Reading Quest is back for 2025! Looking for reading inspiration? We’re recommending some of our favourite scary stories which you can read on your quest this summer – all free to borrow with your library card!
Reading Quest starts on 19 July. You can sign up at any library. Find out more about Reading Quest.
Who’s Afraid of the Light?
Anna McGregor
Fergus lives down in the deepest, darkest sea and is scared of just one thing … the light! Fresh and funny narrative nonfiction from the award-winning Anna McGregor.
Seamlessly combining humor, narrative, and nonfiction, McGregor introduces young readers to the wonders of the ocean’s ‘midnight zone’, where no sunlight at all is able to penetrate. We meet Fergus as he hides from a parade of sea creatures that use bioluminescence to find their way in the dark. At least, we think he is hiding … or is it something else entirely?
The Skull
Jon Klassen
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.
The Beast and the Bethany
Jack Meggitt-Phillips
Ebenezer Tweezer is a youthful 511-year-old. He keeps a beast in the attic of his mansion, who he feeds all manner of things (including performing monkeys, his pet cat and the occasional cactus) and in return the beast vomits out presents for Ebenezer, as well as potions which keep him young and beautiful. But the beast grows ever greedier, and soon only a nice, juicy child will do. So when Ebenezer encounters orphan Bethany, it seems like (everlasting) life will go on as normal. But Bethany is not your average orphan.
Mallory Vayle and the Curse of Maggoty Skull
Martin Howard
Mallory Vayle can see dead people and mostly tries to IGNORE them. But when her parents are ghost-napped, she is forced to team up with a talkative skull to get them back. Maggoty Skull promises to teach her the dark skills she needs, but only if she gets him a magnificent wig and promises to break the curse he has been placed under. Can the unlikely pair vanquish an evil spirit, free Mallory’s parents and even become friends? Maybe, but only if Maggoty stops calling Mallory ‘bumcrack’.
Crater Lake
Jennifer Killick
It could be the mysterious bloodstained man who tries to stop their coach, or the fact no one seems to be around at the brand-new activity centre when Lance and the rest of his class arrive for the Year 6 school trip, but something is definitely not right at Crater Lake! What follows is a fight for survival that sees five pupils band together to save their classmates from an alien fate far worse that death. But whatever happens, they must Never, Ever fall asleep!
The Witches
Roald Dahl
One child a week is 52 a year. Squish them and squiggle them and make them disappear. Beware! There are witches everywhere. Witches could be a cashier in a supermarket, a woman driving a fancy car, or even your own teacher. The only thing a witch cares about is squelching children. She hunts and squelches as many children as she possibly can. At least one a week. The Grand High Witch hates children most of all and plans to make every single one disappear.
Only one boy and his grandmother can stop her. But if their plan fails, the Grand High Witch will frizzle them like fritters, and then what will happen?
The Clackity
Lora Senf
Evie Von Rathe lives in Blight Harbor – the seventh-most haunted town in America – with her Aunt Desdemona, the local paranormal expert. Des doesn’t have many rules except one: Stay out of the abandoned slaughterhouse at the edge of town. But when her aunt disappears into the building, Evie goes searching for her. There she meets The Clackity, a creature who lives in the shadows and seams of the slaughterhouse. The Clackity makes a deal with Evie to help get Des back in exchange for the ghost of John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer who stalked Blight Harbor a hundred years earlier. Evie reluctantly embarks on a journey into a strange otherworld filled with hungry witches, penny-eyed ghosts, and a memory-thief, all while being pursued by a dead man whose only goal is to add Evie to his collection of lost souls.
Goosebumps: Scariest Book Ever
R.L. Stine
A brand new Goosebumps series is coming―prepare to be scared like never before! From the delightfully twisted mind of R.L. Stine comes a fresh new vision for the fan-favorite brand.
This new series will feature an ALL NEW line-up of incredible villains, with iconic monsters as you’ve never seen them before, whose antics are destined to make them every bit as beloved as Slappy.
Monsters: 100 Weird Creatures from Around the World
Sarah Banville and Quinton Winter
Ever wondered what terrorised the Scape Ore swamp in 1980s South Carolina? Or who visits the naughty children in Northern Europe to punish them on Christmas Eve? Or how bloated undead feeders got upgraded to a shape-shifting castle-dwelling Count?
From well-known and well-feared monsters like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, to the lesser-known, but just as weird and wonderful Japanese Sea Serpent and Chinese Hopping Vampires, this is a must-have guide to monsters from all over the world.
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