Tag: Cale Atkinson

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New Year, New Boo!

2023 may be in the past, but ghosts are always in our present and future. Let’s celebrate and ring in the new year with a new BOO!

A Super Scary Narwhalloween: A Narwhal and Jelly Book #8
By Ben Clanton
76 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735266742 | Tundra Books
In the hilarious eighth book of this blockbuster graphic novel series, Narwhal and Jelly celebrate the spookiest time of the year – Halloween – with a super twist! Dive into three new stories that are sure to fright and delight! Narwhal loves Halloween – it’s a great excuse to dress up in a spooky and silly costume, like a ghost, a mermaid, a banana or maybe even Marlow the Mustachioed Moose. It’s a skeleTON of fun! Jelly isn’t dressing up, though – he’s a little scared of this time of year, and would prefer to hunker down in a hidey-hole until Halloween is over. But when a scary sea monster makes an appearance and swallows Narwhal (gulp!), can Jelly, with the help of some super friends, pluck up the courage to save his best bud?

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls
By Cherie Dimaline
280 Pages | Ages 14+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735265639 | Tundra Books
Winifred has lived in the apartment above the cemetery office with her father, who works in the crematorium all her life, close to her mother’s grave. With her sixteenth birthday only days away, Winifred has settled into a lazy summer schedule, lugging her obese Chihuahua around the grounds in a squeaky red wagon to visit the neglected gravesides and nursing a serious crush on her best friend, Jack. Her habit of wandering the graveyard at all hours has started a rumor that Winterson Cemetery might be haunted. It’s welcome news since the crematorium is on the verge of closure and her father’s job being outsourced. Now that the ghost tours have started, Winifred just might be able to save her father’s job and the only home she’s ever known, not to mention being able to stay close to where her mother is buried. All she has to do is get help from her con-artist cousin to keep up the rouse and somehow manage to stop her father from believing his wife has returned from the grave. But when Phil, an actual ghost of a teen girl who lived and died in the ravine next to the cemetery, starts showing up, Winifred begins to question everything she believes about life, love and death. Especially love.

Ghostlight
By Kenneth Oppel
400 Pages | Ages 10+ | Paperback
ISBN 9780735272354 | Puffin Canada
The story of the tragic death of sixteen-year-old Rebecca Strand and her lighthouse keeper father is just an elaborate tale Gabe tells tourists for his summer job on the Toronto Island. Or so he thought. When his ghost tours awaken Rebecca’s spirit, Gabe is drawn into a world far darker than any ghost story he’s ever heard. Rebecca reveals that she and her father were connected to The Order, a secret society devoted to protecting the world from “the wakeful and wicked dead” – malevolent spirits like Viker, the ghost responsible for their deaths. But now the Order has disappeared and Viker is growing even stronger, and he’ll stop at nothing to wreak chaos and destruction on the living. Gabe and his friends – both living and dead – must find a way to stop Viker before they all become lost souls.

House of Ash and Bone
By Joel A. Sutherland
336 Pages | Ages 12+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774880968 | Tundra Books
Seventeen-year-old Josephine Jagger is a talented writer with special abilities she doesn’t fully understand. Over the years she has developed methods to cope with the voices she hears in her head, but the old house her family has inherited in Vermont makes Josephine question what’s real and what’s not more than anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s filled with shadows, and whispers, and the unshakable feeling of being watched. Josephine then catches her first glimpse of a shadowy woman with long hair, pale skin, an impossibly wide smile and hollow pits for eyes. Her name is Dorcas, the ghost of a witch who died three hundred years ago. She has summoned the family to Vermont to ensnare them – then consume them – in order to rise from the grave and live again . . .

How to Make Friends with a Ghost
By Rebecca Green
40 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Paperback
ISBN 9781774880401 | Tundra Books
What do you do when you meet a ghost? One: Provide the ghost with some of its favorite snacks, like mud tarts and earwax truffles. Two: Tell your ghost bedtime stories (ghosts love to be read to). Three: Make sure no one mistakes your ghost for whipped cream or a marshmallow when you aren’t looking! If you follow these few simple steps and the rest of the essential tips in How to Make Friends with a Ghost, you’ll see how a ghost friend will lovingly grow up and grow old with you. A whimsical story about ghost care, Rebecca Green’s debut picture book is a perfect combination of offbeat humor, quirky and sweet illustrations, and the timeless theme of friendship.

Super Friends: Simon and Chester #4
By Cale Atkinson
152 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774880012 | Tundra Books
Welcome to the world of Simon and Chester, ghost and boy duo extraordinaire. Chester lives with his Grandma, his cat Mr. Pickles and Simon the ghost. Simon and Chester are best friends. Their attic is the location for some of the best activities known to humankind: making up songs about passersby, acting out scenes from Simon’s exciting Dr. Darington novels and creating the incredible Treat-A-Matic snack dispenser. But Chester has also befriended a non-ghost named Amie, and she is coming over to work on their science fair project. Amie has a surprising idea for this project, and Simon and Chester’s friendship will be put to the test as a result. Will Simon behave? Will Amie come between the two friends? Will an invisible Simon make fart noises that Chester has to explain? All will be revealed . . .

The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt
By Riel Nason
Illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler
48 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735264472 | Tundra Books
Ghosts are supposed to be sheets, light as air and able to whirl and twirl and float and soar. But the little ghost who is a quilt can’t whirl or twirl at all, and when he flies, he gets very hot. He doesn’t know why he’s a quilt. His parents are both sheets, and so are all of his friends. (His great-grandmother was a lace curtain, but that doesn’t really help cheer him up.) He feels sad and left out when his friends are zooming around and he can’t keep up. But one Halloween, everything changes. The little ghost who was a quilt has an experience that no other ghost could have, an experience that only happens because he’s a quilt . . . and he realizes that it’s OK to be different.

Preorder Today:

Lockjaw
By Matteo L. Cerilli
328 Pages | Ages 14+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774882306 | Tundra Books
Release Date: June 4, 2024
Chuck Warren died tragically at the old abandoned mill, but Paz Espino knows it was no accident – there’s a monster under the town, and she’s determined to kill it before anyone else gets hurt. She’ll need the help of her crew – inseparable friends, bound by a childhood pact stronger than diamonds, distance or death – to hunt it down. But she’s up against a greater force of evil than she ever could have imagined. With shifting timeframes and multiple perspectives, Lockjaw is a small-town ghost story, where monsters living and dead haunt the streets, the homes and the minds of the inhabitants. For readers of Wilder Girls and The Haunted, this trans YA horror book by an incredible debut author will grab you and never let you go.

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Tuesdays with Tundra

Tuesdays with Tundra is an ongoing series featuring our new releases. These titles are now available in stores and online!

Super Friends: Simon and Chester #4
By Cale Atkinson
152 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774880012 | Tundra Books
Welcome to the world of Simon and Chester, ghost and boy duo extraordinaire. Chester lives with his Grandma, his cat Mr. Pickles and Simon the ghost. Simon and Chester are best friends. Their attic is the location for some of the best activities known to humankind: making up songs about passersby, acting out scenes from Simon’s exciting Dr. Darington novels and creating the incredible Treat-A-Matic snack dispenser. But Chester has also befriended a non-ghost named Amie, and she is coming over to work on their science fair project. Amie has a surprising idea for this project, and Simon and Chester’s friendship will be put to the test as a result. Will Simon behave? Will Amie come between the two friends? Will an invisible Simon make fart noises that Chester has to explain? All will be revealed . . .

Super Friends! is also available today in paperback!

New in Paperback:

Someone Is Always Watching
By Kelley Armstrong
360 Pages | Ages 12+ | Paperback
ISBN 9780735270947 | Tundra Books
Blythe and her friends – Gabrielle, and brother and sister Tucker and Tanya – have always been a tight friend group, attending a local high school and falling in and out of love with each other. But an act of violence has caused a rift between Blythe and Tucker . . . and unexpected bursts of aggression and disturbing nightmares have started to become more frequent in their lives. The strange happenings culminate in a shocking event at school: Gabrielle is found covered in blood in front of their deceased principal, with no memory of what happened. Cracks in their friendship, as well as in their own memories, start appearing, threatening to expose long-forgotten secrets which could change the group’s lives forever. How can Blythe and her friends trust each other when they can’t even trust their own memories?

We can’t wait to see you reading/listening to these titles! If you share these books online, remember to use #ReadTundra in your hashtags so that we can re-post.

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Tundra Telegram: Books That You Should Avoid Nevermore

Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, the column where we unearth the subjects people are currently raven about, and quoth a few books to you that that you won’t rue bringing through your chamber door.

The season of scares is here, which meant streaming services were eager to . . . (ahem) . . . usher in a slew of horror movies and television series. Enter Netflix and The Fall of the House of Usher, from horror mastermind Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, The Midnight Club). The gory and supernatural series, about the family of a pharmaceutical tycoon who seem to be cursed to die horrible deaths, is loosely based on the beloved stories from American Gothic fiction writer (and Baltimore NFL inspiration) Edgar Allan Poe.

If the idea of Poe-worthy prose intrigues you, but you like to keep your terrors on the page (or you cancelled your Netflix subscription), you’re in luck. We’ve assembled some children’s books and YA that seem (at least partially) inspired by the works of the Victorian horror master, or at least appear to be in the same (open?) vein. Read on – if you dare!

PICTURE BOOKS

We should make no mistake: the ghosts and supernatural beings in The Fall of the House of Usher are not adorable, unlike the title character of How To Make Friends with a Ghost by Rebecca Green. This whimsical story outlines simple steps and essential tips to making a ghost friend who will grow up and grow old with you. The Ushers, on the other hand, enter business agreements with ghosts, try to seduce them – basically engage in every other human interaction with ghosts except friendship. (Maybe they could use this book!)

Picture books tend not to be super-scary, but they sometimes involve a ghost who is a super-scarer, like in Cale Atkinson‘s picture book, Sir Simon: Super Scarer. The star of a later graphic novel series, Simon and Chester, Simon is introduced in this book – a book in which the ghost, frustrated by a kid he can’t scare, enlists him in doing his ghost chores. Plus, the back cover features a ghost bum. And you definitely see a lot of bums (ghostly and otherwise) in the TV show.

Rounding out our ghost trilogy is Gustavo, the Shy Ghost by Flavia Z. Drago. If you’ve watched the Flanagan television series, you know those ghosts are anything but shy. But Gustavo, despite his difficulty in meeting new friends, loves playing beautiful music on his violin. Given the spooky, violin-heavy score of The Fall of the House of Usher, he might even be on the soundtrack!

Okay, but what if you want a picture book that’s a bit more explicitly connected to Edgar Allan Poe? A Raven Named Grip by Marilyn Singer and Edwin Fotheringham is a book that tells the real story of how the talking pet raven of fellow author Charles Dickens inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem, “The Raven.”

One person who may not have known about Poe’s raven is Mary Shelley, who was dealing with a number of blackmail attempts in 1845 when that poem was published. This part of her life is not chronicled in the chilling Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein by Linda Bailey and Júlia Sardà, as it looks at her childhood and the events that led to her writing one of the greatest novels in history. But it’s a great companion piece to The Fall of the House of Usher, as it is filled with dread, dark and stormy nights, and – like the chemists at the show’s Fortunato Pharmaceuticals – the latest discoveries in modern science.

This may be a bit of a spoiler, but we should also include Suzanne and Max Lang‘s book Grumpy Monkey on our list of read-a-likes for The Fall of the House of Usher, as a fun (?) little nod to the “Murder in the Rue Morgue” episode (and the story that inspired it). (And yes, we know chimpanzees are not monkeys; someone tell the Langs!)

CHAPTER BOOKS & MIDDLE GRADE

What could be more fitting on a list like this than The Misadventures of Edgar and Allan Poe series by Gordon McAlpine and Sam Zuppardi? The books follow the exploits of fictional (as far as we know) identical twins Edgar and Allan Poe, the great-great-great grandnephews of the famous writer himself. They live in Baltimore, seem to share one mind, and encounter movie sets, mad scientists, and more in books loosely based on Poe’s stories. (They even have a cat named Roderick Usher!)

For a more factual representation of the writer, there’s Who Was Edgar Allan Poe? by Jim Gigliotti and Tim Foley, a biography of Maryland’s master of the macabre in which you can find out nearly all there is to know about Poe. For instance, did you know he was adopted by a couple of tombstone merchants as a child? (They were also occasionally slave merchants. Sorry for being a downer.)

A tribute to Poe’s work in the short story form, Out to Get You: 13 Tales of Weirdness and Woe by Josh Allen and illustrated by Sarah J. Coleman visits 13 kids in 13 different towns. These towns are seemingly normal, but as in the House of Usher itself, bone-chilling things are afoot!

The two siblings in The Fall of the House of Usher are not so much abandoned as orphaned, and they’re American, rather than Irish. But the parallels to Jonathan Auxier‘s The Night Gardener are there! After all, they live in a crumbling manor and deal with dark bargains and ancient curses.

A retelling of a folktale, The Skull by Jon Klassen, perhaps isn’t that similar to Flanagan’s miniseries, save for the dark and mysterious tone. That said, both the book and TV show feature skulls very prominently, so we couldn’t leave this terrifying tale out.

