Children's Books discussion

I usually like ghost stories that do not creep me out too much and scare me, which is why I have never tried Mary Downing Hahn’s Wait Till Helen Comes but have found the more gentle and not so freaky stories by her such as The Old Willis Place and The Doll in the Garden much more to my tastes.

And yes, I also think that Julia L. Sauer’s Fog Magic would be a perfect Halloween read, especially for children who might want mystery and atmosphere without resulting creepiness (although I still do find the ending kind of frustrating).

Mr. Pumpkin's Tea Party was published this year and deserves to be added to this list. On the one hand, I can't say it is anything truly remarkable, but it was totally my cup of tea ;-) and I loved it. Would make a good choice for those looking for the more gentle -and-cozy side of Halloween PBs.

Manybooks wrote: "I also strongly recommend The Great Ghost Rescue (quite funny and touching although the main villain is a bit gratuitous in my opinion)
..."

I loved that one, too. Ibbotson's The Haunting of Granite Falls was also enjoyable for me and suitable for this time of year, though I cannot recollect if there's anything specifically about Halloween in it.

For young kids, The Legend of Squiggly the Square Pumpkin is adorable. I wouldn't recommend the accompanying cd though....too creepy and just poor quality.

The Little Witch Girl by Estes , Ginnie and the Haunted House by Woolley and The Dorie the Witch series are both wonderful for small children.

We’ve been reading through the Dorrie books all month. Love them all! Georgie the Ghost is cute too.

For the middle graders who like creepy stories, I recommend the books of author John Bellairs. I have read most of them over the past two or three decades. One of the first is The House with a Clock in Its Walls, which was made into a pretty good movie a couple of years ago. I recently came across one that I didn't remember reading, so I read it and my review is below:
The Mansion in the Mist
A fun, fast-paced book in which 13-year-old Anthony Monday and his senior citizen friends, Miss Eells, a librarian, and her brother, Emerson Eells (in their late 60s) stumble across another dimension, the sorcerer denizens of which want to take over the Earth. This happens while they are vacationing in Emerson's summer cottage on an unnamed island in northern Canada. The characters are interesting, although the sorcerers are little more than stock evil beings, and the atmosphere of the other dimension is suitably creepy and dismal. This is one of the last middle grade novels that John Bellairs wrote before he passed. I have read most of his spooky middle grade novels, and it is a good addition to his oeuvre. Bellairs is very good with fast-paced plots and creepy atmospheres, but doesn't spend a lot of time on characterization, although his main characters are interesting--people the reader might want to be friends with.
After John Bellairs passed away, his unfinished manuscripts were finished by Brad Strickland, and he did a good job of keeping to the style of Bellairs.

For independent readers from about the age of eight to ten, Kevin Crossley-Holland’s 1985 and Carnegie Medal winning illustrated chapter book Storm is simple, mildly creepy but even with a short and easy text, the characters are sufficiently developed and not cardboard like and the sense of geographic place, and the atmosphere is wonderful, with in particular my inner child enjoying both Kevin Crossley-Holland’s writing and Alan Marks’ pictures.

Manybooks wrote: "For independent readers from about the age of eight to ten, Kevin Crossley-Holland’s 1985 and Carnegie Medal winning illustrated chapter book Storm is simple, mildly creepy but even ..."

Sounds very good!

For those interested in picture books about Halloween, please note we will be focusing on Halloween-y books in the Picture Book Club this month. Feel welcome to join the discussion there, or simply check out the thread for some great book lists:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Halloween is not my favorite holiday, but I have to recommend The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Everything. I gave it five stars; here's part of my review:

The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Everything exceeded my expectations. I gave it five stars. From my review:

Oh what a delight. And so smart.

It takes a whole year, not just an epiphany, of hard work for our little ghost to overcome the fears.
There are setbacks. A lot of time is spent hiding in the attic. But, yes, of course there's a happy ending.

But it's not preachy; it's funny.