If You Like the Series of Unfortunate Events
| The Wolves of Willoughby Chase Bonnie Green and her cousin Sylvia come under the power of a wicked governess when Bonnie's parents leave on a sea voyage. |
Joan Aiken |
| Arabel and Mortimer (series) Three adventures of a little girl, Arabel, and her pet raven, Mortimer. |
Joan Aiken |
| A House Called Awful End (Eddie Dickens series) The first book in a hilarious, action-packed trilogy. Eddie Dickens is sent off to stay with his aunt and uncle and a riotously funny comedy of errors ensues. |
Philip Ardagh. |
| The House with a Clock in its Walls (Lewis Barnavelt series); John Bellairs, the name in Gothic mysteries for middle graders, wrote terrifying tales full of adventure, attitude, and alarm. For years, young readers have crept, crawled, and gone bump in the night with the unlikely heroes of these Gothic novels: Lewis Barnavelt, Johnny Dixon, and Anthony Monday. |
John Bellairs |
| The Curse of the Blue Figurine (Johnny Dixon series) John Bellairs, the name in Gothic mysteries for middle graders, wrote terrifying tales full of adventure, attitude, and alarm. For years, young readers have crept, crawled, and gone bump in the night with the unlikely heroes of these Gothic novels: Lewis Barnavelt, Johnny Dixon, and Anthony Monday. |
John Bellairs |
| The Fairy-Tale Detectives (Sisters Grimm series) This first book in the Sisters Grimm series introduces two orphaned sisters, Sabrina and Daphne, who are sent to live with their mysterious grandmother. When they learn they are descendants of the Brothers Grimm, they soon discover it is the Grimm family's legacy to keep the Everafters in line. |
Michael Buckley. |
| Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism (series) Molly Moon has spent her entire life in a miserable orphanage run by the hairy, snaggletoothed Miss Adderson. But when she finds a mysterious book, Molly discovers an extraordinary talent -- she can hypnotize anyone! Accompanied by Petula the pug, Molly hypnotizes her way to New York and Broadway. |
Georgia Byng |
| Artemis Fowl (series) In 2001, audiences first met and fell in love with a twelve-year-old criminal mastermind named Artemis Fowl. Since then, the series has sold over seven million copies in the United States alone. Now, this phenomenally successful series is being translated into a graphic novel format. |
Eoin Colfer |
| The Field Guide (Spiderwick Chronicles series) The field guide sets up the story of the Grace children--13-year-old Mallory and 9-year-old twins Jared and Simon--who with their mother move into the dilapidated Spiderwick Estate only to quickly find themselves sucked into a dark and fascinating world of faeries. |
Tony DeTerlizzi |
| Inkheart (Inkworld series) One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called "Inkheart," and an evil ruler escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. |
Cornelia Funke |
| The Thief Lord Prosper and Bo are orphans on the run from their cruel aunt and uncle. The brothers decide to hide out in Venice, where they meet a mysterious character who calls himself the "Thief Lord." |
Cornelia Funke |
| The December Rose; A young chimney sweep is embroiled in intrigue when he accidentally takes a piece of jewelry from one of his jobs. |
Leon Garfield |
| The Empty Sleeve; Though he dreams of going to sea, fourteen-year-old Peter is not entirely displeased to be apprenticed to a locksmith, especially as it means getting away from his "saintly" twin; but when the ghost of a former apprentice and a murder put him in grave danger, it is only his despised brother who is able to save him. |
Leon Garfield |
| Footsteps Unsettling words from his father before he dies set twelve-year-old William on a mission to eighteenth-century London where he encounters an odd assortment of characters, some of whom seem determined to kill him. |
Leon Garfield |
| The Wedding Ghost Jack is marrying Jill, despite all the hectic preparations. A wedding present is addressed just to Jack--a map, which leads him to “The-Bird-in-Hand'' public house. There he meets an old man and his grandson who take him on a ghostly vessel to “journey's end'' beyond the fog. He's left in a dark and damp place, full of grinning skeletons. Then he enters a dust-laden mansion and realizes that he has found a “Sleeping Beauty'' to whom he must give the kiss of life. |
Leon Garfield |
| Onts (Secrets of the Dripping Fang series) Nobody wants to adopt the Shluffmuffin twins. Wally's feet stink something awful, and Cheyenne is allergic to everything. Then why are the Mandible sisters so eager to take them home? And what sort of old maids would choose to live in a place called Dripping Fang Forest, where zombies wander the woods singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and ten-foot-long glowing slugs want to suck the feet right off your ankles? |
Dan Greenburg |
| The Shrinking of Treehorn (Treehorn series) Poor Treehorn's problem is politely ignored by his parents and barely tolerated by his teachers |
Florence Parry Heide |