The original story by Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” is thought to have been inspired by the events at Hezekiah Usher House in Boston. That makes Ghostlight by Kenneth Oppel another good reading option, as the ghost story is based partially on some famous Toronto-area ghost stories – including that of the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse. That same lighthouse is where Gabe, the book’s hero, both gives ghost tours and encounters real-live ghost, Rebecca Strand – and soon discover that not all ghosts are as friendly as Rebecca.

And Charis Cotter‘s The Ghost Road takes a story of siblings, the veil between the dead and the living, and family curses and transposes it to The Rock: Newfoundland. What dark family secrets will Ruth and her strangely similar cousin Ruby find in the small community of Buckle? It’s a mystery worthy of C. Auguste Dupin.

YOUNG ADULT

Though the mysteries in Shane Peacock‘s gothic trilogy The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim are based more on British Victorian tales of horror – Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. – the main character is named Edgar. Edgar Brim is a sensitive orphan (sound like anyone?) who, exposed to horror stories from his father as a young child, is afraid of almost everything. But as a teen, he faces his fears head-on, joining a secret society who is convinced the monsters in classic literature (just literature back then) are real, and must be destroyed.

Though Edgar Allan Poe was the American master of macabre of his day, the Canadian version of now lives in the Oshawa area of Ontario. Joel A. Sutherland released his first YA novel this fall, House of Ash and Bone, so you know it’s going to ramp up the terror from his beloved (and very scary) Haunted Canada series. When you first encounter Dorcas, the ghost of a 300-year-old witch who has subliminally summoned the Jagger family to Vermont, you’ll be reaching for the light switch.

It’s no spoiler to reveal many of Roderick Usher’s daughters meet their untimely ends in the show. Hence: Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline (even though they are more accurately women). In a similar fashion to the show, the tragic death of a mother looms large over everything, but the ghost in Dimaline’s tale is more a friendly spirit who had a rough life than a vengeful wraith like Usher‘s Verna.

But if you’d rather cast aside the read-a-likes for the real thing, Gareth Hinds‘s graphic novel adaptation, Poe: Stories and Poems, is right up your darkened alley. With faithful adaptations of Gothic bops like “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” (which was also adapted in the show), these comics are truly Poe-dacious.

A few titles to ponder, whether you’re weak or weary. Enjoy!

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Halloween Books: Get into the Spirit with Books for Young Readers

It’s officially spooky season! Get into the Halloween spirit with our lists of bewitching tales for all ages. This week, check out our list of stories to share with the young ghouls in your life!

Early Graphic Novels

A Super Scary Narwhalloween: A Narwhal and Jelly Book #8
By Ben Clanton
76 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735266742 | Tundra Books
In the hilarious eighth book of this blockbuster graphic novel series, Narwhal and Jelly celebrate the spookiest time of the year – Halloween – with a super twist! Dive into three new stories that are sure to fright and delight! Narwhal loves Halloween – it’s a great excuse to dress up in a spooky and silly costume, like a ghost, a mermaid, a banana or maybe even Marlow the Mustachioed Moose. It’s a skeleTON of fun! Jelly isn’t dressing up, though – he’s a little scared of this time of year, and would prefer to hunker down in a hidey-hole until Halloween is over. But when a scary sea monster makes an appearance and swallows Narwhal (gulp!), can Jelly, with the help of some super friends, pluck up the courage to save his best bud?

Super Family: Simon and Chester #3
By Cale Atkinson
96 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Paperback
ISBN 9781774880005 | Tundra Books
Welcome to the world of Simon and Chester, ghost and boy duo extraordinaire. Chester lives with his Grandma, his cat Mr. Pickles and Simon the ghost. Lately Chester has been feeling like he’s missing out when he sees other families out doing fun family things.  So when Chester gets the opportunity to join his friend Amie and her family on a trip to the water park, he is IN. Meanwhile, Simon is off to his yearly ghost conference, excited to finally have something to show off about (haunting his VERY OWN HOUSE, for example) to the cool ghosts. Maybe they’ll even accept him into their group! Will things go as planned? Well, let’s put it this way: both Simon and Chester are about to learn a thing or two about the old saying “The grass is always greener . . .” 

