Most Popular Books by Daniel Kraus

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “This novel leaves you breathless.” —Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author “A thunderous gallop of a war novel, a new classic, a best-in-class example of speculative fiction.” —The New York Times Book Review The critically acclaimed author of the “crazily enjoyable” (The New York Times) Whalefall returns with an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war. Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade. What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell. Angel Down plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.

Soon to be a major motion picture from 20th Century Studios A USA TODAY BESTSELLER From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Angel Down comes a scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who’s been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out. Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool’s errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it’s a long shot, but Jay feels it’s the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad’s death by suicide the previous year. The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid’s tentacles and drawn into the whale’s mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out—one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale. Suspenseful and cinematic, Whalefall is an “powerfully humane” (Owen King, New York Times bestselling author) thriller about a young man who has given up on life…only to find a reason to live in the most dangerous and unlikely of places.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall, The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro, Rotters, and more, comes this equal parts haunting and horrifying horror novel that gves readers insight into the mind of a controlling homicidal man and the son who must stop him. "Marvin Burke is one of the great monsters of literature, a figure of immense, credible terror and savagery."--Cory Doctorow, author of Little Children and coeditor of Boing Boing Imagine your father is a monster. Would that mean there are monsters inside you, too? Nineteen-year-old Ry Burke, his mother, and little sister eke out a living on their dying family farm. Ry wishes for anything to distract him from the grim memories of his father’s physical and emotional abuse. Then a meteorite falls from the sky, bringing with it not only a fragment from another world but also the arrival of a ruthless man intent on destroying the entire family. Soon Ry is forced to defend himself by resurrecting a trio of imaginary childhood protectors: kindly Mr. Furrington, wise Jesus, and the bloodthirsty Scowler.

Watchmen meets Unbreakable in the darkly disturbing supernatural tale, ATHANASIA, where the heroic dead bleed power into the ground … only to be unearthed by a down-on-her-luck young woman to unforeseeable consequences. Some secrets are best left buried. Forrest Molson is going nowhere. One year out of high school -- and one year into sobriety -- she''s working with her father as assistant groundskeeper at Athanasia Cemetery, the final resting place of fallen members of the Dynamic Guild, Venture City''s resident superheroes. At her lowest point, Forrest discovers Athanasia''s darkest secret. At night, the cemetery soil bleeds a substance created from the spectacular substances that ooze from rotting superheroes. This ooze becomes Forrest''s new drug -- and she''s intent on using her unpredictable new powers to be judge, jury, and executioner of Venture City''s evil citizens. But as she loses her mind to her new addiction, she inches closer to becoming the most evil of all. ATHANASIA is a superhero story seen through the darkest lens. From New York Times bestselling author Daniel Kraus (The Autumnal, Whalefall, The Shape of Water) and rising star artist Dani! For fans of the graphic novels Black Hammer (Jeff LeMire/Dean Ormston), Watchmen (Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons), The Crow (James O’Barr +Film), Kingdom Come (Mark Waid/Alex Ross), Batman: The Killing Joke (Alan Moore/Brian Bolland), The Boys (Garth Ennis/Darick Roberson), The Authority (Warren Ellis/Bryan Hitch); the films Darkman, Chronicle, and Unbreakable and the novels Alter Ego (Alex Segura), Secret Identity (Alex Segura),V.E. Schwab’s Villains series (Vicious and Vengeful), and Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series.

From the coauthor of the New York Times bestselling The Shape of Water comes the “utterly riveting” (Entertainment Weekly) tale of a murdered teen who is resurrected to walk the earth for more than a century. May 7, 1896. Dusk. A swaggering seventeen-year-old gangster named Zebulon Finch is gunned down by the shores of Lake Michigan. But after mere minutes in the void, he is mysteriously resurrected. His second life will be nothing like his first. Zebulon’s new existence begins as a sideshow attraction in a traveling medicine show. From there he will be poked and prodded by a scientist obsessed with mastering the secrets of death. He will fight in the trenches of World War I. He will run from his nightmares—and from poverty—in Depression-era New York City. And he will become the companion of the most beautiful woman in Hollywood. Love, hate, hope, and horror—Zebulon finds them. But will he ever find redemption? “Fearlessly weaving gore, love, philosophy, and social justice issues into one sharp whole” (BCCB), The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume One: At the Edge of Empire is the epic saga of what it means to be human in a world so often lacking in humanity.

