 Guest Blog by Nancy Tandon Ask any teacher or librarian and they will tell you: most kids love scary stories! They cannot get enough. Supernatural ghost stories, haunted house mysteries, monster tales, creepy folklore/fairy tales, and books with psychological suspense fly off shelves and get passed hand to hand. Middle Grade readers absolutely judge these books by their covers, and it seems the creepier and more atmospheric the image on the front, the better. But when I ask at school visits whether kids like to be scared, it’s a mix of thumbs up, down, and sideways. I always clock at least one look of relief when a sideways-thumb-responder sees my thumb tilted, too. Despite being a two-time spooky book author, I shy away from spine-tingling scenarios in books, shows, and real life. In fact, simply hearing the music on an ad for a horror movie sends me scrambling for the remote. (I blame cable TV; I was subjected much too early to my older siblings’ screenings of The Exorcist and Nightmare on Elm Street. My brother particularly enjoyed reenacting Freddie Kruger whispering…Naaancy…(one of the main character’s names) through my bedroom door at night.)  Then, a few years ago I saw a piece about a summer camp for kids that was only open at night. That sparked the idea for my novel The Ghost of Spruce Point (Aladdin, 2022). My editor loved the characters’ shenanigans and the cozy mystery vibe, but she kept asking for more. More thrills, more chills, more Michael Myers and less Scooby Doo. As part of my development as a writer in this new-to-me genre, I read and studied a lot of mentor texts by authors such as Heidi Lang and Kati Bartkowski (The Whispering Pines series, Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020) and Lorien Lawrence (The Fright Watch series, Harry N. Abrams, 2020, and The Many Hauntings of the Manning Family, Harry N. Abrams, 2020). Believe me, they go there! Honestly, I had to read in the daytime with the lights on. But I also noticed that among the common tropes of the genre and the expected creep factor, these stories always had a lot of heart.
Eventually, my editor and I met in the middle. While there are many kids who can handle and legitimately crave darker, no-limits horror, I knew to stay true to myself as an author I’d be leaving that kind of book to the authors who were already doing it so well. My goal became to find the sweet spot between a story spooky enough that it would entertain the kids who love the fear factor, without requiring anyone to sleep on mom and dad’s floor later that night.  I strove for that same balance when writing The Haunting of Walker Pond (Aladdin, 2026). Again, my editor had to nudge me to get closer to the monster in the corner, to “not be afraid of going into the water,” so to speak. This time, I felt more comfortable layering in the scares, as I’d also acquired a few tricks for keeping things balanced. Here are some tips for writing spooky that scares vs. terrifies: Use Setting Pump up the PG chills in your story by leaning on the setting as character. Playing with the general atmosphere, weather, and even time of day are fantastic ways to turn up the dial. Consider these two examples: A group of kids head to their treehouse for a meeting. At the end of a long, dark lane, a group of kids sneak up to an abandoned treehouse at night, only to be caught in a sudden unexpected wind squall that separates them. Use Comedy Another tried and true (and much appreciated) tool is good old comic relief. This job can be fun to assign to one character but can also be peppered throughout your scenes in a variety of ways. A: “The monster is closing in! He’s going to steal our voices!” B: (Frozen, too scared to speak) A: “The voice-stealing monster is closing in! B, what are you doing?” B: “Looking for my gum! I had tuna fish for lunch, and I don’t want him to know I have bad breath.” Build in Tension Releases One of my other favorite pressure-relief valves is a jump scare that ends up being something safe. A sudden screech and flapping of wings startle your character…but it’s just a hawk hunting a field mouse. Your character sees hair floating below the surface of a pond…but it turns out to be seaweed. Sometimes, the idea that there are adults somewhere off page who could be summoned is enough to bring down the adrenaline for kid readers. As with all middle grade stories, we want characters to face problems and solve things on their own, keeping the parents out of the story as much as possible. This can also lend itself to readers commiserating with your characters: Those silly parents don’t even know there’s an evil spirit in their own basement! They just think the washing machine is acting up all the time. Use Sound It's not as easy to add a soundtrack to a book as it is to a show or movie, and in some ways that makes written scary stories much more accessible for kids who like things lightly spooky. (Notice how if you mute a horror movie, almost all the tension is gone.) I do highly suggest you get yourself a spooky playlist for when you’re writing. I like to add my writing playlists to my website so kids who do want that extra scare element can play them while reading! And you can and should always bring sound into your story to help tighten or ease tension. The natural world is full of creepy sounds, especially at night. Thank you to hooting owls, howling coyotes, scratching tree branches, and scuffling feet. The gifts that keep on giving. The bottom line is that we’re writing to encourage reading. If you are one of those people that loved Freddie Kruger, there is an audience of kids who crave the level of spooky you’ll be able to write! But if you’re like me, don’t shy away from the genre. Just put up the guardrails when you need them and know there will be a whole group of “thumbs-down and sideways” kids waiting for your story, too! More authors to check out if you are “thumbs up” for spooky books:
 Nancy Tandon is the author of The Way I Say It (Charlesbridge, 2022) a Junior Library Guild Selection and Indies Introduce Kids Pick. Her novel The Ghost of Spruce Point, a companion to The Haunting of Walker Pond, was nominated for the Texas Bluebonnet and Hawaii Nēnē state book awards. A transplant from the Midwest, Nancy now lives in Connecticut with her family and enjoys spooky summers on the coast of Maine. To learn more about Nancy visit her website.
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