Chapter Books

Crimson Twill: Witch in the Country
By Kallie George
Illustrated by Brigitta Sif
80 Pages | Ages 7-9 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781536214642 | Candlewick
Crimson Twill’s new friends from New Wart City, Mauve and Wesley, are coming for a visit! But as soon as they arrive at Crimson’s house in Cackle County, things start to go wrong. At the rotten apple orchard, Crimson’s ripening spell goes horribly awry (what will they do with all that rotten applesauce?). Then, at the broom-straw field, Wesley cuts too much straw and starts to float away. And when the friends try to collect frogs’ breath for their spells (it makes everything wonderfully green and warty), Mauve gets a stinky faceful of it! What on earth is going on? The whole countryside feels like something big is about to happen, and Crimson wonders if it has something to do with Granny Twill and that giant cauldron of stew she made. Can Crimson get to the bottom of this bad-luck mystery? And, more importantly, will her city friends ever want to visit her again?

Evie and the Truth About Witches
By John Martz
64 Pages | Ages 5-9 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735271005 | Tundra Books
Evie wants to be scared, and the usual scary stories just aren’t doing it for her anymore. When she stumbles across a different sort of book, The Truth about Witches, she hopes she’s found something thrilling . . . but she’s forbidden by a kindly shopkeeper from reading the last page out loud! Naturally, her curiosity gets the better of her, and upon reading the last page out loud – a real summoning spell – Evie is spirited off to a strange land of magic, weird creatures, feasts, and actual witches! They’re not as scary as they seem, until Evie asks to join their ranks . . . and only once she does is her quest for true scariness satisfied . . .

Spooky Sleuths #4: Fire in the Sky
By Natasha Deen
Illustrated by Lissy Marlin
112 Pages | Ages 7-9 | Paperback
ISBN 9780593488966 | Random House BFYR
There are mysterious explosions near the old abandoned houses in town. Is it science . . . or is it something strange and ghostly? Find out in the latest installment to the spooky chapter book series Spooky Sleuths. Asim’s friend Max is in danger! Asim is sure some sort of supernatural being – a witch, maybe? – is after Max. Rokshar, the levelheaded one of the group, thinks the woman is a scientist using kids for her experiments! Either way, Max is in trouble, and it’s up to Asim and Rokshar to keep him safe. But when they get close to finding answers, Asim and his friends are attacked by fireballs. Is science behind the flying fire? Or is it a witch from Guyanese folklore? Find out . . . if you dare!

The Skull
By Jon Klassen
112 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781536223378 | Candlewick
Jon Klassen’s signature wry humor takes a turn for the ghostly in this thrilling retelling of a traditional Tyrolean folktale. In a big abandoned house, on a barren hill, lives a skull. A brave girl named Otilla has escaped from terrible danger and run away, and when she finds herself lost in the dark forest, the lonely house beckons. Her host, the skull, is afraid of something too, something that comes every night. Can brave Otilla save them both? Steeped in shadows and threaded with subtle wit – with rich, monochromatic artwork and an illuminating author’s note – The Skull is as empowering as it is mysterious and foreboding.

Middle Grade

Don’t Want to Be Your Monster
By Deke Moulton
304 Pages | Ages 10-14 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774880494 | Tundra Books
Adam and Victor are brothers who have the usual fights over the remote, which movie to watch and whether or not it’s morally acceptable to eat people. Well, not so much eat . . . just drink a little blood. They’re vampires, hiding in plain sight with their eclectic yet loving family. Ten-year-old Adam knows he has a better purpose in his life (well, immortal life) than just drinking blood, but fourteen-year-old Victor wants to accept his own self-image of vampirism. Everything changes when bodies start to appear all over town, and it becomes clear that a vampire hunter may be on the lookout for the family. Can Adam and Victor reconcile their differences and work together to stop the killer before it’s too late?

Double O Stephen and the Ghostly Realm
By Angela Ahn
320 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Paperback
ISBN 9780735268296 | Tundra Books
Stephen loves pirates. What he doesn’t love is his name: Stephen Oh-O’Driscoll. He believes when his Korean mother and Irish father gave him this name, that it was just one cruel setup for being teased. Giving things the proper name is important, which is why Stephen thinks that it’s time to update the definition of “pirate.” They’ve got a bad rep, and maybe they deserve some of it, but Stephen still likes a few pirate traditions, like bandannas and eyepatches – he’s just not that into stealing things from people. He has the perfect new word: piventurate. A sailor who passionately seeks adventure. That’s what he wants to be. When he gets suspended from school for doing proper piventurate-in-training things (using sticks to practice sword fighting), his mother doesn’t let him sit around doing nothing, instead she takes him to a museum. At the museum everything changes. Stephen finds himself in a strange new place, face-to-face with a real pirate. A pirate ghost. Captain Sapperton needs Stephen’s help to cross to the other side, and his former ghost crew are intent on making sure Stephen follows through, whatever it takes. Stephen is about to discover the true meaning of piventurate, and much to his surprise, his adventure will not only take him farther into the ghostly realm, but also closer to home, where long-held family secrets reveal surprising ties to the spirit world.

