Mary Downing Hahn

Beware of Helen... Heather is such a whiny little brat. Always getting Michael and me into trouble. But since our mother married her father, we're stuck with her...our "poor stepsister" who lost her real mother in a mysterious fire. But now something terrible has happened. Heather has found a new friend, out in the graveyard behind our home -- a girl named Helen who died with her family in a mysterious fire over a hundred years ago. Now her ghost returns to lure children into the pond...to drown! I don't want to believe in ghosts, but I've followed Heather into the graveyard and watch her talk to Helen. And I'm terrified. Not for myself, but for Heather...

A Ghost Story

Wait Till Helen Comes

When thirteen-year-old Ali spends the summer with her aunt and cousin at the family's vacation home, she stumbles upon a secret that her mother and aunt have been hiding for over thirty years.

Deep and dark and dangerous

While spending the summer at their grandmother's Vermont inn, two prankster siblings awaken young ghosts from the inn's distant past who refuse to "rest in peace."

a ghost story

All the lovely bad ones

"A witch called Old Auntie is lurking near Dan's family's new home. He doesn't believe in her at first, but is forced to accept that she is real and take action when his little sister, Erica, is 'took' to become Auntie's slave for the next fifty years"--

Took

Tired of the rules that have bound them ever since "the bad thing happened," twelve-year-old Diana ignores her brother's warnings and befriends the daughter of the new caretaker, setting in motion events that lead to the release of the spirit of an evil, crazy woman who once ruled the old Willis place.

The old Willis place

When thirteen-year-old Logan and his family move into a run-down old house in rural Virginia, he discovers that a woman was murdered there and becomes involved with his neighbor Arthur in a dangerous investigation to try to uncover the killer.

A Mystery Story

Closed for the Season

In the nineteenth century, ten-year-old Florence Crutchfield leaves a London orphanage to live with her great-uncle, great-aunt, and sickly cousin James, but she soon realizes the home has another resident, who means to do her and James harm.

The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall

Against the ominous backdrop of the influenza epidemic of 1918, Annie, a new girl at school, is claimed as best friend by Elsie, a classmate who is a tattletale, a liar, and a thief. Soon Annie makes other friends and finds herself joining them in teasing and tormenting Elsie. Elsie dies from influenza, but then she returns to reclaim Annie's friendship and punish all the girls who bullied her. Young readers who revel in spooky stories will relish this chilling tale of a girl haunted by a vengeful ghost.

One for Sorrow

In this graphic novel adaptation of master horror storyteller Mary Downing Hahn's spookiest and most popular tale, two siblings must save their stepsister from the clutches of a vengeful ghost.

When their mom remarries, Molly and her brother, Michael, try to make friends with their new stepsister, Heather. But Heather only wants to make trouble for them. She lies and tattles and misbehaves, and somehow they always get the blame. They know she’s trying to drive a wedge between her father and their mother so she can have her father all to herself—and it seems to be working.

Then, Heather starts playing in the graveyard behind their new house. She claims she can talk to a ghost named Helen, and her behavior gets even stranger. Michael doesn't believe in ghosts and thinks their new little sister is just looking for more attention. But Molly isn't so certain, especially when Heather threatens that Helen is going to come for them and make them sorry.

It seems as though things can’t get any worse—but they do.

When Helen comes.

Wait till Helen Comes (graphic Novel)

Young Mollie traverses eerie, perilous lands to retrieve her baby brother, Thomas, from the Kinde Folke, malicious sprites who snatched him and left a hideous changeling in his place.

A Changeling Tale

Guest

After Ashley and Kristi find an antique doll buried in old Miss Cooper's garden, they discover that they can enter a ghostly turn-of-the-century world by going through a hole in the hedge

The doll in the garden

Feeling isolated when she travels to forbidding Underhill with her father and stepmother, sixteen-year-old Cynda is mesmerized by the mysterious Vincent and hopes he shares her feelings, until she discovers his terrible power. Reprint.

Look for Me by Moonlight

Aunt Blythe's house gives Andrew the creeps -- full of dark rooms, creaky noises, and the sound of a woman sobbing somewhere in the shadows. Then, in the middle of the night, Andrew awakens to find a boy standing in his room...a boy who is Andrew's double, except he looks as if he's come from the grave. He wants to follow him -- to a place where he will meet the spirits of long-dead ancestors...a place from which Andrew may never return.

Time for Andrew

Ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn unrolls the suspenseful, spine-chilling yarn of a girl imprisoned for more than a century, the terrifying events that put her there, and a friendship that crosses the boundary between past and present. A family moves into an old, abandoned house. Jules's parents love the house, but Jules is frightened and feels a sense of foreboding. When she sees a pale face in an upstairs window, though, she can't stop wondering about the eerie presence on the top floor—in a room with a locked door. Could it be someone who lived in the house a century earlier? Her fear replaced by fascination, Jules is determined to make contact with the mysterious figure and help unlock the door. Past and present intersect as she and her ghostly friend discover—and change—the fate of the family who lived in the house all those many years ago.

The Girl in the Locked Room

Told in two voices, Jules, whose father is restoring an abandoned house, and a girl who lived there a century before begin to communicate and slowly, the girl's tragic story is revealed.--

The girl in the locked room

What We Saw

Narrated from several different perspectives, tells the story of the 1956 murder of two teenaged girls in suburban Baltimore, Maryland.

Mr. Death's blue-eyed girls

Scott Peterson

Jen Vaughn

As author Jessica and artist Daphne collaborate on a picture book for a seventh-grade English class contest, Jessica becomes aware of conditions in Daphne's home life that seem to threaten her health and safety.

Daphne's Book

From ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn, an assortment of eerie short stories to thrill and chill young readers

Mary Downing Hahn

About

Books

Join the club