MG Horror?

There's The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I haven't read it, but I think it fits your description.

I'm not sure if it's considered MG or YA but try The Thief of Always by Clive Barker.

Also, older and possibly too young for MG, but The Dollhouse Murders and Christina's Ghost by Betty Ren Wright.

alleycat said:

There's The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I haven't read it, but I think it fits your description.

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Coraline, also (though am not sure if it's considered YA or MG)

Neil Gaiman's The Wolves in the Walls and the Goosebumps series.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

alleycat said:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

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That's definitely not MG though. It'd be like letting twelve year olds watch Battle Royale.

The The Thief of Always is middle grade horror, and it's quite good. It was one of the few books my son liked reading. It's word count is somewhere between 37,000 and 38,000 so longer than goosebumps.

If you do a google search for "middle grade horror books" you'll get a few hits.

Here's one link: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-lists/best-horror-stories-middle-grade-readers

Day O' said:

The The Thief of Always is middle grade horror, and it's quite good. It was one of the few books my son liked reading. It's word count is somewhere between 37,000 and 38,000 so longer than goosebumps.

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I thought it probably was. For some reason the local bookstore has it shelved with the rest of Barker's books (Abarat aside) in the adult section. I read it as an adult but really enjoyed it.

Go to the old http://www.renlearn.com/store/quiz_home.asp?c=MP+95:91:3+9002/21/9

Do an advanced search with middle grade and horror/thriller. They actually list a lot.

The Graveyard Book and Coraline both are fantasy, but they have strong horror themes too I think. They are both pretty freaky. If you haven't read them DEFINITELY put them on your TBR list. The Graveyard Book has a lot of disturbing stuff, written to be kid-friendly.

A lot of the MG horror books in my library that aren't Goosebumps seem to be collections of short stories, a la campfire ghost stories. No specific titles immediately spring to mind, but that's the impression I get.

lonestarlibrarian said:

A lot of the MG horror books in my library that aren't Goosebumps seem to be collections of short stories, a la campfire ghost stories. No specific titles immediately spring to mind, but that's the impression I get.

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They're a little old, but there's Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. There are three books of short stories in the series. I love them! I loved them as a wee child as well. Lots of good scary stories to read alone or tell around a campfire. Loads of heads falling off and lost body parts seeking revenge and deadly rats and such.

I think there is a market for it: see this sub-heading on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref...bn=3018&ie=UTF8&qid=1252959226&rnid=673420011

The thing is that horror for little kids has to be handled really sensitively, as certain topics are going to be ok, but others aren't. In adult horror, anything goes, in YA horror nearly anything goes, but in kid stuff you have to exercise restraint even as you try to scare em. From my experience, darker topics can be covered, but they have to be covered sensitively, or in a way that will protect more naive readers from stuff that would disturb them too much. I would suggest you read a lot of kid horror to get an idea of what will fly and what won't.

And yeah, I was a fellow reader of Stephen King as a wee child, but I have learned that I can't judge the appropriateness/correct age level of books based on my own experiences, because they are way way off average.

@Kitty- Good call! Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark circulates really well with the kids who have gobbled up all the Goosebumps and are looking for more. I really need to sit down and read it myself sometime. )

@Veggie- There's lots of room for more kids' horror. "Do you have any scary stories?" is probably the number one request at the youthdesk (after "Can I have a computer pass?", lol). From a writer's standpoint, I think the hardest part would be getting a nice balance between what will scare/squick out a kid enough that they're entertained but not so much that they're too scared/squicked. If it's not so fun walking that line, definitely consider writing YA horror. )

I've heard that a lot of adventuresome MG readers are reading The Hunger Games ...

I haven't read the CIRQUE DU FREAK books, but I know they're popular. Are they horror or just strange?

Personally I don't think The Hunger Games is horror; more suspense or even SciFi.
But I don't read much horror. Either way it's a good book =-)

CIRQUE DU FREAK by Darren Shan is YA, not middle grade. He has a demon series that is very scary but very YA -- gruesome.

Mary Downing Hahn writes middle grade horror -- Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story and the others are definitely middle grade. Very creepy, atmospheric, and middle grade readers find them very scary. They aren't at all like the campy style of Goosebumps.

Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman is probably pushing toward YA...it's an interesting format (told half through journal entries in the book, half through video entries online. It's very scary but I would consider it "middle grade-esque" -- there is nothing inherently "teen" about it except that it's scary.

Vivian Vande Velda has done some middle grade horror (though she often gets bumped up to teen because of the dead people in the books, but some of them have a very middle grade vibe --there is one with a civil war era ghost and one with a hanged guy...very scary, a little wry but not at all campy like Goosebumps. The titles reflect the wry voice, but they are not comedies.

Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac is supposed to be very scary -- I haven't read it. It's definitely middle grade.

The Hanging Hill by Chris Grabenstein (and The Crossroads, the first book in the series) are PERFECT middle grade horror. Very scary. Not funny. But tempered for kids. If you really want to understand how to do middle grade horror -- Grabenstein and Vande Velde should be required reading.

The Suddenly Supernatural Series by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel is very much a middle grade girls ghost/horor series. Creepy more than gross (so think more atmospheric and less goosebumps.)

Now, I don't know if the book is out yet, but I have a copy of MALICE by Chris Wooding and it's middle grade that is super, super scary. It's a combination of straight narrative with comic book entries (which makes perfect sense with the storyline). Really wonderful horror story.

In the boxloads of books I get for review, I'm seeing an ever growing pile of middle grade horror. So, it's out there -- to really understand it though, read Mary Downing Hahn, Vivian Vande Velde, and Chris Grabenstein -- you'll be glad you did. It doesn't have to be silly, campy or light.