1. Bone Dog

Written and illustrated by Eric Rohmann

Roaring Brook Press, 2011

$16.99, ages 4-8, 32 pages

As a dog comes to the end of her life, she promises her boy she'll always watch over him, then stays true to her word, pattering down from the sky on Halloween to scare away graveyard goons.

In this uplifting, sweet picture book, Caldecott Medalist Rohmann shows a boy confronting the pain of losing a pet, but finding comfort in the thought of his dog's spirit following along above him.

Gus has loved Ella for as long as he can remember; he's loved riding on her back as she charged across the field with a pack of dog friends at her side. But now, Ella's coming to the end of her life and it's time for her to say goodbye.

As a harvest moon slides up over the hill, Gus sits in the grass with his arm around Ella as she tells him she'll soon go away, but that she'll always look over him. "A promise made under a full moon cannot be broken," she says.

2. Hampire

By Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen

Illustrated by Howard Fine

Harper-Collins, 2011

$16.99, ages 4-8, 32 pages

A hungry duck makes a late-night dash for a snack, as a fanged beast prowls the farm yard for his next delicious victim, in this hilarious story of misunderstandings. 

Until now, no farm animal dared to step a talon or hoof out of its pen when the moon was bright for fear of becoming prey for a great cloaked hog known as Hampire.

They'd seen enough grisly remains from Hampire's feedings, the sticky red fluid dripping off the grass and the red stains on his canines as he returned to his pen.

But on this night Duck is too hungry to be sensible. The rumbling in his tummy is keeping him awake and all he can think about is snacking on the jelly rolls and ice-cream bowls in Farmer's kitchen.

3. Zombie in Love

Written by Kelly DiPucchio

Illustrated by Scott Campbell

Atheneum Books, 2011

$12.99, ages 4-8, 32 pages

A zombie goes online to find the girl of his dreams, an undead gal with chipped up teeth, in this hilarious love story that's as cute for Halloween as it is for Valentine's Day.

Mortimer, a bulgy-eyed fellow with sallow skin and shredded clothes, longs for love but as Valentine's day approaches, he seems to be looking for love in all the wrong places. 

At the bus stop, he offers a box of chocolate-covered worms to a girl on a bench but she scooches away. And when the mail carrier rings his door bell, he thrusts a beating heart in her face, but she cringes.

Even the waitress at the dinner gives him the cold shoulder. "But why?" he wonders to himself. After all he did offer her a diamond ring -- all nicely presented in a hinged box, on a severed ring finger.

Poor Mortimer, he just doesn't have the touch. Perhaps what he needs are a few primers on dating. So, he buries himself in a pile of books about dead dates and graveyard love, then takes their advice and tries to look available.

4. Little Goblins Ten

Written by Pamela Jane

Illustrated by Jane Manning

Harper-Collins, 2011
$16.99, ages 3-7, 32 pages

Playful monsters lurch and moan with all their might in this adorable twist on the nursery rhyme "Over in the Meadow."

Counting up from one to ten are a delightful assortment of little ghouls, each anxiously awaiting their parent's cue for them to haunt about.

Instead of "over in the meadow in the sand and the sun" where animals live, the picture book takes place in a forest "where the trees hide the sun" and dark beasts play.

5. Gibbus Moony Wants to Bite You

Written by Leslie Muir

Illustrated by Jen Corace

Atheneum, 2011

$15.99, ages 4-8, 40 pages

When a little vampire wiggles out his baby fangs and sees the tips of big ones coming in, he flaps his wings in glee. Now, at last, he can bite something.

And not just anything. Gibbus Moony wants to sink his teeth into a nice juicy neck. The problem is, necks aren't what Moonys bite -- unless they're those of pears.

"We're fruit suckers, my boy," corrects Grandpa Waxing Mooney, a Wilfred Brimley-like fellow in an argyle-print sweater. "and proud of it."

That means, according to his prim-dressed Dad, Moonys are nectarians. "Not to be confused with those other vampire relatives," he adds, referring to portraits of caped bloodletters on the wall.

But as Gibbus flaps around in his cape, he hears only what he wants to hear, and adds a "k" to "nec" in nectarian. "I'm a necktarian!" he cries, dashing off to find his first victim.

6. The Monstrous Book of Monsters

Written by Libby Hamilton

Illustrated by Jonny Duddle
and Aleksei Bitskoff

Templar, 2011

$17.99, ages 5-8, 20 pages

As the scariest night of all nights approaches, here's a book to confirm your children's worst fears: the existence of monsters all around them.

Dr. Thomas Jelly, the book's fictional narrator, warns readers, "Don't be fooled," things do go bump in the night and all those sensible people who claim they don't, had better wise up fast…or else.

Just look at the bite taken out of the cover of Jelly's book -- and what about that big jiggling eye at the top? If that's not enough, Jelly offers plenty of flaps and fold-outs to get skin tingling (or should we say, get readers giggling?).

7. The Undrowned Child

Written by Michelle Lovric

Delacorte Books, 2011

$17.99, ages 9-12, 464 pages

When a magical book falls onto Teo's head, the 11-year-old orphan is thrust on a quest to save Venice from a vengeful ghost and his band of mutilated spirits, in this imaginative, brilliant debut.

Teo, who has lived in Naples as long as she can remember, has always yearned to go to Venice and now her adoptive parents have finally invited her to go as they research a troubling presence in the city of canals.

One day, while exploring the city, Teo wanders into an old bookstore and is knocked to the floor when a tome called, "The Key to the Secret City," tumbles off a shelf.

Just before Teo is taken to the hospital, the bookseller slips her the book. When she awakens in her hospital room, she discovers the book is still with her, and there's a menacing wooden statue near her bed.

The statue, put there by some mysterious force haunting the city, is bleeding from its mouth and seems to be coming to life. Suddenly, Teo loses consciousness and disappears.

10. The Inquisitor's Apprentice

Written by Chris Moriarty

Illustrated by Mark Edward Geyer

Harcourt, 2011

$16.99, ages 9-12, 356 pages

A Jewish boy is plucked from the tenements of New York's Lower East Side to help catch magical criminals, only to find that he has to investigate the very people he loves, in this imaginative story set in the 1880s.

When 13-year-old Sacha blurts out that he sees his neighbor doing magic, the New York Police Department handpicks him to be an apprentice to their top detective, Inquisitor Maximillian Wolf, charged with preventing the misuse of magic.

This New York City is a magical melting pot, where every ethnic group has its own witchcraft and magic gangs. Although it is not illegal to be a wizard or Kabbalist, it is against the law to use magic for ill and the powers-that-be try to curb magic when they see fit, sometimes to their advantage.

J.P. Morgaunt, a manufacturing tycoon, wants to make magic obsolete for the working class so he can sell more machines. Without magic to do get things done, workers would have to rely on mechanical means. But he also thinks wizards like himself are above the law and should be allowed to use magic whenever they see fit.

Right from the start, Sacha finds himself in the thick of a criminal investigation. He and fellow apprentice, Lily Astral, are assisting Wolf in a high-profile case involving the attempted assassination of Thomas Edison, the Wizard of Luna Park. And the alleged culprit? A dybbuk. The demon from Jewish folklore who takes over a human body.

11. This Dark Endeavor

Written by Kenneth Oppel

Simon & Schuster, 2011

$17.99, ages 12 and up, 304 pages

When twin brother Konrad falls ill, 15-year-old Victor scrambles to find an elixir of life to save him and awakens his obsession for alchemy, in this grim and marvelous take on Frankenstein's youth.

Victor, born just minutes after Konrad, has always felt inferior to him, in schoolwork even sword play, but now Konrad is sick and doctors are bleeding him pale with leeches. As Konrad sees it, it's up to him to save Konrad, and to do that he must turn to darker means. 

Against his father's wishes, Victor, his cousin Elizabeth and their friend Henry sneak into a forbidden lab deep beneath the Frankenstein castle for answers, and discover a book of ancient spells with a cryptic recipe for eternal life.

12. The Isle of Blood

The Monstrumologist, Book 3

Written by Rick Yancey

Simon & Schuster, 2011

$18.99, ages 14 and up, 560 pages

Torn between the dark world of monster biology and his loathing of it, Will Henry must decide how far he's willing to go to save his mentor, in this third and final book in the riveting series Monstrumologist.

Over the last three years Will has transformed from a naive orphan to the world-weary apprentice to a monstrumologist, and felt his conscience waver and even go numb in the presence of all manner of dissections on the necropsy table.

Now, with the arrival of gruesome package at Dr. Warthrop's house, 13-year-old Will begins to confront his morality once and for all. Inside the package is a nest fashioned from human remains that, if touched, turns man into a monster.

13. Eddie

The Lost Youth of Edgar Allan Poe

By Scott Gustafson
Simon & Schuster, 2011

$15.99, ages 8-12, 208 pages

Imagine a demon filling a boy's head with dark thoughts and that boy using them to write some of the greatest horror stories ever written, and you have the basis of Scott Gustafson's marvelous biography of young Edgar Allan Poe.

Spinning the truth into a fantastic narrative, Gustafson imagines a young Poe listening to and engaging a real-life Imp of Perverse as he writes his first horror stories and poems. At his side is also a talking Raven who tries to moderate the imp's wily influence.

An Imp of Perverse, as Poe fans will remember from his short story by the same name, is a spirit who causes people to commit morally questionable acts. Here, however, the imp, named McCobber, doesn't corrupt Poe into doing dangerous things, but rather gives him fodder for his imagination.

The tiny goblin-like spirit shows up on Poe's shoulder the night his childhood begins to unravel. Poe's father is drunk, and he's slipped into Poe's bedroom to kiss him goodbye before deserting his family. At that moment, the imp jumps from father to son, a bitter-sweet gift that will change Poe's life forever.

Quackenstein Hatches a Family

By Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen

Illustrated by Brian T. Jones

Abrams Books, 2010

$15.95, ages 4-8, 32 pages

A grouchy duck needs someone to love, but can he learn to love a beast whose parts are too hideous to bear?

In this adorable, rhyming read-aloud, a duck named Quack decides he's had enough with being a hermit at the zoo and hatches a plan to create a family of his own.

But then his plan takes a scary turn and Quack finds himself running for his life from a creature with mixed-up parts.

Will it bring about his ruin? Or will Quack discover that sometimes it's actually pretty great to be chased down?

Quack longs for affection, but he's grown very bitter watching all of the other zoo animals frolic about in their packs and gaggles.

It doesn't seem fair and you can tell he's worn out from anguishing about it.

His eye sockets are wrinkly, his eyes are bulgy and when he goes back to his shack, he wears his loneliness like a heavy coat, slumping into his nest.

Then one day he bumps his head into a sign in a secluded corner of the zoo that points to a pile of homeless eggs.

Seeing no one around, he creeps up and cackles, "I'll adopt."

Under the cloak of his wings, he steals off to his shack with one of the eggs, his eyes crazed by the possibilities it holds.

Once inside, he tucks the egg into his leafy nest then stares at it transfixed, dreaming of a little duck of his own.

Gently resting the tip of his beak over the egg, he calls it "ducky-poo" and promises the unborn duck that he'll never be neglected.

"Then one dark and stormy night, / The hour had arrived. / Quack heard a crack -- / He stumbled back / And shouted / It's Alive!"