I don’t know about you, but Halloween has always been one of my favorite times of year. This was especially true when I was a teen and not just because I got to put on a crazy costume and run wild, although that was a big part of it, but also because of the spooky atmosphere and the chance to indulge in scary stories and movies.
Thinking back on teen me’s favorite Halloween stories, though, I realized that it never occurred to me to look for something scary in the non-fiction section of the library.To help save the teens in my library from such a mistake I started wandering around the non-fiction shelves in our library and came up with a lot of fun non-fiction materials that show that truth can be even creepier than fiction. Here are just a few examples.
Are You Afraid Yet? The Science Behind Scary Stuff
By Stephen James O’Meara
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
By Mary Roach
Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses
By Bess Lovejoy
The Other Side: A Teen’s Guide to Ghost Hunting and the Paranormal
By Marley Gibson, Patrick Burns, And Dave Schrader
Ghosts Caught on Film: Photographs of the Paranormal?
By Dr. Melvyn Willin
Extreme Costume Makeup: 25 Creepy & Cool Step-By-Step Demos
By Brian and Nick Wolfe
Do you have any favorite Halloween non-fiction books to recommend?
— Miriam Wallen, currently reading A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston