Horror Aficionados discussion

I need age appropriate "scary book" recommendations for my 9 year old daughter. She's read some Goosebumps and is currently reading Home Sweet Horror.

It's just hard to find good books for this age. Either they are cheesy and poorly written, or for an older audience. I want to stay away from anything with language or lots of gore/sexual situations.

Any recommendations?

Avi
John Bellairs
The Theodosia Throckmorton series by R.L. LaFevers
The Peter and the Monsters series by Darren Pillsbury
Roald Dahl's The Witches.

Thank you for the recommendations.

She is an advanced reader which is why finding content appropriate to her age can be a challenge. I find most books are either too cheesy/written poorly and not challenging enough (cough*Goosebumps*cough) or themes are too mature for her age. She enjoys Goosebumps and I will continue to get them for her enjoyment, but I'm a homeschooling mom so I would love to find something a little better in quality.. more of a 4th grade and above reading level.

At the end of the day.. I'm just trying to get her to love reading, lol. So whatever will get her hooked on books, we'll start there. She's asking for scary :)

I second The Witches. i would add Momo and Coraline.

Eyes of the dragon by Stephen King

there's always R. L Stine's Fear Street series. sort of a more teen predicaments with the (usually) same b-movie horror tricks. depends on which part of the series though. there were some that were actually quite mature for being a YA series, that i remember at least

Thanks everyone!

These are some authors that will fit her age group and are enjoyable reading, I still read them and I'm in my late thirties, lol. They're good authors and don't "write-down" to their audience.

Witch's Sister by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is a really good series

Betty Ren Wright and Mary Downing Hahn have some great books.

Also the The Ghost in the Third Row by Bruce Coville is a pretty good series (I think it's called the Nina Tanleven series in the kindle store)

Richie Tankersley Cusick is a bit more mature but her books are clean and very good.

Also Stonewords: A Ghost Story by Pam Conrad is very good.

Also also, lol Richard Peck has a very good series, The Ghost Belonged to Me I think is the first one, I'm not sure.

Haunted by Judith St. George

Have you thought about more classic horror? I started my son out on Lovecraft and M.R. James about that age. Lovecraft you might have issues with certain ideas he had but you could always use them for talking points which is what I did. M.R. James I don't think there'd be any issues like that at all.

Some of the Stephen King short stories are ok but you might want to pick and choose with some of them. My son and I read Skeleton Crew together but I skipped certain stories and/or paragraphs.

I'll repost if I've missed any

I loved, loved, loved any of Betty Ren Wright's books when I was that age. In particular, The Dollhouse Murders. I think I read that one 3 or 4 times.

Kelly wrote: "I loved, loved, loved any of Betty Ren Wright's books when I was that age. In particular, The Dollhouse Murders. I think I read that one 3 or 4 times."


Yes, that one and Ghosts Beneath Our Feet were great. When my son was in elementary I saw his school library had The Dollhouse Murders and I begged them to let me borrow it, lol.

I don't have any scary recommendations but if you just want her to get interested in reading here are a few that my daughter read at that age. She was reading at a 5th grade level in 2nd grade.

She started reading Harry Potter in second grade. Erin Hunter has a series of fantasy books, the Warroir series. These are fantasy books. She also liked the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events books. If you have access as a homeschool to the Accelerated Reader tests, all of these books have AR tests.

If you can find the old Nancy Drew books (the ones written in the 1940's versus the new, dumbed down ones), I always thought they were on the suspenseful side when I was a kid.

I would second Coraline and add The Graveyard Book. If you're not sure about that one, read the first chapter yourself, I think that's the one parents have complained is 'too scary'. You'd know best whether your daughter would be okay with it.

Bruce Coville is also a good way to go. Definitely age appropriate content, and fun too.

I should point out that I'm not a parent. Bruce Coville is from memory, and the Neil Gaiman ones I read as an adult even though they're kids books.

Skeleton Creek is an interesting choice: you read and then are given passwords to enter into the website to watch videos (w/ a found-footage feel) that continue the story.

I read it as a teenager, but I'm fairly sure there was nothing inappropriate and it was pretty creepy :)
This was a few years ago, so I don't recall the quality of the writing, but I don't think it was too bad. My brother and I certainly had fun reading and then watching the videos.

The standard bearer for me as far as kid's horror goes was Complete-Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones. This was what led me down the dark path and helped me learn to enjoy being scared. It also informs much of my writing to this day.

Wait Till Helen Comes

When I was 9, I was eating up the Fear Street series. and:
Time Windows Let Me Tell You How I Died The Silver Kiss- that's the book that changed my life, set my heart on fire for vampires but don't worry, no romance in it. You Can Never Go Home Again

I would second A Series of Unfortunate Events Box: The Complete Wreck and would add the books of Roald Dahl, The Witches, James and the Giant Peach. Also A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin. That last one is fantasy but is a wonderful classic "Must Read."