BEWARE THE JACKS

It’s all fun and gourds until the pumpkins wake up.

Spooky season starts early in Wilcott Head, a town trying futilely to gain traction as a creepy destination spot. Residents take pride in decorating before the townwide pumpkin-carving night at the Harvest Festival, when the carved jack-o’-lanterns are displayed in the woods. Twelve-year-old Dahlia Reid is normally excited to participate, but recently everything’s changed—her best friend moved away, and her mom remarried, making unkind jerk Levi Coleman her new stepbrother. Dahlia finds a new friend in Penelope Mullins, whose parents recently moved to town to take up pumpkin farming. Legend has it that the land where the Mullins’ pumpkin patch is located was once rich, protected by an enormous arachnid called the Shepherdess until a terrible accident caused the town to turn on her. Ever since, the ground has lain fallow—“the soil is spoiled,” according to locals—until the Mullinses arrived. Now jack-o’-lanterns from Mullins Farm come to horrifying life, using their vines to drag townspeople away. It’s up to Dahlia and her friends to break the curse and save the town. There’s real urgency and stakes in this set-up: a town full of anthropomorphic gourd monsters and no adult helpers. Lajoie’s writing is accessible and fast-paced, and the thrills are kid-appropriate, making this a great choice for younger or more sensitive fear-seekers. Dahlia and Levi read white, and Penelope was adopted as a baby from China.

A shivery autumnal treat.