Scary Science Fiction

Light the candles and shut the door. The Wrong Train is a deliciously creepy and terrifyingly good collection of scary stories for fans of Patrick Ness, R.L. Stine, and Emily Carroll.

Acclaimed author Jennifer Allison’s popular Gilda Joyce mysteries have been recognized with an Edgar Award nomination and starred reviews from School Library Journal and Booklist. In The Bones of the Holy, the 13-year-old psychic sleuth is in St. Augustine, Florida, to solve two truly puzzling mysteries: Why has her mother suddenly decided to marry an antiques dealer who looks like a walrus? And who is the woman in white haunting the man’s house?

Captive's Sound is still standing...but a new evil is rising. Nadia saved the town of Captive's Sound from a fiery apocalypse and vanquished the Sorceress Elizabeth...or so she thought. But a crack into the underworld opened, and a greater evil is breaking through. As Nadia's Steadfast, her boyfriend, Mateo, should make her magic stronger, but the curse that torments him has only intensified. And try as she might, Nadia can't break the cruel spell on her best friend, Verlaine, or stop a mysterious illness that's striking people down one by one.

George and Kate enter Whittaker Magnet School via the "Leave No High-Scoring Child Behind" program. They quickly learn that all Whittaker students do is practice taking tests. Higher scores bring more students, and more tax money! And as if Whittaker isn't strange enough, there may be a demon roaming the halls. Acclaimed author Edward Bloor's Story Time is a darkly hilarious spoof on modern education.

Sukie's been lonely since the death of her big sister, Kitty - but Kitty's ghost is still with her. At first that was comforting, but now Kitty's terrifying anyone who gets too close. Things get even weirder when Sukie moves into her family's ancestral home and an older, less familiar ghost challenges her to find a treasure. Her classmate Cole is also experiencing apparitions. Fortunately an antique broom's at hand to fly Sukie and Cole to the New York Circulating Material Repository's spooky Poe Annex.

Ever since her sister Kasey was institutionalized, then seeing Lydia Small die a horrible, violent death, Alexis just wants things to go back to the way they were before all of it happened. But normal people don't see decaying bodies haunting photographs. Normal people don't have to deal with regular intrusions from Lydia's angry ghost, sometimes escalating to terrifying attacks. At first it seems that Lydia wants revenge on Alexis alone.

Brett and Tom are crazy about video games. In fact, they became best friends when they discovered that they could beat all their opponents. Now they’re ready to take on the best one of all—Rodomonte’s Revenge—a new virtual reality game that just opened in the mall. Fire rivers, enormous buzz-bugs, impossible cliffs, and a treasure-filled castle are all exciting parts of the skill levels. But when the game begins to take over Brett and Tom’s minds, they fear that they might become a permanent part of the action.

Magic. Mystery. Time-travel. Join Jack, Annie and the Magic Tree House in this historical holiday story that puts a twist on Charles Dicken's classic The Christmas Carol. Jack and Annie must help the famous writer Charles Dickens! The brother and sister are whisked back in time to Victorian England and the foggy streets of London. There, Jack and Annie discover that Charles Dickens has been thrown in jail! How can they help him? They will need all their magic-and help from three ghosts-to keep the great writer from ruining his life!

Do you remember your scariest Halloween ever? James Henderson does. It was the year he turned ten. What started out as a sensible plan to collect the most candy while trick-or-treating soon turned into a terrifying adventure for James, his two friends and his kid brother, Ricky.

Will Noah and Violet find the griefers who escaped to the Overworld? Noah and Violet are busy rebuilding their town when the Ender Dragon flies above the village streets. The following day the Wither attacks them. As the town battles these harsh hostile mobs, Noah and Violet, with their good friends, Hannah and Ben, set out to search for Daniel, whom they suspect is behind these vicious attacks.

Thorkell was once the most famous court jester in all the land - best friend to King Aethelstan and the man who rallied the troops before every successful battle. He loved nothing more than warming up a crowd ready to receive the king. Things were a bit more tricky these days, what with him being dead and not as handsome looking as he was before he lost his skin and bones. If only Thorkell could perform for a crowd, just once more, it would mean the world (and the underworld) to him. Is there anything that Bertram and Molly can do to make a jester laugh one more time?

