By Brandon Sanderson

On his birthday, Alcatraz Smedry receives a bag of sand, an inheritance from his lost parents, but it is stolen by the evil Librarians who want to use it to take over the Free Kingdoms and it is up to Alcatraz and the freedom fighters to stop them.

By Justin Richardson

When male penguins Silo and Roy attempt to hatch an egg–shaped rock and find no success in their efforts, the zookeepers decide to place a fertilized penguin egg in their cage and end up with little baby Tango, in an amusing tale based on a true story from the Central Park Zoo.

By Judy Blume

Faced with the difficulties of growing up and choosing a religion, a twelve–year–old girl talks over her problems with her own private God.

By Lemony Snicket
Series Series of Unfortunate Events

After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children must depend on each other and their wits when it turns out that the distant relative who is appointed their guardian is determined to use any means necessary to get their fortune.

By Sharon M. Draper

Piano–prodigy Isabella, eleven, whose black father and white mother struggle to share custody, never feels whole, especially as racial tensions affect her school, her parents both become engaged, and she and her stepbrother are stopped by police.

By Jen Jones

When people die, do they leave part of themselves behind? Throughout history, people have heard and seen ghostly evidence of a world beyond the grave. Read about a doomed English queen, a creepy talking doll, and a shape-shifting wolf. Then whistle past the graveyard if you dare.

By Christopher Paul Curtis
Grade(s): 4+

Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father—the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

By R.L. Stine
Series Goosebumps

When their father inherits an old house in the town of Dark Falls, Amanda and Josh are excited, until they begin to suspect that the house is haunted.

By Neil Gaiman

Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard.

By J. K. Rowling
Series Harry Potter Series

When the government of the magic world and authorities at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry refuse to believe in the growing threat of a freshly revived Lord Voldemort, fifteen-year-old Harry Potter finds support from his loyal friends in facing the evil wizard and other new terrors.

By Jessica Herthel

Presents the story of a transgender child who traces her early awareness that she is a girl in spite of male anatomy and the acceptance she finds through a wise doctor who explains her natural transgender status.

By Alvin Schwartz

Presents a selection of tales about haunted houses, ghastly deeds, wailing specters, and other terrifying phenomena.

By Jerry Craft

Enrolled in a prestigious private school where he is one of only a few students of color, talented seventh–grade artist Jordan finds himself torn between the worlds of his Washington Heights apartment home and the upscale circles of Riverdale Academy.

By Alvin Schwartz

Features twenty-five chilling tales of prophetic dreams, feral children raised by wild animals, swamp creatures, and other terrifying phenomena.

By Alvin Schwartz
With Stacey Mencher, Readers' Services Librarian

Monday, October 24, 2016. 7:30 PM.

Tapped from the oral traditions of American folklore, these ghost stories and tales of weird happenings, witches, and graveyards have startling, funny, or surprising endings.

By Ann Hood

In 1966, with her middle school life and the world itself in turmoil, twelve–year–old Trudy and the other three remaining fan club members leave Rhode Island for Boston to see a Beatles concert.

By Sharon G. Flake

Maleeka Madison gets a new teacher, Mrs. Saunders, whose skin is blotched from a rare disease, who becomes an inspiration because she does not let that stop her from standing up for herself, and whose appearance forces Maleeka to rethink how she feels about her own dark skin.

By Megan Whalen Turner

The king's scholar, the magus, puts Gen, a prisoner of the king, in charge of stealing an ancient treasure that would allow his king to rule a neighboring country, but Gen is smarter than the magus thinks and his plan takes on an unexpected turn.

By R.J. Palacio
Grade(s): 5+

Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.