[CALIBK12] Horror Fiction

[Emily Milla]

I was a big mystery/horror reader in late elementary school & junior high. Now I'm working at the high school level, so we do have some Stephen King, etc., but for junior high I would recommend:

Classics (perhaps the original or abridged versions, such as Great Illustrated Classics):
Dracula
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Frankenstein
Invisible Man
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Phantom of the Opera

Short Story collections:
Beware! : R.L. Stine picks his favorite scary stories
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series by Alvin Schwartz
Dare to be scared by Robert San Souci
Dark-thirty by Pat McKissack (also a Newbery Honor)

I would recommend many of the horror/scary books written by these authors, but, of course, use your discretion & look at reviews:
John Bellair
Mary Downing Hahn
Dorothy Hoobler
Diana Wynne Jones
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Richard Peck
Edgar Allan Poe
Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Betty Ren Wright

And if you're familiar with Follett Titlewave, their Collection Development search can be very helpful. I would put in keywords like horror, monster, ghost, vampire, werewolf, zombie, Halloween, etc. and limit by Interest Level, # of reviews, etc. You may also want to use a limiter under Accelerated Reader if you use that program. 

Happy Haunting!





Emily Milla
Library Clerk
Escondido High School
<emilla at euhsd.k12.ca.us>

>>> "Megan Fuller" <meg_ful at msn.com> 09/05/07 6:26 AM >>>

Hello the list,
All right I admit it, the horror genra is not my favorite.  I'd even go so far as to say I avoid it.  I don't like to be frightened...but junior highers do.  I have a serious lack of scary books in my library, oh I have a few short story books, and I do have the vampire books by Shan, Klaus, Atwater-Rhodes & Westerfield, but nothing by Stephen King or Dean Koontz, I just don't think they are appropriate for a junior high library....  I need some recommendations for great horror novels that I can add in time for the October rush.  I need all levels because I have beginning readers all the way through mensa kids.  I will put together a hit list and publish it here.
Thanks for your input, this is what the people on this list are great at.


Megan Fuller 
Aptos Junior High 
http://www.aptosjr.pvusd.net/library/ 

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing. 
-- Wernher von Braun