| Dial-a-Ghost The Dial-a-Ghost Agency finds good homes for ghosts. And Fulton and Frieda Snodde-Brittle are looking for a few frightening ghosts to "accidentally" scare their young cousin and heir, Oliver, to death. The ladies at the Dial-a-Ghost Agency have the perfect match: the Shriekers, two bloodstained and bickering horrors. |
Eva Ibbotson |
| Haunting of Granite Falls American millionaire Hiram C. Hopgood will spare no expense to make his daughter Helen happy, even if it means importing a castle from Scotland. Alex MacBuff, the twelve-year-old former owner of the castle, accompanies Mr. Hopgood to Texas to oversee the rebuilding of his beloved Carra, and he befriends Helen in the process. |
Eva Ibbotson |
| Island of the Aunts When the kindly old aunts decide that they need help caring for creatures who live on their hidden island, they know that adults can't be trusted. What they need are a few special children who can keep a secret-a secret as big as a magical island. |
Eva Ibbotson |
| The Secret of Platform 13 A forgotten door on an abandoned railway platform is the entrance to a magical kingdom--an island where humans live happily with mermaids, ogres, and other wonderful creatures. Carefully hidden from the world, the Island is only accessible when the door opens for nine days every nine years. |
Eva Ibbotson |
| Which Witch? "Me marry! Are you out of your mind? Who would I marry?" Arriman muttered miserably.But of course he knew. All of them knew. There is only one kind of person a wizard can marry, and that is a witch.Arriman the Awful, the Wizard of the North, needs a wife. |
Eva Ibbotson |
| Troll Fell A secret kingdom of trolls, and their legendary gold, lies in the mysterious shadows of Troll Fell. It is to this eerie and dangerous place that Peer must go after his father's sudden death, to live with his greedy uncles, Baldur and Grim, at their mill. |
Katherine Langrish |
| The Willoughbys Abandoned by their ill-humored parents to the care of an odious nanny, Tim, the twins, Barnaby A and Barnaby B, and their sister, Jane, attempt to fulfill their roles as good, old-fashioned children in this hilarious parody that pays playful homage to classic works of children's literature. |
Lois Lowry |
| Seven Spiders Spinning (Hamlet Chronicles series) Seven prehistoric spiders that have been trapped in ice for thousands of years bring excitement to rural Vermont and briefly unite the rival boys' and girls' clubs at a local elementary school. |
Gregory Maguire |
| The Wooden Mile (Something Wickedly Weird series) After Stanley Buggles inherits a house from an uncle he didn't know he had, he also inherits a mystery, some sinister new neighbors, and a summer of pirates, werewolves, and a strange house on an isolated island |
Chris Mould |
| Midnight for Charlie Bone (series) What's happening to Charlie Bone? Charlie doesn't want to believe it when he discovers that he can hear the thoughts of people in photographs. But his horrible aunts are delighted - it means that he is one of the chosen and must attend the Bloor's Academy for gifted children. |
Jenny Nimmo |
| Clockwork, or All Wound Up; Long ago in Germany, a storyteller's story and an apprentice clockwork-maker's nightmare meet in a menacing, lifelike figure created by the strange Dr. Kalmenius. |
Philip Pullman |
| Count Karlstein In the mountains of Switzerland the wicked Count Karlstein plots to abandon his two orphaned nieces in a hunting lodge as prey for the Demon Huntsman and his ghostly hounds. |
Philip Pullman |
| Spring-Heeled Jack Spring-Heeled Jack: The name evoked awe from both criminals and upstanding citizens alike. Some thought he was the devil, but he was actually the original superhero--leaping over the buildings of Victorian England with the help of springs in the heels of his shoes. |
Philip Pullman |
| Holes Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. |
Louis Sachar |
| The Ink Drinker (series) What's a boy to do when he hates to read and he's stuck in his father's bookstore over a holiday vacation? Spy on customers, that's what! And for the young narrator of this delicious story, the adventure begins as soon as he spots a strange-looking fellow shuffling through the bookstore shelves. The man is definitely not browsing -- he's sucking up the ink of every printed word with a straw! |
Eric Sanvoisin |
| Cousins in the Castle A new friend comes to Amelia's rescue when she finds herself the victim of a dastardly villain's fiendish plans. |
Barbara Brooks Wallace |
| Peppermints in the Parlor Originally published more than a decade ago, this much-loved novel that introduces orphaned Emily Luccock, who arrives at her aunt and uncles once-happy San Francisco home, only to find unimaginable horrors. Now with new cover art. |
Barbara Brooks Wallace |
| The Twin in the Tavern Discovered by thieves looting his uncle's house, orphaned Taddy has no choice but to accept their offer of a warm place to sleep and good meals in return for keeping his mouth shut about the robbery. But Taddy soon discovers that he is nothing more than a prisoner, and he must take steps to free himself. |
Barbara Brooks Wallace |
