Secondhand Chapter Book (Age 8-12) Bargain Book Box SP4185

Secondhand Chapter Book (Age 8-12) Bargain Book Box SP4185

Seven Goosebumps for readers who want a scare, Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse for the ones who want to cry, and two Choose Your Own Adventures for the ones who want to die repeatedly. Horrible Science, Kipling, Blyton and the Wombles round out twenty-one books. Some covers may carry price stickers or sticker residue.

1. Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls — R.L. Stine — Spencer’s spirit is pushed out of his body by a ghoul who then goes home and lives his life. He has to get back in before anyone notices the difference. One of the creepier premises in the series.
2. A Shocker on Shock Street — R.L. Stine — Erin and Marty are picked to test a horror theme-park ride. The monsters aren’t animatronic, the exits aren’t exits, and the ending is one of Stine’s best twists.
3. Max Einstein: The Genius Experiment — James Patterson & Chris Grabenstein — A twelve-year-old orphan genius is pulled off the streets of New York by a secret group that wants kids to fix the world’s problems, starting with clean energy for a village. Science puzzles built into the plot.
4. Return of the Mummy — R.L. Stine — Gabe is back in Egypt for the opening of a sealed tomb. The mummy is Prince Khor-Ru, the chant that wakes him is five words, and a cousin reads them aloud. Sequel to The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, and better.
5. The Parent Agency — David Baddiel — Barry wishes for better parents and wakes in a world where children choose them from a catalogue. He trials five sets, and the rich, famous and “cool” ones all fail in ways he didn’t expect.
6. The Jungle Book — Rudyard Kipling — Mowgli raised by wolves, Shere Khan who wants him dead, and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi fighting cobras in a bathroom. The original stories are darker and stranger than the film, and better for it. Vintage Classics edition.
7. The Wombles — Elisabeth Beresford — Great Uncle Bulgaria, Tobermory and Orinoco, picking up what humans leave on Wimbledon Common and making it useful. The first book, and the source of a lot of parents’ childhoods.
8. Little Foxes — Michael Morpurgo — Billy is an orphan in a tower block who finds a fox family in a ruined churchyard. When the foxes are threatened, he goes on the run with the cub and ends up on a canal boat with a swan. Morpurgo at his gentlest.
9. Say Cheese and Die! — R.L. Stine — Greg finds a camera in an abandoned house. Every photo shows something terrible about to happen to the person in it, and then it happens. The book that got a million kids into Goosebumps.
10. Evil Inventions — Nick Arnold — The guillotine, the rack, the electric chair, poison gas: Horrible Science on the ideas that went badly and the people who thought of them. Gory, funny, and sneakily full of physics.
11. The Secret Seven — Enid Blyton — The one that started it: a shed, a password, and a sleigh track in the snow leading to a house with a prisoner in it. The series’ appeal in one book.
12. Race Forever — R.A. Montgomery — You’re driving a rally across Africa, and your choices decide whether you win, break down in the desert or wake in a Nairobi hospital. Thirty-three endings, most of them bad.
13. House of Danger — R.A. Montgomery — A phone call from a stranger sends you into a house where every room is a decision. Twenty endings; the one with the gorilla is famous.
14. Wild Islands — Anita Ganeri — Islands that explode, islands that vanish, and what happens to people marooned on them. Horrible Geography’s gruesome-facts formula on a subject that suits it.
15. A Cat Called Alfie — Rachel Wells — Alfie is a cat with four homes on one street, and he uses them to nudge four lonely households into talking to each other. Gentle, not twee; for cat lovers of any age.
16. Night of the Living Dummy 2 — R.L. Stine — Amy’s dad brings home a ventriloquist dummy called Slappy. Slappy talks, Slappy is cruel, and everyone blames Amy. The book that made Slappy the series villain.
17. War Horse — Michael Morpurgo — Joey the farm horse is sold to the cavalry in 1914 and sees the Western Front from the British side, the German side and no-man’s-land in between. The scene where two soldiers toss a coin for him in the wire is as good as children’s writing gets.
18. Please Don’t Feed the Vampire! — R.L. Stine — A Give Yourself Goosebumps choose-your-path book: you’ve bought a packet of vampire fangs, and they work. Dozens of endings, and the reader does the dying.
19. One Day at Horrorland — R.L. Stine — A lost family pulls into a theme park where the Horrors who run it are not wearing costumes and the rides are meant to kill. The Doom Slide and the coffin cruise are legendary among fans.
20. The Naughtiest Girl Again — Enid Blyton — Elizabeth comes back to Whyteleafe determined to be good, and someone starts framing her for every bit of mischief in the school. A proper whodunit for nine-year-olds.
21. Well Done, the Naughtiest Girl — Anne Digby — The series continuation: Elizabeth takes in a new girl called Kathleen whose spite nearly gets her expelled. Digby keeps Blyton’s voice; readers who love the originals won’t notice the join.