for a great read this Halloween.

Corinne La Mer isn’t afraid of jumbies—those are just ghost stories parents tell to frighten their kids into behaving. But when a pair of yellow eyes appear in the forest and a stranger shows up, enchanting her father, Corinne begins to suspect the stories are real. Especially when she learns this stranger, Severine, plans to take over her island home for the jumbies. No way Corinne is about to let that happen! Inspired by a classic Haitian folktale, The Jumbies weaves together magic, spirits, and a powerful message: love conquers all.

When Zach’s father suddenly decides he’s too old for toys, he copes the only way he knows how: he gives up on playing entirely. But his (former) best friends Poppy and Alice aren’t having that. Especially because Poppy’s being haunted by a china doll crafted from the bones of a murdered girl—or so she says. The only way to prevent a curse befalling all three children is to return the doll to the girl’s home and bury it…before it’s too late.