My 8yr old requests your suggestion for 'haunted' books/films

[AttunedMama]

Kid is really into conventional 'haunted' things....vampires, werewolves, etc. She brought home a stack of library books, including Scream Street, which she loves and I find....tedious and mostly vapid.

The closest we've come on films is 'The Little Vampire', which was also...meh. I want to show her "Let the Right One In", but am going to wait a year or two b/c the bullying (from the humans, ha!) is just more than I can handle exposing her to on purpose.

She's called me out on my recent MDC habit, and wants to also benefit. Help her out?

[zinemama]

Blackbeard's Ghost is a old movie (we mostly watch old movies) about the ghost of a pirate who can only rest in peace when he performs a good dead. Lots of slapstick and funny stuff. etc. There's also The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (film, not the tv show), which is pretty good.

[TEAK's Mom]

The Bunnicula books by James Howe were really popular around here for a while as was Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and Coraline. My just turned 9 year old (as in today) also liked Barbara Hambly's Those Who Hunt the Night, but I would preview that one since it is written for adults and contains some real violence.

[Daffodil]

My 8 year old and her 5 year old brother liked Monster House.  The 8 year old found it almost too scary (parts of it were too scary for her to watch the first time through), but fascinating.

The Bunnicula books (which aren't actually scary) were big hits here, too.  Coraline is definitely a must-read.  My kids also liked The Graveyard Book, but didn't seem to find it as interesting as Coraline.

[~Boudicca~]

When I was 8 or 9 my all-time favorite book was Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn. I just read it to my dd this winter and she loved it.

[ollyoxenfree]

I was going to suggest Bunnicula too. I'll also agree with the Gaiman books. 

Not much about vampires, sorry, but there are some good "haunted" stories for that age: 

Pure Dead Wicked by Deb Gliori is kind of fun and might fit her tastes, although I don't recall vampires. It's the first in a series. 

The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy Boston is a classic tale about children and ghosts, and there's about a half-dozen books in the series. 

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce is lovely and I still recall certain scenes vividly (eg. skating along the frozen river for miles). 

Skelig by David Almond is haunting and beautiful, but also a little sad. 

I know absolutely nothing about the Emily the Strange books, but perhaps you could preview them from the library to see if they are suitable? I suspect they are meant for older tweens and teens. 

[Daffodil]

Oh, and there's Cornelia Funke's Ghosthunters series (not very scary.)

[Sharlla]

LOVE this book.  its the book that got me hooked on reading http://www.amazon.com/Wait-Till-Helen-Comes-Camelot/dp/0380704420

[ollyoxenfree]

Thought of a couple more: 

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde (also frequently adapted as a play and in films) is very amusing. 

Lucy Maud Montgomery (of Anne of Green Gables fame) often sprinkled her novels with stories about ghosts and supernatural phenomenon (Emily of the New Moon trilogy had extra-sensory abilities). There is a short story collection, Among the Shadows, that focuses on her ghost stories, but some of her other short story collections also include a similar story or 2. 

I still can't think of vampire stories for that young age though. 

[philomom]

The Ghost and Mrs Muir. old black and white film

[AttunedMama]

Thank you, everybody! She and I are getting major mileage out of these responses. We found The Canterville Ghost on librivox, and she listened for an hour while I brained out on mama net surfing. Delightful.

[yummus]

I loved Wait TIll Helen Comes when I was a kid.

http://www.amazon.com/Wait-Till-Helen-Comes-Camelot/dp/0380704420

[~Boudicca~]

Originally Posted by yummus 

I loved Wait TIll Helen Comes when I was a kid.

http://www.amazon.com/Wait-Till-Helen-Comes-Camelot/dp/0380704420

Wasn't that the best book EVER when you were that age?  Gosh how I loved it.

[yummus]

Originally Posted by ~Boudicca~ 

Wasn't that the best book EVER when you were that age?  Gosh how I loved it.

Hahahaha! Yes! Awesome that so many of us loved it 
 

[Thalia the Muse]

This is an old thread, but I have some suggestions! I loved that stuff myself, so I read a LOT of scary books.

Books:

Jane-Emily, Patricia Clapp

Down a Dark Hallway, Lois Duncan (this is not one of her teen slasher books, which I don't recomend for an 8-year-old)

The House with a Clock in Its Walls, John Bellairs

The Headless Cupid, Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The Halloween Tree, Ray Bradbury

The Witch Family, Eleanor Estes

Ruth Chew wrote lots of books about kids encountering witches that are great for kids your daughter's age

Robert San Souci's various collections of scary stories -- the Dare to Be Scared Series, and the Short and Shivery series. Very well-done stories from world folklore and urban legends. These REALLY scared my daughter, though! Although they seem quite mild to me.

Witch's Sister, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

The My Sister the Vampire series is pretty dumb, but if she likes vampires enough she might enjoy it and it's age-appropriate.

The Wicked Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House, Mary Chase

The House on Hackman's Hill, Joan Lowery Nixon

For everyone who remembers Wait Till Helen comes fondly, Mary Downing Hahn wrote a ton of other ghost stories!

Movies:

Depending how susceptible she is to getting freaked out, the Universal horror movies are great fun! Especially Frankenstein (but a little girl is accidentally killed by the monster, although she doesn't die onscreen) and Bride of Frankenstein. The Lugosi Dracula hasn't aged well, but it's fun to watch and there is no onscreening biting or vampire-staking at all.

The Hammer horror films (Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing star in most) are also tremendous fun, but more violent and also contain heaving (but covered) bosoms.

One of my favorite movies as a kid was the horror-comedy The Raven, with Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre -- and a teenage Jack Nicholson! Not scary at all, but full of fun gothic trappings and corny humor.

And of cousre there's Ghost Busters, although it has only a few moments that are actually spooky.

[lplusnguyen]

The creator of Monsters for Kids had the same request.  Check out www.monstersforkids.com

Its an Ipad book app of kid friendly monsters with awesome sounds.  Currently they are offering a free Halloween edition!

[Viola]

Mary Downing Hahn and Peg Kehret are both big at the elementary school where I volunteer.  Also the Goosebump books--my kids never got into them, but my nephew loved them.  My daughter liked There's a Dead Person Following My Sister Around by Vivian Vande Velde.  That author has other ghost stories as well, and a collection of Halloween stories for older children.

I've never seen Let the Right One In, but I did see Let Me In which wasn't scary, but was disturbing/depressing, so I'm trying to imagine what the original would be like.

A movie both my kids liked, for some reason, was Watcher in the Woods.  I thought Lady in White was good, but it does involve the ghost of a girl who was murdered years before.  I guess a lot of ghost stories involve that.  I liked The Old Willis Place by Mary Downing Hahn, but it was another one that was really kind of sad.