Eighth Grade Bites: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod

The One and Only Bob

Malcolm at Midnight

The Barking Ghost

Texting the Underworld

Ruby on the Outside

The Apprentices

The War of the Ember

When Stephen is forced to move back to the nowhere town where his father grew up, he’s already sure he’s not going to like it. Spencer, Michigan, is like a town straight out of a Hitchcock movie, with old-fashioned people who see things only in black-and-white. But things start looking up when Stephen meets the mysterious twins Cara and Devon. They’re total punks–hardly the kind of people Stephen’s dad wants him hanging out with–but they’re a breath of fresh air in this backward town. The only problem is, Cara and Devon don’t always get along, and as Stephen forms a friendship with the charismatic Devon and something more with the troubled Cara, he starts to feel like he’s getting caught in the middle of a conflict he doesn’t fully understand. And as Devon’s group of friends, who hang out in a cemetery they call The Playground, get up to increasingly reckless activities to pass the summer days, Stephen worries he may be in over his head.

Stephen’s fears prove well-founded when he learns of Spencer’s dark past. It seems the poor factory town has a history of “bad times,” and many of the town’s oldest residents attribute the bad times to creatures right out of an urban legend. The legend goes that the only way the town will prosper again is if someone makes a sacrifice to these nightmarish creatures. And while Stephen isn’t one to believe in old stories, it seems Devon and his gang might put a lot of faith in them. Maybe even enough to kill for them.

Now, Stephen has to decide what he believes, where his allegiances lie, and who will really be his friend in the end.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

Eighth Grade Bites: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod

Heather Brewer, Z Brewer, 2007

The One and Only Bob

Patricia Castelao, Applegate Katherine, 2020

Malcolm at Midnight

Brian Lies, W.H. Beck, Rebecca Hogue Wojahn, 2012

The Barking Ghost

R.L. Stine, 1995

Texting the Underworld

Ellen Booraem, 2013

Ruby on the Outside

Nora Raleigh Baskin, 2015

The Apprentices

Ian Schoenherr, Maile Meloy, 2013

The War of the Ember

Kathryn Lasky, 2008