The Ballad Tour: History and Horror

Join Ron Nicholson, head of our Between the Lines Book Clubs, as he recounts some of Scotland’s scariest scenes! Ron is fascinated with the Scots and their horrifying legends and wants to share them with you this Halloween season. Come to his discussion about terrifying Scottish folklore and enjoy snacks from the North Country. If you attend our event, you’ll also be entered for a chance to win the perfect cozy Scottish gift for the colder days ahead.

If you are interested in attending, please inform a librarian to be registered. Registration is recommended, but not required. We’ll see you there!

Spook-tacular Titles for Halloween

It’s getting spookier and spookier as Halloween draws closer, from classic scary movies and ghost hunting shows clogging up the TV, to orange-and-black-packaged candy going on sale, to the decorations and costume ideas beginning to crowd your social media feeds. What better way is there to get you in the mood for Halloween than to check out some books about real-life haunted houses and ghost stories?

Check out these spook-tacular titles:

Haunted Indiana by Mark Marimen

Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Haunted Ohio by Chris Woodyard

Eerie Haunted Places by Molly Kolpin

Haunted Hotels Around the World by Megan Cooley Peterson

Grave’s End: A True Ghost Story by Elaine Mercado

Timeless Towns and Haunted Places by J.R. Humphreys

Hoosier Folk Legends by Ronald L. Baker

Haunts: Five Hair-Raising Tales by Angela Shelf Medearis

Haunting Urban Legends by Megan Cooley Peterson

Seeking Spirits by Jason Hawes

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ghosts and Hauntings by Tom Ogden 

Monster Hunters: On the Trail with Ghost Hunters, Bigfooters, Ufologists, and Other Paranormal Investigators by Tea Krulos

When Ghosts Speak: Understanding the World of Earthbound Spirits by Mary Ann Winkowski

Don’t forget to check out OverDrive for even more creepy titles. And if you’d rather watch a scary movie, the Aurora Public Library District has got you covered there, too! Still can’t get enough? Ask for recommendations for horror fiction. There are several staff members on hand who would love to point you in the right direction!

Happy Reading!

Scary Stories for Halloween

It’s the spookiest time of year again! What better way to spend these long fall nights than to be scared senseless (or just a little spooked) than by reading creepy stories to get you in the mood for Halloween?

The Aurora Public Library District has lots of Halloween picture, ABC, and Easy chapter books for your little ones. These books are easy to locate because they are shelved according to their titles rather than by the author’s last name, which is how the rest of fiction is shelved throughout the District. So if you’re looking for books about Halloween, pumpkins, ghosts, bats, witches, etc., start by looking for these books on the shelves by subject. If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, we can search our catalog by subject and pull up more titles for you. Let us help you find that perfect title with just the right amount of scary for your little ones!

For our older elementary age readers, we have plenty of eerie books to get you in the mood for Halloween, like the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series, the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine, or Darren Shan’s various series. You can check out The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare, Tales for the Midnight Hour: Stories of Horror by J.B. Stamper, The Scary Story Reader, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, The Doll Bones by Holly Black, Thornhill by Pam Smy, and more! We’ll find a story with just the right amount of creepy just for you!

For our teen and young adult readers, there are many chilling series, like the Thirst series by Christopher Pike, The Mediator series by Meg Cabot, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series by Ransom Riggs and more. There are standalone titles like Wickedpedia by Chris Van Etten, The Omen by David Seltzer,  Teeth: Vampire Tales by Cassandra Clare, or anything by Joe Hill or Jonathan Maberry. You can check out The Walking Dead series in our graphic novels section, too, if you want a visual of the gory details on the page.

There are plenty of horror stories for adults, too, whether you’re looking for classic or contemporary reads. You can check out Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice, or The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. You can also read pretty much anything by Stephen King, John Saul, Heather GrahamPeter Straub, Laurell K. Hamilton, Dean Koontz, or Richard Bachman. Other standalone titles are Obedience by Will Lavender, Where Are The Children by Mary Higgins Clark, and The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker.

As always, feel free to peruse the Indiana Digital Download Center for more spooky titles or ask one of us for help.

Happy Reading!