Best Middle Grade Horror Books for Adventurous Kids

Buddy knows he’s a teddy bear. He’s lived his entire life in a Store, waiting for a child to buy him and love him forever. When he wakes up in the middle of a garbage dump, he knows something has gone terribly wrong. 

Though he meets other discarded teddies, none of them know why they’ve been thrown out. All they know is they have to get back to the Store. 

But the world is menacing and filled with terrifying obstacles. It’s going to take everything they have to make it back in one piece.

Young Harvey Swick knows that there’s a price paid when you enter Mr. Hood’s Holiday House. But he’s bored, and honestly, how bad could it be? After all, it’s welcomed children for years and promises to fulfil every childhood desire. 

But when the house starts showing its darker side and he discovers the shadowy creatures living in the shadowy corners, Harvey realizes just how dangerous the house can be. 

Molly and Michael aren’t exactly excited to welcome their stepsister Heather to the family. She’s whiny and throws too many tantrums. 

But when she makes a mysterious friend named Helen in the graveyard by their house. Heather insists she isn’t a ghost, but Molly knows better. 

Now, somehow Molly and Michael have to convince Heather that Helen is luring her into a trap before it’s too late.

If you’re going to dive into one of the most iconic series in middle-grade horror, you should start at the beginning. When Amanda and Josh move into their new house, they think it’s super creepy. Maybe even haunted. 

It doesn’t help that the entire town of Dark Falls kind of feels the same. But all their parents want is for them to get used to their new home and to go find some friends. 

Only, when they finally do meet some kids their age, they’re probably not who their parents had in mind. Because they want to make sure that Amanda and Josh stay their friends forever.

In the wake of a tragedy, eleven-year-old Ollie turns to books to help her cope. When she stumbles on a woman about to throw a book into the river, Ollie does the only thing she can think of: she steals it and runs. And what a story she saved. 

Sure, it’s creepy, but she’s captivated by the smiling man and the price two brothers paid for a girl they love. But when she finds the graves of the people she’s been reading about on a school field trip, their bus breaks down, and her wristwatch tells her to RUN, Ollie realizes the story might be truer than she ever thought possible. 

Part of the fun of scary stories is sharing them with your friends. And every story in this collection is guaranteed to scare everyone who hears them. 

From skeletons roaming, ghosts hellbent on revenge, and a haunted house with a terrifying chimney surprise, Schwartz pulls on the very best of American folklore to create a collection of over two dozen stories perfect for reading by yourself or with some friends. 

Just make sure you always read in the dark.

Blight Harbor is the most haunted town in America. Evie’s Aunt Desdemona makes her living as a paranormal expert. Des only has one rule for Evie: stay out of the abandoned slaughterhouse. When her Aunt disappears in that building, Evie sets out to find her. The last thing she expects to find is The Clackity. 

The creature offers an exchange. The ghost of a serial killer for her Aunt’s return. It seems easy enough. 

But as Evie goes deeper into the otherworld, she is pursued by witches, ghosts, and a memory-thief. Is The Clackity telling the truth? Or does he have other plans that are far more sinister?

Josie always loved visiting her grandmother in the country. It’s only when her mother loses her job and they’re forced to live there that Josie learns visits are different. 

To start, there are her grandmother’s rules. No dolls and never go to the house in the woods. When the most popular girl in school befriends Josie, she thinks maybe everything will be okay. 

Even when she invites her to hang out and takes her to the very house her grandmother warned her about. Josie is about to learn why her grandmother had those rules. Only, it might be her sister that pays the price.

The paranormal has no place in scientist Claire’s life. So when she has to help her dad on a ghost-themed Chicago bus tour, it’s nothing but a waste of time. 

At the end of the tour, Claire sees a boy at the back of the bus who looks sad. There’s something off about him, but when she checks on him, he’s gone. She thinks she’s just letting her dad’s ghost stories get the better of her. 

Until the scratching starts and the boy starts following her. There’s no denying he’s haunting her. And if she has to find out what he wants before it’s too late.