Goosebumps 10 – The Ghost Next Door

R. L. Stine's The Ghost Next Door is a spooky Goosebumps mystery for 8 year olds about a girl who becomes convinced the new boy is a ghost.

What happens

Hannah is twelve and having the most boring summer ever. Her friends are all away at camp. Her six-year-old twin brothers, Bill and Herb, are the noisiest pests in town (and they think they're hilarious).

Then a red-haired boy on a bike knocks her flat in her own back garden. He's Danny, and he says he lives next door. But Hannah was sure that house was empty.

Danny says he's going into the same year as her at school. So how come they don't know a single person in common? He falls headfirst off his roof and lands on his feet without a sound. And he has a habit of disappearing the second she looks away.

So Hannah decides to be scientific about it. She'll spy on him! It goes about as well as you'd expect. She ends up bright red on his back step with nothing to say.

There's lots to like here. Hannah writes to her best friend Janey in BIG capital letters, with dramatic threats about poison ivy for not writing back. And you're right inside her head as she argues with herself about whether she's making the whole thing up.

Is she just bored and imagining things? Or is something really going on next door? Your reader will have a theory of their own within a few chapters.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The book opens with Hannah dreaming that her bedroom is on fire, and it's vivid. A tall shadowy figure in black, with glowing red eyes, follows her down the street whispering her name. A child who's easily frightened by things lurking in the dark might want this one in daylight.

If your reader likes a mystery they can try to solve as they go, this is a great pick. There's no gore at all, just that creeping feeling that something isn't right.

What to read next

If they want another girl who's had enough of being frightened, try The Haunted Mask. Carly Beth is fed up with her friends' nasty tricks and goes looking for the scariest Halloween mask she can find.