Pekin Dewlap hasn’t seen a ghost since she was 12. But she’d do anything to get them back. Starting a ghostbusting business with her two best friends Amber and Scout seems like the perfect way to accomplish her goal. Of course, playing with ghosts isn’t high on their wish list, so Pekin has to do some arm-twisting to get them on board. 

On a visit to a coastal harbor town, the world is Noah’s oyster as long as the stormy weather doesn’t ruin the fun. Summer break has just begun, and with seven days of freedom, how much trouble can 13-year-old Noah, his best friend, and his sister really find? Plenty, as it turns out. Because when the kids go snooping around an old decommissioned lighthouse, its troublesome secrets begin to reveal themselves, and the kids are about to stumble upon a hundred-year-old mystery that still haunts the nearby fishing village.

After her husband is killed by a drunk driver, Kelly Harris and her son, TJ, move to Ohio to a sprawling Victorian house left to her husband by his grandmother. Dealing with her overwhelming grief is a struggle for Kelly, as she adjusts to life in her new town. Within a short time, however, life takes an unexpected turn when the Alexa unit in her son’s bedroom starts to cry, and a little girl’s voice comes out of it asking for help. 

Twins Willow and Jake Grimm are not prepared for the bizarre gadgets and scary changes in their new home of New Marburg, the location of the top-secret Think Tank where their parents now have jobs as scientists. In this town, people jetpack to work, robots direct traffic, and senior citizens duel with laser swords. Yet nothing compares to what happens the day after lightning strikes the twins’ house. Their school building transforms around them, becoming a medieval castle—complete with moat, drawbridge, and a dangerous giant who looks strangely like the school’s overly aggressive hall monitor.

Jack Phillips's allergy to sunshine confines him to the shadows, leaving him lonely, and at risk of life-threatening burns every time he steps into the light. Shadow jumping on the rooftops at dusk, makes him feel alive. And free. But Jack's condition is suddenly worse than ever, and only his missing scientist dad can save him. As Jack and his new friend, Beth, begin their frantic search and delve into his dad's past for clues, they have no idea what they are about to uncover.

When Stella and her younger brother, Tom, move to their new London home, they become mystified by the disappearances of Harry, their elderly neighbor's small dog. Where does he go? And why does he keep reappearing wet-through? Their quest to solve the riddle over the summer holidays leads to a boat buried under a grassy mound, and a tunnel that takes them to a secret lake. 

Against the ominous backdrop of the influenza epidemic of 1918, Elsie, the class tattletale, liar, and thief, claims the new girl at school, Annie, as her best friend. But Annie soon makes other friends as well and finds herself joining them in teasing and tormenting Elsie, who later succumbs to the epidemic and dies. Elsie is not absent from school long, though. She soon returns there as a ghost, ready to reclaim Annie's friendship and to punish all the girls who bullied her.

Meet the Sinister-Winterbottoms: brave Theo, her timid twin, Alexander, and their older sister, Wil. They’re stuck for the summer with their Aunt Saffronia, who doesn’t know how often children need to eat and can’t use a smartphone, and whose feet never quite seem to touch the floor when she glides—er—walks. When Aunt Saffronia suggests a week pass to the Fathoms of Fun Waterpark, they hastily agree. But the park is even stranger than Aunt Saffronia. Something mysterious is happening at Fathoms of Fun, and it’s up to the twins to get to the bottom of it.

Thirteen-year-old Lavender Raine does not believe in ghosts, spirits, or specters—or whatever you want to call them. But when her cat bolts into the woods and she chases after him, they are confronted by a chilling presence that puts her belief to the test. With her grandmother's necklace disappearing, her best friend having bully trouble, and that ghost—or whatever it is—showing up at every turn, things keep getting worse.

Evie Von Rathe lives in Blight Harbor—the seventh-most haunted town in America—with her Aunt Desdemona, the local paranormal expert. Des doesn’t have many rules except one: Stay out of the abandoned slaughterhouse at the edge of town. But when her aunt disappears into the building, Evie goes searching for her. There she meets The Clackity, a creature who lives in the shadows and seams of the slaughterhouse. The Clackity makes a deal with Evie to help get Des back in exchange for the ghost of John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer who stalked Blight Harbor a hundred years earlier.

Almost a year has passed since Stella and Tom discovered a time tunnel and travelled to early 1900s London, where they befriended Emma, Lucy ,and Jack. The magical moles that made the tunnel and secret lake appear have since vanished, but the children are longing to meet again. Then an illness, which puts Emma’s life in danger, changes everything. The moles reappear, just when needed, and Lucy realizes the only hope of finding a cure lies in the future.

After suffering a tragic loss, 11-year-old Ollie only finds solace in books. So when she happens upon a crazed woman at the river threatening to throw a book into the water, Ollie doesn't think—she just acts, stealing the book and running away. As she begins to read the slender volume, Ollie discovers a chilling story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who both loved her, and a peculiar deal made with "the smiling man", a sinister specter who grants your most tightly held wish, but only for the ultimate price.

Twelve-year-old Fable Nuthatch has something that nobody else in Larkmoor has - magic. But living under the roof of her overprotective aunt, she's forced to keep it secret. When a strange book lands in her lap and her cousin disappears into its pages, she follows, hurtling into an enchanted forest far from the rolling hills of her home. This is a land filled with unusual people and mystical creatures. Here, others accept her for who she is, and she's finally free to embrace her powers. But not everything is bright in Starfell. 

Give your kids a fright! Haunted houses, prowling monsters, vengeful ghosts, and more are waiting for you. Inside you’ll find 35 original short scary stories for kids, including a room where everything is wrong and you can never leave, a forest guide who leads people on a walk they won’t forget, a monster dining in a graveyard, a ghost ship that hunts down treasure seekers, and a statue that comes to life—for a price. And many more! Just make sure you listen to these stories with the lights on. 

Kevin has a big talent. Some might call it compulsive lying. He calls it common sense. Kev doesn’t mean to cause trouble by lying all the time; he’s just trying to make everything easier for everyone (and himself). And, of course, a few harmless, um, falsehoods are crucial to his plan to convince Tina that he’s the perfect boyfriend for her. In Gary Paulsen’s irresistible and chaotic comedy, Kevin’s lies spiral out of control until he’s faced with the need to do the unthinkable: tell the truth.