Halloween is nearly here, and that means it’s time to break out the scary stuff. But matching a reader with the right horror novel is tough. Recommend the wrong book, and you risk dooming a kid to weeks of nightmares. Luckily, we’re now experiencing a middle-grade horror renaissance; there’s something to entice both certified scaredy-cats and those eager to swap out R.L. Stine for Stephen King. Below are some appropriately eerie recommendations for spooky season, from slightly frightening to utterly disturbing.

MILDLY CHILLING (💀): It’s never too early to introduce kids to body horror. In Aaron Reynolds’ spectacularly silly chapter book Troubling Tonsils! (Simon & Schuster, September 2), a young marmot arrives at the hospital for a tonsillectomy, only to learn that his wayward organs have gone AWOL. Though the premise is creepy, the vibes are gleefully goofy as Reynolds’ narration cleverly riffs on The Twilight Zone. Illustrator Peter Brown’s images convey both the “aww” and “eww” factors: The cast of anthropomorphic animals is downright adorable, while the tonsils are rather menacing.

SUSPENSEFUL BUT SWEET (💀💀): Rory, the Japanese American protagonist of Ellen Oh’s The House Next Door (Harper/HarperCollins, September 30), is conflicted at the prospect of having new neighbors; he quickly befriends Korean American Jack and his little sister, Mira, but he knows that their home is haunted. The children must work together when malevolent creatures—perhaps yokai, monsters from Japanese folklore—begin stalking Mira. Though Oh establishes a suitably ominous tone, she metes out the chills judiciously, folding in plenty of humor; the result is a tale ideal for newcomers to the genre.

EERIE AND UNCANNY (💀💀💀): A dollhouse inhabited by spiders, a “drawer full of teeth”: Shannon Bramer’s Nightmare Jones: Poems (Groundwood, October 7) is rife with such haunting imagery, matched by Cindy Derby’s beautifully strange artwork. More surreal than truly terrifying, these poems invite contemplation. Intriguingly, Bramer writes about monsters—from a scorpion’s child to a mermaidlike creature with a hole in her head—with a rare tenderness and affection.

HIGH CHANCE OF NIGHTMARES (💀💀💀💀): Paul Tremblay’s Another (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, July 22), illustrated by Sam Wolfe Connelly, follows Casey as he befriends a most unusual boy: Morel arrives in a burlap sack, has claylike skin, and doesn’t eat or sleep. But Casey’s parents seem unbothered—and even happy—as Morel swiftly grows more like Casey. Drawing inspiration from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, adult horror writer Tremblay clearly knows how to terrify tweens; Casey’s fear that his family might prefer a new and improved version of him is far more unnerving than the admittedly unsettling Morel.

FOR THE BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE (💀💀💀💀💀): In Tehlor Kay Mejia’s The Better To Eat You With (Delacorte, September 23), Evan again spends the summer by the lake, but this year, her appearance-obsessed mother’s attitude toward food has left Evan too anxious to eat. Drawing parallels between an actual monster lurking around town and Evan’s burgeoning eating disorder, Mejia offers visceral descriptions of her protagonist’s turbulent psyche, marked by self-loathing and insecurity. Sensitive readers should heed the Kirkus review, which calls the book “not for the faint of heart,” but those willing to tread a dark path will be immensely satisfied.

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.