Perfectly aligned for readers of Iain M. Banks’s The Culture series and Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, The Sixth Nik is a galaxy spanning adventure from the New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Angel Down and Whalefall. Deep into space, far past the triworld outposts, beyond range of the lethal trollbot internet, soars The Sickness: a ship woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew. Sisilla, a nine-year-old cultist with a brain enhanced by arcane tech known as “niks,” has boarded to investigate the enigma of Fém—a plague-riddled planet that has abruptly gone rogue. The mysterious crew includes a faceless assassin, a beautiful engineer jigsawed by plastic surgery, a peyote-addicted medic, and—most lethal of all—a rugged, NonModded captain with a score to settle with Sisilla. Other dangers abound. A hacked robot begins to believe Sisilla is its daughter. The Sickness itself is mutating, possibly even pregnant. And the secret of Fém is more horrific than anyone could have imagined. To survive, Sisilla will need to forsake her predetermined fate and embrace the unknown.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall, The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro, Scowler, and more, comes Rotters. Grave-robbing. What kind of monster would do such a thing? It''s true that Leonardo da Vinci did it, Shakespeare wrote about it, and the resurrection men of nineteenth-century Scotland practically made it an art. But none of this matters to Joey Crouch, a sixteen-year-old straight-A student living in Chicago with his single mom. For the most part, Joey''s life is about playing the trumpet and avoiding the daily humiliations of high school. Everything changes when Joey''s mother dies in a tragic accident and he is sent to rural Iowa to live with the father he has never known, a strange, solitary man with unimaginable secrets. At first, Joey''s father wants nothing to do with him, but once father and son come to terms with each other, Joey''s life takes a turn both macabre and exhilarating. Daniel Kraus''s masterful plotting and unforgettable characters make Rotters a moving, terrifying, and unconventional epic about fathers and sons, complex family ties, taboos, and the ever-present specter of mortality.

“A horror landmark and a work of gory genius.”—Joe Hill, New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman New York Times bestselling author Daniel Kraus completes George A. Romero''s brand-new masterpiece of zombie horror, the massive novel left unfinished at Romero''s death! George A. Romero invented the modern zombie with Night of the Living Dead, creating a monster that has become a key part of pop culture. Romero often felt hemmed in by the constraints of film-making. To tell the story of the rise of the zombies and the fall of humanity the way it should be told, Romero turned to fiction. Unfortunately, when he died, the story was incomplete. Enter Daniel Kraus, co-author, with Guillermo del Toro, of the New York Times bestseller The Shape of Water (based on the Academy Award-winning movie) and Trollhunters (which became an Emmy Award-winning series), and author of The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch (an Entertainment Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year). A lifelong Romero fan, Kraus was honored to be asked, by Romero''s widow, to complete The Living Dead. Set in the present day, The Living Dead is an entirely new tale, the story of the zombie plague as George A. Romero wanted to tell it. It begins with one body. A pair of medical examiners find themselves battling a dead man who won’t stay dead. It spreads quickly. In a Midwestern trailer park, a Black teenage girl and a Muslim immigrant battle newly-risen friends and family. On a US aircraft carrier, living sailors hide from dead ones while a fanatic makes a new religion out of death. At a cable news station, a surviving anchor keeps broadcasting while his undead colleagues try to devour him. In DC, an autistic federal employee charts the outbreak, preserving data for a future that may never come. Everywhere, people are targeted by both the living and the dead. We think we know how this story ends. We. Are. Wrong. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

