10 Scary (And Semi-Scary) Stories for Kids and Teens

by Donna L. Washington, illustrated by Jeffrey Ebbeler

Curly Locks is a good-hearted girl, but she’s an awful cook. All the townspeople of Toadsuck Swamp know to steer clear of her peculiar dishes—like batwing brownies and toad eye toffees. So it’s quite a mystery when one of her dishes goes missing from her windowsill.

Next morning, chaos breaks out in town and word spreads how the Scares of Toadsuck Swamp are running wild and terrorizing the town at mealtime. They shriek “Gitchey Boo, Gitchey Bon! Gitchey Goo, Gitchey Gone!” and send folk running for their lives! But Curly Locks isn’t frightened, and she has an inkling her unsavory cooking can help corral those Scares for good.

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by Tracey Baptiste, illustrated by Amber Ren

I’m looking for a jumbie. I’m going to find a scary one.

But Mama says jumbies exist only in stories. So Naya sets out on a nighttime adventure to find out for herself.

No such thing, say the friends she makes along the way.

But Naya is sure that jumbies are real. Some have big mouths. Or thick fur. Or glowing skin. Or sharp teeth. Kind of like her new friends…

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by David Bowles, illustrated by Shane Clester

Cousins Malia, Ivan, and Dante are visiting their aunt Lucy for the summer. On their way to Gulf City’s water park, they get lost on 13th Street. Only it’s not a street at all. It’s a strange world filled with dangerous beasts! Will the cousins find their way back to Aunt Lucy’s?

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by Kara LaReau, illustrated by Ryan Andrews

While helping her best friend, Danny, film his latest horror flick, Mellie discovers a scraggly cat behind a dumpster outside the YummCo Foods factory. Mellie names the stray Bert and hides him in her room, knowing her parents won’t let her keep him. But soon Bert has decapitated all her stuffed animals, and before long he is leaving the headless corpses of birds and mice as gifts for her. Danny is convinced the cat is a zombie, living on the brains of his victims. But is that what is really going on? Award-winning author Kara LaReau lets loose a fresh and sharply funny new mystery series, with an irresistible touch of the macabre. Fans of creepy stories and animal lovers alike will devour this fast-moving first episode in one gulp.

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by Marcus Sedgwick, illustrated by Thomas Taylor

Scarlett Hart is the last of a long line of monster hunters, and this stubborn young orphan is determined to carry on her dead parents’ work even if she’s too young to be licensed by the monster hunters union. With the help of her loyal butler and a lot of awesome gadgets, Scarlett is out to slay monsters—and to take down the corrupt monster hunter who killed her parents!

In a departure from the intense, literary teen fiction for which he is best known, Marcus Sedgwick has turned his pen to middle-grade adventure storytelling. Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter, with Thomas Taylor on the art, is a joyous, goofy, and above-all sincere adventure in the tone of classic kids’ adventure comics of the 1940s.

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by Hanna Alkaf

I am a dark spirit, the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother’s legacy. I am yours to command.

Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable. But Suraya doesn’t know that pelesits have a dark side—and when Pink’s shadows threaten to consume them both, they must find enough light to survive…before they are lost to the darkness.

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by Chana Steifel

Do monsters really exist? Find out for yourself in this fun-filled book, featuring some real-life wonders of nature: zombifying parasites, bloodsucking vampires, aliens, sea beasts, ghosts, and more. Discover more than 50 creatures with unusual talents, find out what makes each animal tick, and whether they are truly “monsters” after all. Features include eye-popping photography, spine-tingling scientific info, the most up-to-date research, and fun facts for extra knowledge. You’ll also meet the “Mad Scientist” experts who study these creatures, explore the creepy origins of their mythical counterparts, and learn how these spooky adaptations help them survive.

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by Crispin Boyer

That’s Deadly! takes you on a journey to explore all of the things in this world that can put your life in jeopardy. From spewing volcanoes to ferocious predators, you’ll find tons of fascinating facts that will keep you lying awake at night wondering what exactly might be lurking under your bed. Can’t sort fact from fiction? Don’t worry, we’ve layered in playful reality checks so kids know the actual peril possibility factor (PPF) is far less than perceived (as long as you steer clear of certain situations!). With beautiful photographs, humorous text, and fun and funky design, think of it as the almanac of danger.

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by Tiffany D. Jackson

When the Sterling Foundation offers Marigold’s mom free housing for a year, her newly blended family moves to the embattled city of Cedarville, along with Mari’s bratty stepsister, Piper. Mari wants to be back in sunny California, not this oddly renovated home in a decaying town–but it’s not like the house wants her there, either.

It starts off slow. The perma-locked basement. Doors opening and closing when no one’s there. Mari’s stuff getting moved around her room. Piper makes a new friend, Ms. Suga, except no one else has seen her. But ghosts aren’t real, right? Mari and her brother, Sammy, set up cameras to investigate.

The house doesn’t like that.

When a fire starts across the street, Marigold becomes suspicious of Piper. After Sammy needs to be taken to the hospital when he almost dies, Mari decides they need to leave this house. Now.

But the danger isn’t limited to just her own home–Cedarville has its own secrets. And secrets always find their way through the cracks. Marigold won’t be safe until she brings the truth to light once and for all.

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by Scott Westerfeld, illustrated by Alex Puvilland

Three years ago an event destroyed the small city of Poughkeepsie, forever changing reality within its borders. Uncanny manifestations and lethal dangers now await anyone who enters the Spill Zone.

The Spill claimed Addison’s parents and scarred her little sister, Lexa, who hasn’t spoken since. Addison provides for her sister by photographing the Zone’s twisted attractions on illicit midnight rides. Art collectors pay top dollar for these bizarre images, but getting close enough for the perfect shot can mean death—or worse.

When an eccentric collector makes a million-dollar offer, Addison breaks her own hard-learned rules of survival and ventures farther than she has ever dared. Within the Spill Zone, Hell awaits—and it seems to be calling Addison’s name.

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