Scary Fantasy

Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends forever. And for almost as long, they’ve been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her. But they are in middle school now. Zach’s father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over, until Poppy declares she’s been having dreams about the Queen - and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the bone-china doll is buried in her empty grave.

Furnace Penitentiary: the world's most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface. Convicted of a murder he didn't commit, sentenced to life without parole, "new fish" Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries.

Two pink flamingos. A whole family of plaster skunks. Joe Burton's dad loves those tacky lawn ornaments. But then he brings home two ugly lawn gnomes. And that's when the trouble starts. Late at night, when everyone's asleep, someone's creeping in the garden. Whispering nasty things. Smashing melons. Squashing tomatoes. No way two dumb, old lawn ornaments could be causing all the trouble. Is there?

Thomas Ward has spent two years as the Spook's apprentice. He's faced unimaginable peril, and survived. But a new danger has emerged: an ancient water witch, Bloodeye, is roaming the County intent on destroying everything in her path. To strengthen his skills, Tom is sent to the far north to train with the demanding Bill Arkwright. Will Tom's new bag of tricks be enough to overcome a critical mistake that leaves him confronting Bloodeye on his own?

Beneath heaven is hell. Beneath hell is Furnace. Furnace Penitentiary. The world's most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface. One way in, no way out. Once you're here, you're here until you die, and for most of the inmates that doesn't take long - not with the sadistic guards and the bloodthirsty gangs. Convicted of a murder he didn't commit, sentenced to life without parole, 'new fish' Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars.

An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device and killing billions. Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom, a young soldier, and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP. For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it's now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

For most kids, catching fireflies is a fun summer activity. For twelve-year-old Serwa Boateng, it's a matter of life and death. That's because Serwa knows that some fireflies are really adze, shapeshifting vampires from the forests of Southeastern Ghana. Adze prey on the blood of innocents, possessing their minds and turning them into hulking monsters, and for generations, slayers like Serwa and her parents have protected an unknowing public from their threats.

What begins with a sense that Michael's deceased grandfather might be inhabiting his body soon escalates to "slipping" into to the river of the dead. When Michael slips, he relives moments of his grandfather's life and tries to help him find peace. But each time he ventures into the river it's harder to come out again. Michael will have to depend on an unlikely group of friends to keep him from slipping... permanently. A penetrating twist on the classic ghost story, full of humor and insight about family relationships.

Our greatest fears are brought to life in this collection of spine-chilling tales. An ordinary round of the Lava Game turns terrifying. An old lodge for loggers is haunted by a miserable ghost. A boy thinks he's home alone until he finds evidence someone else is there with him.

Siblings Kareem and Amina are dreading a night with their neighbor and babysitter Old Mrs. Heeley. The only good thing is, she always brings cupcakes. But when they go to get a tasty treat, Kareem and Amina find that the cupcakes seem to be devouring one another. Will Kareem and Amina be able to stop the madness before the zombie cupcakes take over?

Alice's world is falling apart. Her parents are getting a divorce, and they've cancelled their yearly cottage trip - the one thing that gets Alice through the school year. Instead, Alice and her mom are heading to some small town where Alice's mom will be a live-in nurse to a rich elderly lady. The house is huge, imposing, and spooky, and everything inside is meticulously kept and perfect - not a fun place to spend the summer. Things start to get weird when Alice finds a dollhouse in the attic that's an exact replica of the house she's living in.

Ren is tired of being bullied, but he thinks the bullies are right. He is small and weak. But when his eyes turn golden, and his skin turns scaly, Ren thinks he can finally get revenge on the boys who tormented him. What will he do when he sees what fear looks like?

Jenny's friends are lost one by one to a ghostly wolf and a phantom snake, instruments of the sinister but attractive Shadow Man, who has returned from the Shadow World with a deadly game called "Lambs and Monsters."

When Matt closed Raven's Gate, an ancient portal to the world of evil, he thought the trouble was over. But sinister forces are still hot on Matt's trail and will stop at nothing to destroy him. Somehow five children from across the globe must join forces, as the threat of the Old Ones still looms near. Now Matt and the second of the five, Pedro - who speaks no English - must find the second gate in the lost city of the Incas before the evil star rises.

In the stunning conclusion to the wildly popular White Rabbit Chronicles, Alice "Ali" Bell thinks the worst is behind her. She's ready to take the next step with boyfriend Cole Holland, the leader of the zombie slayers... until Anima Industries, the agency controlling the zombies, launches a sneak attack, killing four of her friends. It's then she realizes that humans can be more dangerous than monsters... and the worst has only begun.

It's a question as old as time itself: which is better, the zombie or the unicorn? In this anthology, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (unicorn and zombie, respectively), strong arguments are made for both sides in the form of short stories. Half of the stories portray the strengths - for good and evil - of unicorns and half show the good (and really, really bad-ass) side of zombies.

The Apocalypse does not end. The Changed will grow in numbers. The Spared may not survive. Even before the EMPs brought down the world, Alex was on the run from the demons of her past and the monster living in her head. After the world was gone, she believed Rule could be a sanctuary for her and those she’d come to love. But she was wrong. Now Alex is in the fight of her life against the adults, who would use her, the survivors, who don’t trust her, and the Changed, who would eat her alive....

After Rose Rita Pottinger cuts her finger on an enchanted Egyptian scroll, Lewis Barnavelt must work together with his neighbor Florence and sorcerous uncle Jonathan to rescue Rose Rita from the tomb in which she's imprisoned.

After discovering that vampires populate her town, college student Claire Danvers knows that the undead just want to live their lives. But someone else wants them to get ready to rumble. There's a new extreme sport getting picked up on the Internet: bare-knuckle fights pitting captured vampires against each other - or humans. Tracking the remote signal leads Claire - accompanied by her friends and "frenemies" - to discover that what started as an online brawl will soon threaten everyone in Morganville.

Nearly escaping from the evil Mr. Zetes, Kaitlyn Fairchild and her psychic team are dismayed when Gabriel defects to the Institute, and Kaitlyn pretends to betray the group as well in an effort to save her friend.