Non-Fiction for Halloween

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.

Creepy Nonfiction for Halloween
CC Image via Flickr user Alejandro Tuñón Alonso

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