Horror for the Kiddies: I Declare a Thumb War by Lisi Harrison and Daniel Kraus – Exclusive Excerpt & Cover Reveal

I was a horror kid.

Not a sneak-Stephen-King-into-the-7th-grade-gym-class kid. More a straight up horror-related middle grade kid. Wait Till Helen Comes. The film of The Watcher in the Woods (still freaks me out). The Dollhouse Murders. All that good stuff. That’s why I keep a sharp eye out for middle grade novels with legit scares inside of them. Scary Stories for Young Foxes and Hide and Seeker and Small Spaces come immediately to mind. Seems like the fellow that’s written books with Guillermo del Toro might fit the bill. Pair Daniel Kraus up with Monster High‘s Lisi Harrison and what you’ve got is a book that aims to give that old Watcher a run for its money.

Today, I’ve an excerpt from a book that gives you a taste of what we’re talking about. It’s called Graveyard Girls: 1234 I Declare a Thumb War. But first, a description:

Meet Whisper, Frannie, Sophie, Gemma, and Zuzu, five friends from Misery Falls, Oregon. The town is abuzz as the 100th anniversary of the electrocution of Misery Falls’ most infamous killer, Silas Hoke, approaches. When a mysterious text message leads the girls to the cemetery—where Silas Hoke is buried!—life can’t get any creepier. Except, yes, it can thanks to the surprise storyteller who meets them at the cemetery, inspires the first-ever meeting of the Graveyard Girls, and sets the stage for a terrifying tale from Whisper that they’ll never forget.

Sounds good. Reads better. Here’s the excerpt:

I just want to pay homage to the line, “And then four corpses fell from a nearby tree,” because I think they really nailed it with that one.

And finally, the cover:

Thank you to Daniel and Lisi for letting me excerpt your book today. Thanks especially to Jenny Lu and the folks at Union Square Kids for setting this up. Graveyard Girls: 1234 I Declare a Thumb War will be on shelves everywhere September 6th.

Filed under: Cover Reveal, Excerpts