Ghostly Tales: Fiction and Nonfiction for Older Readers

Ahlberg My Brother's Ghost

Bereft by the deaths of their parents and their older brother, Tom, nine-year-old Frances and three-year-old Harry are comforted and aided by Tom's ghost. Not particularly scary but better for 6th grade readers.

Barrett Cold in Summer

At the beginning of seventh grade, Ariadne moves to a Tennessee town near a former farming community submerged under a man-made lake and meets the ghost of a girl from the past. Grades 5 and up.

Bellairs Mansion in the Mist

What strange, evil force is beckoning Anthony into the chest, drawing him into a dimension of terror?

Bellairs has written lots of other books about the supernatural and the occult and his characters are continued in books by Strickland.

Bial The Fresh Grave and Other Ghostly Stories

Hank and his “fraidy-cat” sidekick Clifford explore old buildings and cemeteries -- and -- ghosts!

Bruce Coville's Book of Ghosts

Good collection of stories, some scary and some funny.

Chamberlain The Olden Day Locket

12 year old Jess goes to work at Point Ellice House and begins to have visions of a girl who was killed in a streetcar accident.

Conrad Stonewords

Zoe is friends with a ghost from the past. Will she dare to become a ghost herself to save her friend from a horrible death?

Cuyler The Battlefield Ghost

Fourth-grader John and his sister Lisa move into an old house in Princeton, New Jersey, and find it haunted by a Hessian soldier from the Revolutionary War who they try to reunite with the ghost of his beloved horse.

Ages 7-10.

Deem The Very Real Ghost Book of Christina Rose: from the not-so-private files of ghost hunters I.N.K.

After their mother dies, ten-year-old Christina and her twin brother move with their father to a haunted house in a strange neighborhood. Contains stories within the story one of which is quite gruesome. Grades 5 and up.

DeFelice The Ghost of Cutler Creek

When Allie Nichols is contacted by the ghost of a dog, she and Dub investigate a puppy mill.

Dickens A Christmas Carol

A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future. Book on CD also available.

Gibbons Hook Moon Night: Spooky Tales from the Georgia Mountains

A collection of hair-raising yarns.

Griffin The Ghost Sitter

When she realizes that her new house is haunted by the ghost of a 10-year-old girl who used to live there, Charlotte tries to help her find peace.

Hahn Time for Andrew: a Ghost Story

When he goes to spend the summer with his great-aunt in the family's old house, 11-year-old Drew is drawn eighty years into the past to trade places with his great-great-uncle who is dying of diptheria.

Hurst The Wrong One

Kate and Jesse are unhappy. After their father's death, their mother moved the family to an old house in Brooklyn where their adopted sister from Korea sees a “blue lady”.

Ibbotson Dial-A-Ghost

A family of nice ghosts protects a British orphan from the diabolical plans of his evil guardians. See also The Great Ghost Rescue and The Haunting of Granite Falls by Ibbotson.

Irving The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

A superstitious schoolmaster, in love with a wealthy farmer's daughter, has a terrifying encounter with a headless horseman. Also available as Book on Cassette.

MacPhail Dark Waters

Col McCann saves a boy from drowning, but when his older brother is suspected of a crime, he must decide if he should tell the truth about what he saw under the water. Ages 10 and up.

Mahy The Horribly Haunted School

Monty is allergic to ghosts and sneezes when they're around. Join Monty at his new school, where he immediately begins sneezing.

McKissack The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural

A collection of ghost stories with African American themes, designed to be told during the Dark Thirty--the half hour before sunset--when ghosts seem so believable.

McMullan Under the Mummy's Spell

On a dare, Peter kisses a mummy and finds himself in the middle of an ancient curse.

Medearis Haunts: Five Hair-Raising Tales

A collection of Texas ghost stories.

Nixon Ghost Town: Seven Ghostly Stories

A collection of stories about eerie encounters in various ghost towns across the United States. Each story is accompanied by an afterword about the actual town on which the story is based.

Patneaude Haunting at Home Plate

After they hear stories about their baseball field being haunted by the ghost of a boy who died there many years ago, 12-year-old Nelson and his teammates start finding mysterious messages written in the dirt.

