September 9, 2025 by Union Square Kids
ARC provided by Media Masters Publicity
ARC provided by Media Masters Publicity
Martin loves horror films, and he and his best friend, Jess, are determined to have the best Halloween. Martin is also fond of his Great Aunt Gabby, who has shown up unexpectedly. She travels the world, often bringing Martin amazing gifts. This year, it is a pair of unusual foovaloos shoes, made from the skin of an extinct animal. She's cagey about where she has gotten them, but finally tells Martin about the magical Black Market. It shows up in unexpected places on Halloween night, and the things purchased there have a steep price that can't be calculated in monetary terms. Forgetting that he has promised to meet Jess at the library, Martin rushes off after getting Gabby settled, and ends up at the library wearing his shoes. The creepy Substitute Librarian, who is there in place of Martin's favorite staffer, seems overly interested in the friends as Martin tells Jess about his aunt's tale. Gabby continues on her travels, and Martin decides to try to find the market on Halloween. After telling their parents that they might be out longer than usual, the friends manage to find the market. Jess isn't allowed in, but Martin, in his Headless Horseman costume (shown on the cover) is assumed to be an adult and let in. He doesn't spend too much time browsing, but comes across a Bag of Dirty Tricks that he wants. The vendor offers to trade for the shoes, but when Martin finds out he needs a book of instructions to do with the tricks, he only gets half the bag. Back home with Jess, he is alarmed at how mean some of the tricks are, but still wants to try some of them. He settles on a soap that turns the users skin red for a week, and plans to trick his father into washing his hands with it before dinner. Unfortunately, a marinara explosion results in his father taking a shower... and he ends up red all over after grabbing the soap from the sink. Martin could easily have told his mother, who is very worried, what has happened, but stays silent, not wanting to admit to having been to the Black Market. It's hard to find tricks that aren't too nasty, but after a mean neighbor, Mr. Murphy, kidnaps Martin's dog Gorgo, Martin and Jess perform a complicated trick that ends with Mr. Murphy growing tree branches from his body. While recovering Gorgo, they find that Mr. Murphy isn't all that mean. They help him clip his branches and decide to bury the bag so that it won't cause any more harm. When events the sound suspiciously like Dirty Tricks hit the news, Martin and Jess, must track down the surprising person who has stolen the bag, and find a way to lessen the impact.
Strengths: This creepy story is accompanied by the author's occasional line drawings, which is a nice touch. Martin and Jesse are great fans, and they manage to sneak out at night to get things done, and work around parents who are alive, present, and concerned about their well being, I enjoyed Great Aunt Gabby, and the ending (which I don't want to ruin), brings her influence back in an interesting way. The idea of a magical market that only appears occasionally is intriguing, and the Bag of Dirty Tricks has a magical appeal much like that of Whitesides' The Wishmakers. Martin and Jesse are fairly thoughtful and deliberate in their use of the bag, and don't want to cause any real harm. Their attempt to get rid of the back is realistic, and I liked the twist at the end.
Weaknesses: The foovaloos shoes were a bit goofy, and make the book seem a bit younger. It also lacks the jump scares and killer ghosts that my students look for in scary books.
What I really think: This is a good Halloween choice for fans of Allen's The Nightmare House, Uhrig's The Polter-ghost Problem, or Lloyd's The Witching Wind who aren't quite bold enough for scarier stories with killer spirits like Gillespie's Grin or Alexander's Dead Girl's Diary.
Weaknesses: The foovaloos shoes were a bit goofy, and make the book seem a bit younger. It also lacks the jump scares and killer ghosts that my students look for in scary books.
What I really think: This is a good Halloween choice for fans of Allen's The Nightmare House, Uhrig's The Polter-ghost Problem, or Lloyd's The Witching Wind who aren't quite bold enough for scarier stories with killer spirits like Gillespie's Grin or Alexander's Dead Girl's Diary.
Winans, Justine Pucella. A Little Too Haunted
September 30, 2025 by Bloomsbury Children's BooksE ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Luna Catalano, who struggles with irritable bowel syndrome, leads a peripatetic life with her two mothers, who are home improvement influencers who renovate and flip haunted houses. Revenues are down since Luna had a live streamed freak out when she discovered that they faked the paranormal aspects of their content. Mom and Mamma are looking to rebrand as they start their newest project on Shadyside Street in Cleveland, Ohio. At first, Luna doesn’t think the house is dark and dismal enough to be haunted, but when she spends more time there, she feels disturbing auras. This is great, because Luna WANTS the house to be haunted. She’s a huge fan of the show Queer Fearleaders. She has a crush on the male host and desperately wants to get their Starter Ghosthunters’ Kit, which her moms eventually break down and buy for her. Since she has had several disturbing visions of being covered in blood, and seeing a giant spider on the kitchen ceiling. There are rumors about the house, which had been abandoned for some time, and the neighbor children, Dani (who is trying out they/them pronouns) and Mateo Moreno help Luna investigate. She also gets some insight when she wakes up in the middle of the night and goes outside, running into 23-year-old neighbor Evie, a horror writer, who tells her stories about the Burning Man and Mourning Dove. There’s also neighbor Logan, a very pretty girl who captures Luna’s attention, and is even the object of a very confusing crush, since Luna doesn’t consider herself gay. The stove in the house keeps turning on unexpectedly, and Luna’s moms think she has done it because she is unhappy about the move, blaming her for ruining their new camera. The children talk to Mr. Winston at the library and get some more history of the house, and learn about the Rosewood family that perished in a fire in the early twentieth century. When Evie gives Luna instructions on how to perform an exorcism, things go badly wrong, and the evil spirits in the house need serious attention. Will Luna be able to save herself and the house, and convince her moms that she is tired of moving?
