Hi all,

My daughter is 12 and has probably read every Goosebumps book written, at least once.  She has asked me to look for more scary stories on PBS and I'm not sure where to start.  She is a great reader, so books written for a little older would work, as long as they're cleanly written and maybe a step up from the Goosebumps series.  She also likes Dark Shadows (the old soap opera from the 60's) and monsters and stuff.  Just not a lot of gore, ya know?

Thanks much for any suggestions.

Lauren

My son loved the goosebumps books, too, so I just went and looked at  his bookshelf to see what else he had.  Most of these aren't what I'd call "scary stories" but they all have adventure and drama and suspense. If she hasn't read these, she might enjoy them, too.

The Warriors series by Erin Hunter (two different series, actually, but related)

The Deltora books by Emily Rodda

The Guardians of Ga'Hoole books by Kathryn Lasky

She might also enjoy the Redwall books.

The other thing to do would be search by keyword in "advanced search" and look for terms synonymous with scary. 

You might also try Frank Peretti.  He wrote the books like Piercing the Darkness and Monster.  But he also has a series called The Veritas Project.  The first book is Hangman's Curse and the 2nd is something like Nightmare Academy (sorry I can't remember the name and can't find that book)  This series has a family with two teenagers as the characters.

My son just started, and finished (couldn't put it down), "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan.  It's the first of four in a series (so far).

www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9780786838653-The+Lightning+Thief+Percy+Jackson+and+the+Olympians+Bk+1

He just had me reserve the next three from the library.

Here's the author's site:

www.rickriordan.com/

And a huge lesson plan the author wrote:

www.rickriordan.com/Teachers_Guide_Lightning_Thief.pdf

There's a lot more on the web related to the book.  Scholastic's site has a lesson plan and discussion guide.

My son's not into "scary", but this is based on Greek mythology and has some fighting elements.  DS says it also has lots of suspense.  He says you need basic of Greek gods and who is who.  There are links online, and some materials in the author's LP with info.

Here's the Wikipedia article on the book:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lightning_Thief

When I was teaching middle school, my students loved the Joan Lowery Nixon books.  They are very suspenseful! 

Yes, Frank Peretti's a great author - my husband Jody and I even enjoyed reading his books geared for the teen group (Nightmare Academy & Hangman's Curse).  Cool books!  :)

Yes, Frank Peretti's a great author - my husband Jody and I even enjoyed reading his books geared for the teen group (Nightmare Academy & Hangman's Curse).  Cool books!  :)

Are The Series of Unfortunate Events books too easy for your daughter?  They are a series written by "Lemony Snicket."  The vocabulary is fairly sophisticated but he defines every new word in the context of the story.  Of course there's also Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, which I know is the obvious answer but among my children's favorite books ever.

Ted Dekker has "The Lost Books" series - Chosen, Infidel, Renegade, Chaos

Robert Liparulo has the "DreamHouse Kings" series - House of Dark Shadows, Watcher in the Woods , 2 more to come

D. Barkley Briggs has the "Legends of Karac Tor" series - The Book of Names, with 2 or 4 more to come

I would highly recommend all of those and I have done reviews of them on my blog if she wants to check them out click on the link under my name...

I remember reading one when I was young teen called: Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright. 

http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9780590434614-The+Dollhouse+Murders

That book scared me to death! My grandmother had started creating me a doll house when she learned my mom was expecting me. Growing up I watched this doll house grow, played with it (there was a photo of me in the newspaper at age 3 playing with it & a write up about my grandma).

You may want to read it yourself first to make sure it isn't to creepy for your daughter.

Also there are books with ghost stories in it called Scary Stories for kids. There are a few in the series & my 12yr old enjoyed those. She said they were silly. I read some of these as a kid too. Here is a link to #3.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9780064404181-Scary+Stories+3+More+Tales+to+Chill+Your+Bones+Scary+Stories