• Age: 8 to 12
• Grade: 3 to 7
• Reading age: 8 to 12

Perfect for fans of Doll Bones and Hocus Pocus, this “beautifully creepy” (Kirkus Reviews), highly illustrated middle grade novel follows a girl who hopes to fix her outcast status through a game in the haunted woods, only to discover that some legends shouldn’t be played with.

Everyone knows Fall Hollow is haunted. It has been ever since Abigail Snook went into the woods many years ago, never to be seen again. Since then, it’s tradition for the sixth graders at Beckett Elementary to play the Bellwoods Game on Halloween night. Three kids are chosen to go into the woods. Whoever rings the bell there wins the game and saves the town for another year, but if Abigail’s ghost captures the players first, the spirit is let loose to wreak havoc on Fall Hollow—or so the story goes.

Now that it’s Bailee’s year to play, she can finally find out what really happens. And legend has it the game’s winner gets a wish. Maybe, just maybe, if Bailee wins, she can go back to the way things used to be before her grandma got sick and everyone at school started hating her. But when the night begins, everything the kids thought they knew about the game—and each other—is challenged. One thing’s for sure: something sinister is at play…waiting for them all in the woods.

Celia Krampien has created illustrations for newspapers and magazines including The Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, Variety, and The Globe and Mail, where she is a regular contributing artist. She also illustrated several children’s books, including The Wild World of Buck Bray and Here to There and Me to You. Celia lives in Oakville, Ontario.

Celia Krampien's profile page

*A July/August 2023 Indie Next Pick*

"Krampien’s eerie story cleverly focuses on themes such as bullying . . . This supernatural tale will chill readers while reminding them that real friendship can brave any situation."

<I>Booklist</I>

"Krampien intersperses atmospherically eerie b&w art throughout a tense friendship novel steeped in local lore."

<I>Publishers Weekly</I>

*A Junior Library Guild Selection*

"This gorgeously illustrated, atmospheric, and evocative debut captures the fun of being scared and the hard truths of middle school. . . Beautifully creepy."

<I>Kirkus Reviews</I>

*An Indigo Kids September Staff Pick*