Robby and his sister Karla beg their parents to take them to a big carnival that has opened on the other side of town. When they arrive, the two kids are delighted by the rides, the sideshow, the interesting displays, and the great food booths. They wander away from their parents and find themselves at a less-trafficked area at the back of the carnival. Inside a large penned-in area, they see a dejected-looking boy about their age sitting on the grass. A sign on the tall metal fence reads: PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE WEIRDO. The kids are reluctant to disobey the sign, but the boy seems really nice.

The year is 1945 and the world is at war. Meeting on a London Underground Station for the first time, Kiera Hudson and time traveler Samantha Carter are brought together to take part in a desperate mission deep behind enemy lines. With a friend's life at stake and the help of two mortal enemies, Kiera and Samantha must face a foe more terrifying than either one has battled before. But can vampire and werewolf work as one or is it only a matter of time before Kiera Hudson and Samantha Carter are pushed apart?

When Veronica and her friend, Kirk, decide to investigate why, they stumble upon a more sinister plot than they ever could have imagined. One of Veronica’s high school teachers is crippled by the fact that his dead daughter has never returned as a ghost, and he’s haunted by the possibility that she’s waiting to reappear within a fresh body. Veronica seems like the perfect host. And even if he’s wrong, what’s the harm in creating one more ghost?

With no way into the McMartin house's magical paintings and its three guardian cats reluctant to help, Olive's friend Morton is still trapped inside Elsewhere. So when Rutherford, the new oddball kid next door mentions a grimoire - a spellbook - Olive sees a glint of hope. If she can find the McMartins' spellbook, maybe she can help Morton escape Elsewhere for good. Unless, that is, the book finds Olive first. The house isn't the only one keeping secrets anymore.

A fire-breathing dragon has appeared out of nowhere and is looking for its treasure in Spooksville. In fact, the dragon intends to destroy the entire town unless its jewels and gold are returned immediately. Worse, the hotheaded creature won’t listen to reason, and soon it’s laying waste to everything in its path with its fiery breath. The dragon has no problem turning kids to ash, either. Soon Adam and his friends are fighting flames - and for their lives!

Adam and his friends are exploring the area around Spooksville when they come across a black cat. It seems friendly: It purrs when they rub its back and licks its paws like any other cat. But then it follows them back to town, and strange things begin to happen. A tree falls down, and a house catches fire. Each time something bad happens, the cat is there - watching, with its strange green eyes. And it won’t go away. Adam and his friends don’t know what to do. Especially when the fearsome feline begins to use its powers on them!

The first book in the exhilarating new fantasy sequence from Joseph Delaney, the multimillion-selling author of The Spook's Apprentice, the inspiration for the movie Seventh Son. Welcome to Arena 13. Here warriors fight. Death is never far away.... Leif has one ambition: to become the best fighter in the notorious Arena 13. Here punters place wagers on which fighter will draw first blood. And in grudge matches, they bet on which fighter will die.

This collection of tales is for fans of ghost-story writer Mary Downing Hahn’s scary but not too scary books. Even the stories without actual ghosts are spooky. Each tale turns something ordinary - a pigeon, a white dress, a stranger on the bus, a puppet - into a sinister link to the supernatural. For the human characters, secrets from the past or careless behavior in the present can lead to serious trouble. All the stories have a young person as their central character, so all will resonate easily with young listeners who enjoy the eerie, the creepy, and the otherworldly.

Not since he faced his fears has Charlie had so many bad dreams. Whenever he falls asleep, he finds himself in a Netherworld field surrounded by a flock of creepy black sheep. They're not counting sheep. They refuse to jump. In fact they don't do much at all. Even eerier, though, is that it's not Charlie's nightmare. Somehow he's trapped in someone else's bad dream. And he's pretty sure the twins Ick and Ink are responsible.