With October around the corner comes the creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky season known as Halloween. There are at least two kinds of scary in youth literature. Some books feature uncanny but cute stories and characters, that make the season less scary, especially for younger readers. The middle-grade novels featured in this week’s Butler Bookshelf lean more toward eerie, unsettling, and downright frightening. This week’s feature pick is a new adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel Little Women: Little Monsters by Máire Roche. Meg March and her younger sisters, Jo, Beth, and Amy, have more to worry about than being children in foster care. The March sisters are monsters. To make matters worse, a mysterious creature has been terrorizing their new town, and Meg can’t always remember where she is when she transforms. Will the March sisters find their way while still keep their real identities a secret, or will it all come crashing down?

Check out this and other monstrous titles:

Little Monsters
Máire Roche
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/ALADDIN
Available now!

Kiki and the New Magic (Kiki’s Delivery Service Book 2)
Eiko Kadono
Random House Children’s Books/Delacorte Press
Available now!

Remember Me, Daphne
Celia Krampien
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Atheneum
Available now!

The Doll House
D.W. Gillespie
Random House Children’s Books/Delacorte Press
Available now!

The Replay Trap
Juliana Brandt
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/ALADDIN
Available now!