When October rolls around, I see a steep sales spike for History Smashers: Salem Witch Trials, the ninth book in our popular myth-busting series. The cover gives off some serious Halloween energy, which probably has a lot to do with that, and this book definitely offers some delightfully gross and creepy stories to go along with it.
Think your neighbor might be a witch? Have you tried feeding your dog a cake baked with the suspected sorceress’s urine? Believe it or not, that was one of the strategies of early witch hunters! Along with the wild stories, this installment of the History Smashers series offers up a healthy dose of more serious history, touching on colonization, Puritanism, America’s judicial system, separation of church and state, and more. And bonus: If you’re reading this one with kids this fall, don’t miss the History Smashers virtual author visit scheduled for October 7th!
Here are seven more great-for-Halloween-season books that offer great STEM and History content along with the scares!
History Smashers: Ancient Egypt – With a screaming mummy on the cover, this latest installment in the series comes out October 7th and is another easy sell for the Halloween season. Inside, readers will learn the history of Egypt’s kings, pyramids, and gods (including one that threatens to eat your heart if you’re not a good enough person!) and decide for themselves if the curse of King Tut’s mummy is real.
Spooky Lakes: 25 Strange and Mysterious Lakes that Dot Our Planet by Geo Rutherford – This book’s terrifically creepy cover features jellyfish, skulls, and…is that a disembodied hand sticking up from the seaweed? Spooky Lakes introduces readers to 25 lakes around the world whose scary claims to fame include creating lightning storms and mummifying any creature that touches the water.
When Plants Attack by Rebecca E. Hirsch – Venus flytraps might not be the usual stuff of nightmares, but the one on the cover of this book about strange and terrifying plants looks ominous enough to inspire a bad dream or two. (The insect legs sticking out of it do a lot to help with that bad-plant image!) Inside, readers will learn about everything from ravaging invasives to “vampire vines.”
Poison: Deadly Deeds, Perilous Professions, and Murderous Medicine by Sarah Albee – Hello, creepy skeleton on the cover! Don’t let the comic font fool you; this book is packed with history and science, along with the poisonous thrills. It chronicles the role that poison has played in the past, from the days of Socrates and Alexander the Great to more modern toxins.
The Haunted States of America – This anthology created by SCBWI features fifty two creepy legends, monsters, and ghosts from all fifty states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. The Crafted by fifty-two different authors, including Padma Venkatraman, Ellen Hopkins, Freeman Ng, and K.E. Lewis, these scary stories star everything from the Jersey Devil to La Llorona and will have readers up reading under the covers long after dark.
Death Eaters: Meet Nature’s Scavengers by Kelly Milner Halls has a great title and a genuinely creepy vulture on the cover to draw kids in. Once they start reading, they’ll discover how essential scavengers are to our planet’s ecosystem. Gross and fascinating!
Happy October reading, friends!