Escape to Witch City
By E. Latimer
312 Pages | Ages 10+ | Paperback
ISBN 9781101919330 | Tundra Books
Emmaline Black has a secret. She can hear the rhythm of heartbeats. Not just her own, but others’ too. It’s a rhythm she’s learned to control, and that can only mean one thing . . . Emma’s a witch. In a world where a sentence of witchcraft comes with dire consequences and all children who have reached the age of thirteen are tested to ensure they have no witch blood, Emma must attempt to stamp out her power before her own test comes. But the more she researches, the more she begins to suspect that her radically anti-witch aunt and mother are hiding something – the truth about their sister, her Aunt Lenore, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances years ago. The day of the test comes, and Emma’s results not only pair her up with strange new friends, but set her on a course to challenge everything she’s ever been taught about magic, and reveal long-buried family secrets. It seems witches may not have been so easy to banish after all. Secret cities, untapped powers, missing family members – Emma is about to discover a whole new world.

Ghostlight
By Kenneth Oppel
400 Pages | Ages 10+ | Paperback
ISBN 9780735272354 | Puffin Canada
The story of the tragic death of sixteen-year-old Rebecca Strand and her lighthouse keeper father is just an elaborate tale Gabe tells tourists for his summer job on the Toronto Island. Or so he thought. When his ghost tours awaken Rebecca’s spirit, Gabe is drawn into a world far darker than any ghost story he’s ever heard. Rebecca reveals that she and her father were connected to The Order, a secret society devoted to protecting the world from “the wakeful and wicked dead” – malevolent spirits like Viker, the ghost responsible for their deaths. But now the Order has disappeared and Viker is growing even stronger, and he’ll stop at nothing to wreak chaos and destruction on the living. Gabe and his friends – both living and dead – must find a way to stop Viker before they all become lost souls.

Seven Dead Pirates
By Linda Bailey
304 Pages | Ages 8-12 | Paperback
ISBN 9781770498167 | Tundra Books
Lewis Dearborn is a lonely, anxious, “terminally shy” boy of eleven when his great-grandfather passes away and leaves Lewis’s family with his decaying seaside mansion. Lewis is initially delighted with his new bedroom, a secluded tower in a remote part of the house. Then he discovers that it’s already occupied – by the ghosts of seven dead pirates. Worse, the ghosts expect him to help them re-take their ship, now restored and on display in a local museum, so they can make their way to Libertalia, a legendary pirate utopia. The only problem is that this motley crew hasn’t left the house in almost two hundred years and is terrified of going outside. As Lewis warily sets out to assist his new roommates – a raucous, unruly bunch who exhibit a strange delight in thrift-store fashions and a thirst for storybooks – he begins to open himself to the possibilities of friendship, passion and joie de vivre and finds the courage to speak up.

The Dollhouse: A Ghost Story
By Charis Cotter
360 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Paperback
ISBN 9780735269088 | Tundra Books
Alice’s world is falling apart. Her parents are getting a divorce, and they’ve cancelled their yearly cottage trip – the one thing that gets Alice through the school year. Instead, Alice and her mom are heading to some small town where Alice’s mom will be a live-in nurse to a rich elderly lady. The house is huge, imposing, and spooky, and everything inside is meticulously kept and perfect – not a fun place to spend the summer. Things start to get weird when Alice finds a dollhouse in the attic that’s an exact replica of the house she’s living in. Then she wakes up to find a girl asleep next to her in her bed – a girl who looks a lot like one of the dolls from the dollhouse . . . . When the dollhouse starts to change when Alice isn’t looking, she knows she has to solve the mystery. Who are the girls in the dollhouse? What happened to them? And what is their connection to the mean and mysterious woman who owns the house?

The Grave Thief
By Dee Hahn
344 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735269439 | Puffin Canada 
Twelve-year-old Spade is a grave thief. With his father and brother, he digs up the recently deceased to steal jewels, the main form of trade in Wyndhail. Digging graves works for Spade – alone in the graveyard at night, no one notices his limp or calls him names. He’s headed for a lifetime of theft when his father comes up with the audacious plan to rob a grave in the Wyndhail castle cemetery. Spade and his brother get caught in a royal trap, and Spade must find the master of the Woegon: a deadly creature that is stalking the castle by night. Along the way, he meets Ember, the queen’s niece, and together they race to solve the mystery of the legendary Deepstones and their connection to the Woegon, the queen, a missing king and the mysterious pebble Spade finds in the Wyndhail cemetery. This is a fantastic story of friendship, bravery, grief and acceptance.