Peck Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death

Blossom is a psychic who can communicate with spirits in the past and future. Danger and spooky characters threaten Blossom and her friend Alexander in each of the four books in this series.

Phillips A Haunted Year

Florence makes the mistake of her life when, looking for someone to play with, she conjures up the spirit of her dead cousin George.

Rice The Place at the Edge of the Earth

At first unhappy with a new stepfather and a new school on a military base, thirteen-year-old Jenny makes two new friends, one the son of the base commander and the other the ghost of Jonah Flying Cloud, who died there in 1880.

Seabrooke The Haunting of Holroyd Hill

Eleven-year old Melinda moves to the Virginia countryside and finds a Civil War-era ghost haunting her new house.

Snyder The Ghosts of Rathburn Park

Lost in the woods of Rathburn Park, eleven-year-old Matthew weighs the odds of dying from thirst, embarrassment, or at the hands of the forest's reputed ghostly inhabitants. Also available as a Book on Cassette.

Strickland The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost

When a malevolent creature tries to claim his father as its latest victim, 13-year-old Johnny Dixon and Professor Childermass risk their own lives trying to save him. Grades 5th-8th.

Tolan Who's There?

While exploring her aunt's attic, Drew is overcome by a sickly sweet smell of flowers and a terrifying blast of cold air that makes her skin crawl. Grades 5th-8th.

Ure The Children Next Door

Eleven-year old Laura is shy and thus hesitates asking questions about the children she hears playing in the yard next door.

Vivelo Chills Run Down My Spine

Traditional ghost stories with a subtle twist.

Woodruff The Ghost of Lizard Light

Moving from Iowa to a lighthouse cottage in Maine, 10-year-old Jack struggles to live up to his father's high standards and encounters a young ghost who presents Jack with a 150-year-old unsolved sea mystery.

Wright Christina's Ghost

Christina doesn't want to spend a boring summer with her crabby uncle, but things start to get interesting when she encounters the ghost of a little boy and a powerful surge of freezing air every time she goes near the attic door.

Wright Haunted Summer

Why is a ghost trying to reclaim a stolen music box? Nine-year old Abby surprises herself in trying to find out, since she is usually so shy and timid. Author Betty Ren Wright has many other ghost stories on the shelf.

Yolen The Bagpiper's Ghost

While in Scotland visiting relatives, thirteen-year-old twins find big trouble when Peter is possessed by the spirit of a man who is determined to keep his sister from the man she loves.

Collections of stories, folktales & more:

Spooky Spectres

Presents supposed “true-life” accounts of ghosts in such categories as “Short-lived Spectres,” “Persistent Phantasms,” and “Homemade Spooks.”

Dangerous Ghosts

A collection of seventeen tales about ghosts drawn from a wide variety of sources from psychical research to pure legend and folklore. Scary! Grades 5 and up.

The Haunted States of America… haunted houses and spooky places in all 50 states… and Canada, too!

Ask the Bones : scary stories from around the world

A collection of scary folktales from countries around the world including China, Russia, Spain and the United States. Scary but not too scary.

The Headless Horseman and other ghoulish tales

A collection of tales from around the world, including “The Bunyip,” “Abena and the Python,” “A Bargain is a Bargain,” and “Vasilissa and Baba Yaga.”

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Traditional and modern-day stories of ghosts, witches, vampires and “jump” stories.

Also available on Book on CD 398 jS Scary Stories : the complete 3 book audio collection.

Spooky Campfire Stories

A collection of stories including “The Tell-tale Heart” by Poe, “Give Me Back My Guts” by Young, and “To Build a Fire” by Jack London.

That's Ghosts for You: 13 Scary Stories

An international collection of spine-tingling stories.

Dead Good Read : 21 classic tales of mystery and horror

Retellings of more than twenty classic horror tales by such authors as Oscar Wilde, Mary Shelley, and Edgar Allen Poe.

Favorite Scary Stories of American Children

The Scary Story Reader : forty-one of the scariest stories for sleepovers, campfires, car & bus trips-even for first dates

Sequel to “Favorite Scary Stories of American Children.”

The Haunted House: a Collection of Original Stories

Ghosts and Goose Bumps : poems to chill your bones

Scary poems by a variety of notable poets.