Book picks similar to
The Haunted Lake by P.J. Lynch


picture-books
picture-book
fantasy
horror

Out of Nowhere


Chris Naylor-Ballesteros - 2020
    Every day, they sit together on a big rock, sharing a picnic and looking out over the forest. But one day, Caterpillar goes missing and, try as he might, Beetle cannot find her. Just as he is about to give up hope, a very friendly (and rather familiar) butterfly appears out of nowhere. Can it be his friend? She might look different but she is still just the same and they are together again, at last.

Rules of Summer


Shaun Tan - 2013
    Each spread tells of an event and the lesson learned. By turns, these events become darker and more sinister as the boys push their games further and further.

Malamander


Thomas Taylor - 2019
    Especially not when darkness falls and the wind howls around Maw Rocks and the wreck of the battleship Leviathan, where even now some swear they have seen the unctuous malamander creep…Herbert Lemon, Lost-and-Founder at the Grand Nautilus Hotel, knows that returning lost things to their rightful owners is not easy – especially when the lost thing is not a thing at all, but a girl. No one knows what happened to Violet Parma’s parents twelve years ago, and when she engages Herbie to help her find them, the pair discover that their disappearance might have something to do with the legendary sea-monster, the Malamander. Eerie-on-Sea has always been a mysteriously chilling place, where strange stories seem to wash up. And it just got stranger...

Dead Wednesday


Jerry Spinelli - 2021
    He prefers to be out of sight, underground. He walked the world unseen. He's happy to let his best friend, Eddie, lead the way and rule the day.And this day--Dead Wednesday--is going to be awesome. The school thinks assigning each eighth grader the name of a teenager who died in the past year and having them don black shirts and become invisible will make them contemplate their own mortality. Yeah, sure. The kids know that being invisible to teachers really means you can get away with anything. It's a day to go wild!But Worm didn't count on Becca Finch (17, car crash). Letting this girl into his head is about to change everything.

Sisters First


Jenna Bush Hager - 2019
    While the baby can't do much, over time the big and little siblings become inseparable, playing and dancing, imagining and laughing. By each other's sides, they are smarter, kinder, and braver than they ever thought they could be. And they are forever sisters first.This exquisite celebration of the bond between sisters is inspired by the spirited childhood of Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush, authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life.

Ol' Clip-Clop: A Ghost Story


Patricia C. McKissack - 2013
    One October night in 1741, John Leep, a mean and stingy lawyer, sets out to evict a widow from one of his rental houses and is followed by a ghostly rider.

Frost Hollow Hall


Emma Carroll - 2013
    They were great tall things, the ironwork all twisted leaves and queer-looking flowers. And they were very definitely shut.'Tilly's heart sinks. Will's at the door of their cottage, daring her to come ice-skating up at Frost Hollow Hall. No one goes near the place these days. Rumour has it that the house is haunted . . . Ten years ago the young heir, Kit Barrington, drowned there in the lake. But Tilly never turns down a dare.Then it goes horribly wrong. The ice breaks, Tilly falls through and almost drowns. At the point of death, a beautiful angel appears in the water and saves her. Kit Barrington's ghost.Kit needs Tilly to solve the mystery of his death, so that his spirit can rest in peace. In order to discover all she can, Tilly gets work as a maid at Frost Hollow Hall. But the place makes her flesh crawl. It's all about the dead here, she's told, and in the heart of the house she soon discovers all manner of dark secrets . . .'Frost Hollow Hall' is a thrilling historical fiction debut. Told in Tilly's unique voice, it is a tale of love and loss, and how forgiveness is the key to recovery.

The Girl and the Dinosaur


Hollie Hughes - 2019
    . . In a little town by the seaside, Marianne can often be found foraging on the beach. But she isn’t playing with children her own age; instead Marianne is alone, digging for dinosaur bones. When she finds an entire skeleton, she names him Bony and vows to become his best friend.That night, she goes to sleep wishing with all her heart that her dinosaur might come to life . . . and her wish comes true. Together, a girl and her dinosaur’s adventures are only limited by their imagination.

