The days are getting shorter, the air is getting chillier, leaves are beginning to fall and kids’ thoughts are turning toward Halloween. Here are some bestselling, award-winning literary classics that have stood the test of time and are perfectly suited for tweens’ autumn reading.
Something Wicked This Way Comes (4/5 stars, currently priced at $5.60)
Few American novels written this century have endured in th heart and mind as has this one-Ray Bradbury’s incomparable masterwork of the dark fantastic. A carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour on a chill Midwestern October eve, ushering in Halloween a week before its time.
A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained.
In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery.
And two inquisitive boys standing precariously on the brink of adulthood will soon discover the secret of the satanic raree-show’s smoke, mazes, and mirrors, as they learn all too well the heavy cost of wishes — and the stuff of nightmare.
The Witches (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $5.98)
This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches.
Grandmamma loves to tell about witches. Real witches are the most dangerous of all living creatures on earth.
There’s nothing they hate so much as children, and they work all kinds of terrifying spells to get rid of them.
Her grandson listens closely to Grandmamma’s stories—but nothing can prepare him for the day he comes face-to-face with The Grand High Witch herself!
The Graveyard Book (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $4.99)
In this Newbery Medal-winning novel, Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place—he’s the only living resident of a graveyard.
Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians’ time as well as their ghostly teachings—such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him.
Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? And then there are being such as ghouls that aren’t really one thing or the other.
The Graveyard Book won the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal and is a Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel.
Supports the Common Core State Standards
Edgar Allan Poe: 10 Creepiest Stories – Illustrated, with Free Audiobook Access (5/5 stars, currently priced at 99 cents)
Our aim was to prepare a perfectly-formatted collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s books that was designed specifically for your e-reader device at a fantastic price. We are pleased to offer you the result of our work! This tremendous “Edgar Allan Poe: 10 Creepiest Stories” series comes with the following great features:
• The complete original text of over 10 short stories by Edgar Allan Poe;
• Free audiobook access to full-length recordings of Edgar Allan Poe’s works;
• A beautifully illustrated version of Poe’s most famous work – “The Raven”;
• Clean formatting designed to fit any screen size;
• An easy-to-use active table of contents;
• BONUS – Poe’s Influence – Film and Television Adaptations, Poe in Music, Literature and Comics!
• BONUS – Most Famous Quotes from Edgar Allan Poe!
The following stories are included in this wonderful collection:
• The Raven
• The Pit and the Pendulum
• The Tell-Tale Heart
• The Fall of the House of Usher
• The Masque of the Red Death
• The Cask of the Amontillado
• The Murders in the Rue Morgue
• The Black Cat
• The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
• Hop-Frog