Tales to Keep You Up at Night

Amelia in the Attic

Amelia discovered the old book lying in a dark corner of her grandmother s otherwise empty attic. Its paper jacket was missing the cloth cover a faded red, almost pink. Embossed in silver on its side was a long title that appeared blurry in the dim light. Amelia was struck, however, by the bright white sticker at the bottom of the spine. Someone had typed numbers on it and adhered clear tape to keep it from falling off. She recognized the numbers. Dewey decimals. When Amelia flipped open the cover, she found a paper pocket glued inside, a blue card sticking crookedly out of it. Each line on the card had been marked with purple stamps days, months, years going back decades.

What was a random old library book doing up here?

Her grandmother had not resided in this house for a long time, and Amelia missed her with all her heart. If the last due date stamped on the card was correct, Grandmother would owe the library a hefty sum, unless library fines disappeared when you disappeared.

Amelia held the book up to the bulb at the top of the steep steps. The title on the spine glinted again in the light clearer now. Amelia looked closer.

Tales to Keep You Up at Night.

The title was familiar somehow.

A shiver passed through her.

Grandmother had been interested in science and history and memoirs of writers and artists. Scary stories? Not so much. Amelia wondered if Grandmother had left this book up here on purpose.

When she turned to the steps, there was a skinny silhouette staring up from below. Amelia flinched, then blushed. It was Winter her little brother. She hadn t recognized him at first because yesterday, Mom had shaved his head after he d wiggled during a haircut and her scissors slipped.

Amelia had come up to the attic in the first place partly because Win had been pestering her. Recently, he had lost both of his front teeth and had somehow taught himself a shrieking type of whistle that he alone thought was

Dan Poblocki; Illustrated by Marie Bergeron

Tales to Keep You Up at Night is a delightfully wicked collection of bite-sized scares, with stories that are magical, strange, and downright unsettling the perfect treat for a young reader looking for a properly spooky read. Kate Alice Marshall, author of Thirteens and I Am Still Alive

This book is magnificently frightening! It is this delicious blend of old timey folktales and creepy weirdness that kept me riveted to every single page and then, as promised, kept me up all night. Absolute horror story perfection!" Ellen Oh, author of Spirit Hunters
 
"Poblocki is the middle-grade Crypt Keeper, spinning yarns that are devilishly inventive and genuinely unsettling. This is the book to reach for during the witching hour." Daniel Kraus, New York Times bestselling author of The Teddies Saga

"Grab a flashlight and a blanket this lives up to its titular claim... Alternating between Amelia s storyline and the contents of the book she s reading, Poblocki s delightfully constructed offering is somewhere between a literary matryoshka and an ouroboros as the vignettes twine perilously around each other, rewarding close readers and demanding rereads. It includes well-established genre tropes like creepy clowns and being buried alive, making it a fun distillation of elements from crowd pleasers by authors like R.L. Stine and Alvin Schwartz." Kirkus Reviews

"The novel s framework, which alternates between Amelia s real life and the scary stories contents, slowly builds tension, intricately weaving classic and supernatural horror elements to deliver an immersive experience drenched in ominous atmosphere." Publishers Weekly


a masterful, hair-raising work, start to finish. Books to Borrow, Books to Buy