Kid's "Horror"

Hi there, new member here, and WOW do I need some help!

My son, who is seven and in the second grade, reads more than he does anything else, which I love... except for the fact that his favorite genre is REALLY hard to find. He loves horror, in book form especially, but in movies as well. Actually, the only actor he knows by sight in the entire world is Vincent Price... how cool is that? (quick note: no, he doesn't watch anything gory... he's TERRIFIED of blood... but black and white classics are very much his thing)... in any case, I've gotten him into a couple of 'horror' like series, although I suppose they're more like 'thrillers' than anything else... The American Chillers books by Johnathan Rand, The Michigan Chillers by the same (he LOVES these, since we're from Michigan), The Goosebumps books... but I really need to find more 'thriller' style books for him. Does anyone have any good suggestions? He likes series, because he says it's nice to read about the same characters in different stories... but here's the catch... he HATES vampires. He thinks, and I'm quoting him here, "they are too silly and werewolves are better anyway". I've done a little research into it, but I keep hitting a bit of a wall.

So, can anyone suggest to me some good 'thriller' or 'horror' books that don't focus on vampires? Series are best, but ANYTHING at this point is worth my time (and his!)

Thanks in advance, and sorry about the rambling... I'm a motormouth

I recommend "Loch" by Paul Zindel

It's got some gorey/violent bits, but it's a great read. One of my favorites when I was a kid, and continues to be one of my favorites today (I still have my copy that I bought at the book faire when I was a kid)!

What about the 39 Clues book series? I hear it is like a thriller series for kids. I am not sure if it appropriate for a 7 year old - you will have to check.
Also, remember the movie How To Train Your Dragon? It was made from a series of books that your son might like.

The one that came to mind was the Cirque Du Freak series, before you said no vampires. I don't know much about kids horror novels, mostly because I didn't read a lot of "kids" books when I was younger...If he likes Goosebumps, though, see if you can upgrade him to R.L. Stine's Fear Street (try Wikipedia: Fear Street) stuff. It's a little more adult, but it's still geared toward kids, and he has a few saga type things.

As far as werewolves and stuff go, I have no idea. I'm a vampire girl, myself. But I wish you luck!

Andii7X said:

The one that came to mind was the Cirque Du Freak series, before you said no vampires. I don't know much about kids horror novels, mostly because I didn't read a lot of "kids" books when I was younger...If he likes Goosebumps, though, see if you can upgrade him to R.L. Stine's Fear Street (try Wikipedia: Fear Street) stuff. It's a little more adult, but it's still geared toward kids, and he has a few saga type things.
!

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Fear Street was for teens (although myself and a few other girls in my class were reading them in the 5th-6th grade anyway).

Ghosts of Fear Street was the series more geared for kids (I liked them better than Goosebumps from what I remember of them).

Mandi-chan said:

Fear Street was for teens (although myself and a few other girls in my class were reading them in the 5th-6th grade anyway).

Ghosts of Fear Street was the series more geared for kids (I liked them better than Goosebumps from what I remember of them).

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This is true, but most kids start reading them in fifth or sixth grade. I started reading them...Let's see...I was in third grade, because at that point, I'd exhausted all of the Goosebumps books about ten times.

I didn't read those. After I quit reading Fear Street in seventh grade, I started reading Cirque Du Freak and stuff like that. But I'll have to look into it. I'm trying to aquire all of R.L. Stine's stuff, strictly for nostalgia purposes.

joeleitz said:

What about the 39 Clues book series? I hear it is like a thriller series for kids. I am not sure if it appropriate for a 7 year old - you will have to check.
Also, remember the movie How To Train Your Dragon? It was made from a series of books that your son might like.

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The 39 Clues books are perfect for an avid reader about 7. My son just turned 8 and he loves these books. I'm at a complete loss as to what else to add though. I loved goosebumps and fear street books when I was a kid. Christopher Pike has some horror books, but those are more for teens than kids. It wouldn't hurt to check it out and see if you feel it would be ok.

What about the Bone series? They are graphic novels as opposed to chapter books, but have the horror element on a kid level. Might work...

You could Skulduggery Pleasant series. It's not really horror, but it can be pretty freaky. I've grown been growing up with it for the last five years of my 16 year old life. It does have vampires later in the series, but they're not the main characters, a skeleton detective is

For children's horror, I can recommend John Bellairs.

He wrote House With a Clock in Its Walls, Ghost in the Mirror, The Figure in the Shadows. All 3 I read and really enjoyed. He also wrote Johnny Dixon series. They're also children's horror.

You could also try Coraline and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I really suggest Coraline. It is not 100% horror, but is 50% fantasy and 50% horror.

I am 14 years old, but I really love reading that book. Goosebumps didn't even give me the creeps, but I am surprised that Coraline could.

Andii7X said:

The one that came to mind was the Cirque Du Freak series, before you said no vampires.

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That gave me some ideas. Why not try other series by the same author? The Demonata series maybe? (I haven't read it all, but I don't think it's centred around vampires). The author, Darren Shan, is really good at writing teen horror-thriller series, which might just suit your need.

I used to love Christopher Pike books when I was younger - he writes ghost/horror/thriller books for kids. And Point Horror books which I think have been reinvented as Goosebumps and aren't as good as when they were PH, though R L Stine wrote a lot of them. But definitely Christopher Pike - his Remember Me series was a favourite. As was the Final Friends series and The Last Vampire.

What genre would The Hunger Games be? I kind of consider it at least 50% horror.

I classified The Hunger Games as sci-fi/dystopian. Mind you, I never read it so maybe the horror label is somewhat accurate.

Definitely dystopian. Thank you. I am in the middle of the second and haven't read the third. It is in the future, but does that make it sci-fi? I am not sure. I guess it is a little bit.

I wouldn't worry too much about grade level. My children were voracious readers who quickly devoured everything in the children's section of the library and were quickly reading several years ahead of grade level. So my advice is to let him read in the direction he wishes, as far as he wishes.

Most stuff by RL Stein should work.