The Folk Keeper


Franny Billingsley - 1999
    Fifteen-year-old Corinna Stonewall — the only Folk Keeper in the city of Rhysbridge — sits hour after hour with the Folk in the dark, chilly cellar, "drawing off their anger as a lightning rod draws off lightning." The Folk are the fierce, wet-mouthed, cave-dwelling gremlins who sour milk, rot cabbage, and make farm animals sick. Still, they are no match for the steely, hard-hearted, vengeful orphan Corinna who prides herself in her job of feeding, distracting, and otherwise pacifying these furious, ravenous creatures. The Folk Keeper has power and independence, and that's the way she likes it.One day, Corinna is summoned by Lord Merton to come to the vast seaside estate Cliffsend as Folk Keeper and family member — for she is the once-abandoned child he has been looking for. It is at Cliffsend that Corinna learns where her unusual powers come from, why she is drawn to the sea, and finally, what it means to be comfortable in her own skin. Written in the form of a journal, The Folk Keeper is a powerful story of a proud, ferociously self-reliant girl who breaks out of her dark, cold, narrow world into one of joy, understanding, and even the magic of romance.

The Frog Prince, Continued


Jon Scieszka - 1991
    or did they? The Princess can't stand the Prince's froggy habits—the way he hops around on the furniture, or sneaks off to the lily pond. The Prince is unhappy, too, and decides that it would be best if he were changed back to a frog. But finding a witch who will do the job is harder than he expects. They all seem to have other spells in mind...

Boo Stew


Donna L. Washington - 2021
    All the townspeople of Toadsuck Swamp know to steer clear of her culinary concoctions―like the batwing brownies and toad eye toffees. So when one of her dishes goes missin’ from her windowsill, word spreads like a kerosene fire about how the Scares have been terrorizin’ the town at mealtime. They shriek “Gitchey Boo, Gitchey Bon! Gitchey Goo, Gitchey Gone!” and send folk runnin’ from their dinner plates.With everyone else tremblin’ and squawkin’ about the Scares, Curly Locks gets an inklin’. Can she use her smarts and unique talents to help corral those Scares for good?

Babushka Baba Yaga


Patricia Polacco - 1993
    Baba Yaga is a witch famous throughout Russia for eating children, but this Babushka Baba Yaga is a lonely old woman who just wants a grandchild?to love."Kids will respond to the joyful story of the outsider who gets to join in, and Polacco's richly patterned paintings of Russian peasant life on the edge of the woods are full of light and color." -- Booklist"A warm, lively tale, neatly mixing new and old and illustrated with Polacco's usual energetic action, bright folk patterns, and affectionate characterizations." --Kirkus Reviews

Pros and Cons of Being a Frog


Sue deGennaro - 2012
    It was Camille who finally gave me the idea of being a frog!Frogboy and Camille are best friends but they are very different. Camille speaks in numbers and Frogboy likes to dress up. With Camille's help he finds that dressing up as a frog is perfect for him, but when he tries to convince his friend to be a frog too, his plan goes terribly wrong.

The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt


Riel Nason - 2020
    But the little ghost who is a quilt can't whirl or twirl at all, and when he flies, he gets very hot.He doesn't know why he's a quilt. His parents are both sheets, and so are all of his friends. (His great-grandmother was a lace curtain, but that doesn't really help cheer him up.) He feels sad and left out when his friends are zooming around and he can't keep up.But one Halloween, everything changes. The little ghost who was a quilt has an experience that no other ghost could have, an experience that only happens because he's a quilt . . . and he realizes that it's OK to be different.

The Jumbies


Tracey Baptiste - 2015
    Not scorpions, not the boys who tease her, and certainly not jumbies. They're just tricksters parents make up to frighten their children. Then one night Corinne chases an agouti all the way into the forbidden forest. Those shining yellow eyes that followed her to the edge of the trees, they couldn't belong to a jumbie. Or could they?When Corinne spots a beautiful stranger speaking to the town witch at the market the next day, she knows something unexpected is about to happen. And when this same beauty, called Severine, turns up at Corinne's house, cooking dinner for Corinne's father, Corinne is sure that danger is in the air. She soon finds out that bewitching her father, Pierre, is only the first step in Severine's plan to claim the entire island for the jumbies. Corinne must call on her courage and her friends and learn to use ancient magic she didn't know she possessed to stop Severine and save her island home.With its able and gutsy heroine, lyrical narration, and inventive twist on the classic Haitian folktale "The Magic Orange Tree," The Jumbies will be a favorite of fans of Breadcrumbs, A Tale Dark and Grimm, and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.