Is your homeschool kid or teen already bored with reading and literature for the year? Why not do something fun and spine-tingling just in time for Halloween? 
There are some really great literature books that are sure to fit into your homeschool reading list for the year and it will chase away the boredom and give them and maybe you a little scare at the same time. Not sure where to start? Try these classics:
- “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley
- “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving
- “The Tell-Tale Heart” or “The Raven” or just about anything by Edgar Allan Poe
- Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”
- “Macbeth” or “Hamlet” by Shakespeare
- Ghost stories from your state
- “The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Harry Potter or Twilight
Not crazy about really scary books? Try mysteries!
- “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene
- The Hardy Boys books by Franklin W. Dixon
I think you get the picture! There are tons of books to choose from that will either keep you on the edge of your seat or terrified to turn the page, all while reading from great classic authors. Most of what I listed here are for middle school thru high school. A lot of these have literature study guides that you can use along with them from Progeny Press or Total Language Plus. You could probably even find some free ones online with a little research. They would be a great addition to any middle school or high schoolers reading list. Colleges are not only looking to see if they read classics but if their reading list is varied and current.
There is no need for everything you read to be a read-the-book-and–do-the-worksheet kind of lesson. Be creative! Study a little bit of the history of the author and how their lives affected their style of writing. Why did things during that time period scare people? What was going on during the author’s life historically? What was the world like when the author was writing? Just because it falls into the genre or thriller doesn’t mean that as a homeschooler we should skip it. Of course, use your judgment as a parent as to what books you choose. There’s a reason some of these books are still popular today and why they became wildly popular. But also look at them from a literary perspective and that’s where using a literature guide will be helpful.
If you haven’t used a literature guide yet, you should. They’re great! They cover all aspects of a book. Not only do you study the book itself, but you also have writing assignments, creative assignments, a biography about the author and even some history. They give you a complete look at a piece of literature and its author and they give you a nice change of pace from your normal literature studies.
Have fun with these books! Read them out loud together curled up in front of the fireplace. Roast marshmallows around the fire pit as you read. You could follow up finishing the book with a scary movie night about the book you read complete with popcorn. Maybe a bonfire with friends, a corn maze, or a ride in the woods on a trailer. Have fun with it! If you’re really brave go to a haunted trail! (Not me I’m too scared!) Time to shake up lit class and have some fun!
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