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Halloween Books: Get into the Spirit with Picture Books

It’s officially spooky season! Get into the Halloween spirit with our lists of bewitching tales for all ages starting with picture books for the young ghouls in your life!

Alice’s Wonderland Bakery: A Hare-Raising Halloween
By Catherine Hapka
24 Pages | Ages 3-5 | Paperback
ISBN 9781368084574 | Disney Press
Fergie is excited to go to the Halloween celebration at Hearts Palace, but the timid rabbit admits to his friends that he sometimes gets a little overwhelmed during spooky parties. Alice and her friends help Fergie realize it takes bravery to admit you’re scared. Preschoolers are invited into the whimsical world of Wonderland through the eyes of 8-year-old Alice, the great-granddaughter of Alice from the original animated film. After inheriting her an enchanted bakery, Alice learns to cook and finds herself making magical memories while preparing and enjoying meals with her diverse community of friends in wacky, wonderful Wonderland. 

Bob’s Hungry Ghost
By Geneviève Côté
32 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Ebook
ISBN 9781770497146 | Tundra Books
Bob wants a dog for his birthday, but instead he gets a ghost . . . and its name is Fluffy. Unfortunately, Fluffy doesn’t fetch, sit or go for walks. But he does eat everything, and soon all of Bob’s things and even Bob himself end up in Fluffy’s belly. Will Bob find a way to tame his unruly and very hungry ghost? Will Fluffy realize that eating Bob wasn’t a very nice thing to do? All ends well in this sweet and silly look at appreciating what you have. And everyone will want a ghost for their birthday after reading this book.

Boo! Bluey’s Halloween: A Magnet Book
10 Pages | Ages 3-5 | Board Book
ISBN 9780593659540 | Penguin Young Readers Licenses
Boo! It’s time to have a frightfully fun time with Bluey in this magnet book! Based on the wildly successful animated series Bluey, as seen on Disney+
Join Bluey, Bingo, and all of their friends on a fun-filled nighttime adventure! This magnet book is perfect for Bluey fans!

Bruce and the Legend of Soggy Hollow
By Ryan T. Higgins
48 Pages | Ages 3-5 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781368059589 | Disney Hyperion
Celebrate all things scary with #1 New York Times best-selling author Ryan T. Higgins’s beloved Mother Bruce. Bruce is a bear who does not like holidays, and he really doesn’t like Halloween. His family of mice and geese decides the only way to get Bruce excited about Halloween is to tell a scary story. But their campfire tale takes a turn when a ghostly visitor appears. Will Bruce get in the Halloween spirit? Or will the Halloween spirit get Bruce?

First Night of Howlergarten
By Benson Shum
32 Pages | Ages 4-6 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593521274 | Penguin Workshop
First-day-of-school jitters take on a whole new meaning at howlergarten, where future werewolves prepare for their big transformation! Most kids go to kindergarten, but there is a special place for those who turn into werewolves. Instead of attending school during the day, these supernatural students go to howlergarten at night! There they practice tracking scents, listening to whispers on the wind, and more. But when one student named Sophie doesn’t seem to possess the basic skills, she worries she won’t become a werewolf at all. What will happen if she remains human when the full moon appears? Will she still be accepted as part of the pack, or will she be cast aside as an ordinary outsider? 

How to Make Friends with a Ghost
By Rebecca Green
40 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Paperback
ISBN 9781774880401 | Tundra Books
What do you do when you meet a ghost? One: Provide the ghost with some of its favorite snacks, like mud tarts and earwax truffles. Two: Tell your ghost bedtime stories (ghosts love to be read to). Three: Make sure no one mistakes your ghost for whipped cream or a marshmallow when you aren’t looking! If you follow these few simple steps and the rest of the essential tips in How to Make Friends with a Ghost, you’ll see how a ghost friend will lovingly grow up and grow old with you. A whimsical story about ghost care, Rebecca Green’s debut picture book is a perfect combination of offbeat humor, quirky and sweet illustrations, and the timeless theme of friendship.

Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein
By Linda Bailey
Illustrated by Júlia Sardà
56 Pages | Ages 5-8 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781770495593 | Tundra Books
How does a story begin? Sometimes it begins with a dream, and a dreamer. Mary is one such dreamer, a little girl who learns to read by tracing the letters on the tombstone of her famous feminist mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, and whose only escape from her strict father and overbearing stepmother is through the stories she reads and imagines. Unhappy at home, she seeks independence, and at the age of sixteen runs away with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, another dreamer. Two years later, they travel to Switzerland where they meet a famous poet, Lord Byron. On a stormy summer evening, with five young people gathered around a fire, Byron suggests a contest to see who can create the best ghost story. Mary has a waking dream about a monster come to life. A year and a half later, Mary Shelley’s terrifying tale, Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus, is published – a novel that goes on to become the most enduring monster story ever and one of the most popular legends of all time.

Monsters 101
By Cale Atkinson
32 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735267084 | Tundra Books
Readers who loved Unicorns 101 will love this laugh-out-loud picture book that finally sets the record straight about monsters! They’re so much more than just that scary thing under your bed. Join Professors Vampire, Blob and Werewolf, and their trusty lab assistant – a zombie named Tina – as they reveal eerie and frankly ridiculous monsters facts never uttered outside a crypt! Full of eye-popping illustrations and a story with nonstop sidesplitting laughs, plus a removable Professor of Monstrology diploma at the end of the book, Monsters 101 will have children – and adults – eager to enroll, time and time again!

Sir Simon: Super Scarer
By Cale Atkinson
48 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Paperback
ISBN 9781774880395 | Tundra Books
Meet Sir Simon, Super Scarer. He’s a professional ghost who has been transferred to his first house. And to top it off, this house is occupied by an old lady – they’re the easiest to haunt! But things don’t go as planned when it turns out a KID comes with this old lady. Chester spots Simon immediately and peppers him with questions. Simon is exasperated. . . until he realizes he can trick Chester into doing his ghost chores. After a long night of haunting, it seems that maybe Chester isn’t cut out to be a ghost, so Simon decides to help with Chester’s human chores. Turns out Simon isn’t cut out for human chores either. But maybe they’re both cut out to be friends . . .

The Crayons Trick or Treat
By Drew Daywalt
Illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
32 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593621028 | Philomel Books
The hilarious crayons from the #1 New York Times bestselling The Day The Crayons Quit are ready to celebrate Halloween! The Crayons want to go trick-or-treating, but they’re not sure what to say! In this humorous, small hardcover Halloween story, Purple Crayon teaches the rest of the crayon box the magic words to say when they ring their neighbors’ doorbells. (Hint: It’s NOT “Boo!”)

The Light Inside
By Dan Misdea
40 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780593521625 | Penguin Workshop
How far would you go to find your very best toy if it went missing? Join a timid jack-o’-lantern on an adventure through an eerie forest in this sweet and quirky wordless picture book! Nighttime can be scary, especially when you don’t know what might be lurking in the dark. So this little jack-o’-lantern always keeps its favorite toy close by for comfort. But when a huge gust of wind separates them one day, the jack-o’-lantern must gather up bravery and set off on a journey – just as nighttime draws closer – to get its friend back. Dan Misdea’s eye-catching artwork and charming story will remind readers that they can overcome most fears by trusting in themselves and finding the courage that lives inside their heart.

The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt
By Riel Nason
Illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler
48 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735264472 | Tundra Books
Ghosts are supposed to be sheets, light as air and able to whirl and twirl and float and soar. But the little ghost who is a quilt can’t whirl or twirl at all, and when he flies, he gets very hot. He doesn’t know why he’s a quilt. His parents are both sheets, and so are all of his friends. (His great-grandmother was a lace curtain, but that doesn’t really help cheer him up.) He feels sad and left out when his friends are zooming around and he can’t keep up. But one Halloween, everything changes. The little ghost who was a quilt has an experience that no other ghost could have, an experience that only happens because he’s a quilt . . . and he realizes that it’s OK to be different.

Vlad, the Fabulous Vampire
By Flavia Z. Drago
40 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781536233322 | Candlewick
Vlad is a vampire with the misfortune of having rosy cheeks that – gasp! – make him look abysmally alive. But being the fabulous vampire that he is (and hoping to avoid rejection), he hides his rosy complexion behind elaborate vampire outfits in traditional black. That is, until he finds out that his best friend has a pink secret of her own . . . . With signature flair, Flavia Z. Drago offers a story about being yourself and finding your community, strikingly illustrated in a distinctive, detailed art style influenced by her Mexican heritage.

Tundra Book Group