Spooky Stories

by Marissa Creamer   Rowan Public Library                                                                                                                       

                ‘Tis the season of ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night. It’s the perfect time to enjoy a good scary story.  “Ghostly: a Collection of Ghost Stories,” is an anthology of some of the best ghost stories of all time. This collection was edited and illustrated by Audrey Niffenegger, the bestselling author of “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” who also includes a new story of her own. Niffenegger traces the evolution of the ghost story genre with tales ranging from the eighteenth century to modern day, including tales from such authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, and many more.

                A spine-tingling tale for young readers comes from the traditions of Native American stories—“Skeleton Man,” by Joseph Bruchac. When Molly’s parents vanish, she is taken to live with a sinister old man claiming to be her great-uncle.  Why does he never eat, and why does he lock her in her room at night? Why does he appear in her dreams as the “skeleton monster” from her father’s Mohawk stories?  Molly must decipher her dreams to solve the mystery of her parents’ disappearance.

From centuries-old legends to modern best sellers, the vampire has captured the reader’s imagination like no other fictional character. “The Silver Kiss,’ by Annette Curtis Klause, tells the story of 17-year-old Zoe, who is grieving for her dying mother. In a deserted moonlit park, she meets the enigmatic Simon, a vampire who has spent centuries trying to avenge his mother’s death, and agrees to participate in a dangerous scheme to trap his mother’s supernatural killer. 

“I will be brave,” thinks Coraline. “No, I am brave.”  In Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline” the title character, lonely and bored, ventures through a mysterious door into a parallel reality. In this new world, Coraline enjoys doting parents, wonderful food, and interesting toys. But this world may not be as perfect as it seems. Why are her new parents, with their shiny, black button eyes, so keen to keep her on “their” side of the door?  What has happened to her real parents?  Coraline strikes a risky bargain to save them in this delightfully creepy fantasy.

In “The Game of Sunken Places,” by M. T. Anderson, two boys are caught up in an enchanted board game. When they visit the isolated gas-lit mansion of Gregory’s eccentric Uncle Max, Gregory warns Brian that his uncle is not just strange, but “probably insane. He lives in a different world from the rest of us.  You know? The kind of world where electricity is a lot of invisible spiders.  The kind of world where there’s organ music that gets louder when he eats refined sugar.”  Soon, the boys are drawn into a real-life high-stakes quest, facing axe-wielding trolls and fleeing bloodthirsty ogres in this humorous, action-packed suspense novel. 

Look for these and other chilling tales at Rowan Public Library.