Strengths: This was a bit of a twist on the middle grade trope of moving into a haunted house; Luna’s family WANTS the house to be haunted. There must be people who make a living being social media influencer, and seeing the difficulty that Luna’s mothers have with getting sponsorship and losing viewers because of her meltdown is interesting. I liked the way that Luna’s IBS was worked into the story; it’s not part of a plot arc, but does effect some of her daily life. There is lot of LGBTQIA+ representation of various sorts.
Weaknesses: I was a little confused as to why Luna could see Evie and Logan; there's a little explanation, but there could have been more. Also, it seemed pretty apparent that Evie was evil, so I would NOT have followed her instructions to do an exorcism!
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like books that involve moving into haunted houses like Dawson’s Mine, Hung’s Hungry Bones, Bowman’s Where the Lost Ones Go, or Acevedeo’s The Curse of Spectacle Key. The home renovation portion of this reminded me vaguely of O’Reilly’s The Secret of Goldenrod or Davies’The International House of Dereliction.
Pumpkin Party (Junior Monster Scouts)
July 15, 2025 by Simon Spotlight
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
This Level 2 Ready to Read early chapter book continues the adventures of Vampyra, Franky, and Wolfy. As their favorite holiday approaches, the trio is planning a Halloween party, complete with snacks and decorations. They want to carve jack o'lanterns, so head out to the pumpkin patch to pick the best one for their projects, which include a bat, the castle, and a wolf howling at the moon. When they try to pick the pumpkins however, they scoot away! They are sentient pumpkins, and do not like the idea of being careved up and filled with twinkly lights. The friends are sad, but come up with a great idea: instead of carving the pumpkins, they will invite all of the produce to their party and PAINT the decorations on instead. The pumpkins agree to this, and end up being the life of the party.
Long's illustrations are just the right blend of realistic and goofy, with Wolfy and Franky in boy scout uniforms, and Vampyra resplendent with her Bride of Frankenstein hairdo even when she is a bat. The grounds of Castle Dracula are nice and dark, but their party looks very cozy with its bowls of treats, skeleton band, and strings of decorations. There are enough details on the page to spark conversations about what else might be going on, and to compare and contrast the Monster Scout party with ones the reader has attended.
These pictures also support the text, so readers who might be struggling with the word "pumpkin" will be able to draw clues from context. I appreciated that the vocabulary was generally simple, but introduced more difficult words like "pageant".
For elementary school students, who are the audience for this books with simple chapters and longer vocabulary words, Halloween is the best holiday of the year. They will want to throw a party just like Vampyra and her friends, although I'm not sure that this book will persuade them NOT to carve pumpkins. Include monster scouts on your Halloween reading list along with Miedoso and Rivas' Desmond Cole, Ghost Patrol or Preller's Scary Tales books.
Pumpkin Party (Junior Monster Scouts)
August 26, 2025 by Simon Spotlight
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Monster Scouts Vampyra, Franky, and Wolfy want to fly kites on a beautiful spring day, but Vampyra's Aunt Moonflower cautions the group that Dracula is sleeping and doesn't want to be awoken. They gather sticks, string, and paper to construct their own kites, and then head out onto the grounds of Castle Dracula to fly them. Everything goes well until the kites go too close to the castle and wake up the grumpy gargoyles! They swoop down and voice their displease to the trio, who are afraid that the gargoyles will raise a ruckus! Instead, they challenge the gargoyles to a contest to see who can fly the highest. Even tying all three kite strings together doesn't let their kites go as high as the gargoyles, but that's okay; the stone guardians fly so high that Dracula can't hear them. Eventually, Dracula wakes up from his nap on his own, and the scouts are relieved that they got to fly their kites and didn't get in trouble.
It is possible to make your own kite, something which young children might not know! I loved that the scouts took it upon themselves to think up an activity, plan it, and then spent the day outside in the fresh air. I did have some questions about Vampyra and Dracula being near sunlight, but perhaps that was addressed in one of the ten earlier books in this series.
The text moves along quickly, and most of the words are fine for independent reading, although kids may need some help when meeting the word "gargoyle" for the first time! Some words, like "quiet" and "relief" are also hard to pronounce the first time, but will become sight words when read enough.
Long's illustrations capture the gloominess of the castle and the contrasting sunny day nicely, and I loved that Dracula is curled up with his teddy bear!
Parents who read all the Dadey and Jones' Bailey School Kids books in the 1990s will be glad to introduce their new readers to a fun and spooky series that has a similar vibe. Junior Monster Scouts books are a great choice for readers who find Schwartz's In a Dark, Dark Room a little too spooky but want something a little scarier than Schaefer and Hartung's Happy Halloween, Mittens.
The premise of A Little Too Haunted has caught my eye - I read and enjoyed adult novella Haunt Sweet Home which is similarily about a reality TV that combines ghost hunting and home renos.
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