The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier (Booktalk)

The Night Gardener is a monster you need to be aware of. As far as I know, he lives in only one location: near an old mansion in England that has a huge, dark, mysterious tree. This tree grows dangerously close to the house. A frightened family lives in the house, and they have two young Irish servants, children who left Ireland because of a huge famine.

These Irish children - Molly and Kip - went from one horrifying situation (famine) to another one (the night gardener and the spooky house). In fact, the night gardener WATCHES you when you sleep at night. The night gardener works only at night. He waters his tree with what looks like silvery water. He and the tree have some eerie connection: and the tree has a secret hole in a locked room which can give you what your heart most desires.

But I can't tell you what price you'll pay if you get it.

The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier. 350 p. Amulet Books, 2014. Booktalk to grades 5-9. Great read aloud.

Booktalk: All the Lovely Bad Ones [Virginia Readers' Choice]

If you’re a 13-year-old boy with a love of playing pranks on people, and you are visiting your grandmother’s old house for the summer, it’s fairly normal to think about freaking other people out by imitating ghostly noises in the night. Travis and his sister Corey love pranks: they’re natural pranksters. Their grandmother’s old house is actually an inn which takes guests, including some guests who are ghost-hunters. So obviously, we have a no-brainer here. Travis and Corey strategize: Corey will wear a white nightgown, ghostly makeup and walk around a grove of trees; the ghostly noises they make will spook the inn’s guests. It works beautifully. To keep up the illusion, Corey and Travis need to keep doing their nightly ghost pranks. But when Travis returns to the grove, he sees a dark shape near him, ducking out of sight. It’s not his sister. Turns out it’s a real ghost, and there are more than one. One of them, Miss Ada, is seriously evil and would love to bring Corey and Travis down with her. Sadly, Corey and Travis woke these ghosts from their slumber. Now who's been pranked? All the Lovely Bad Ones: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn.

All the Lovely Bad Ones: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn. 182 p. 2008: Clarion. Virginia Readers’ Choice for 2011-2012. Because this has some frightening/tragic content, I personally would booktalk it starting at 6^th and 7th grade and not younger.