“A stroke of genius! This is the definitive love letter to the film, written with such meticulous passion and demented glee that you feel yourself standing on the set during the shoot.” —Greg Nicotero The New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall and Angel Down dives into a horror movie classic to examine his favorite film’s importance to our history, culture, and psychology—a perfect blend of research and memoir for fans of the movie, the genre, and beyond Daniel Kraus first saw George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead when he was five years old. Through watching it approximately three hundred times since, Kraus discovered the many ways the film is tied to his childhood trauma and how its influence has carried into his adulthood. He couldn’t help but wonder: Are there other admirers of the film out there who feel the same? Partially Devoured uses a frame-by-frame deep dive into Night of the Living Dead to produce a kaleidoscopic cultural investigation of the film’s importance and to examine the author’s early life of rural isolation and local violence. Careening from film analysis to rabbit-hole tangents, Partially Devoured will take readers from screaming laughter to the depths of grief, all while illustrating how a beloved genre film has woven itself into so many facets of our lives.

A terrifying tale of supernatural horror set in a cursed Louisiana bayou, from the minds of legendary director George Romero and bestselling author Daniel Kraus. In 2019, while sifting through University of Pittsburgh Library System’s George A. Romero Archival Collection, novelist Daniel Kraus turned up a surprise: a half-finished novel called Pay the Piper, a project few had ever heard of. In the years since, Kraus has worked with Romero’s estate to bring this unfinished masterwork to light. Alligator Point, Louisiana, population 141: Young Renée Pontiac has heard stories of “the Piper”—a murderous swamp entity haunting the bayou—her entire life. But now the legend feels horrifically real: children are being taken and gruesomely slain. To resist, Pontiac and the town’s desperate denizens will need to acknowledge the sins of their ancestors—the infamous slave traders, the Pirates Lafitte. If they don’t . . . it’s time to pay the piper. Perfect for fans of George A. Romero’s pioneering horror movies or his previous collaboration with Daniel Kraus, The Living Dead, Pay the Piper is a thrilling taleof dark folklore, grisly murders, and the horrors that manifest when a community must confront its shadowy past. Readers looking for gothic horror books will enjoy the chilling supernatural elements and haunting Southern setting, and anyone who enjoys scary books for adults will appreciatethe chance to dive into this lost work by a celebrated horror icon

"Kraus gets under your skin with brutal, elegant efficiency. Necessarily horrifying, devastatingly timely."—Kiersten White, New York Times-bestselling author of The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein and Slayer From New York Times-bestselling author Daniel Kraus comes a breakneck, genre-defying YA thriller perfect for fans of Kiersten White, Neal Shusterman, and M. T. Anderson. Liv Fleming''s father went missing more than two years ago, not long after he claimed to have been abducted by aliens. Liv has long accepted that he''s dead, though that doesn''t mean she has given up their traditions. Every Sunday, she and her lifelong friend Doug Monk trudge through the woods to check the traps Lee left behind, traps he set to catch the aliens he so desperately believed were after him. But Liv is done with childhood fantasies. Done pretending she believes her father''s absurd theories. Done going through the motions for Doug''s sake. However, on the very day she chooses to destroy the traps, she discovers in one of them a creature so inhuman it can only be one thing. In that moment, she''s faced with a painful realization: her dad was telling the truth. And no one believed him. Now, she and Doug have a choice to make. They can turn the alien over to the authorities...or they can take matters into their own hands. On the heels of the worldwide success of The Shape of Water, Daniel Kraus returns with a horrifying and heartbreaking thriller about the lengths people go to find justice and the painful reality of grief. " Bent Heavens is the darkest, angriest alien horror story that I''ve ever encountered. Hell. Yes."—Stephanie Perkins, New York Times-bestselling author of There''s Someone Inside Your House

From the co-author of the New York Times–bestselling novelization of The Shape of Water comes the blood-curdling story of a Halloween night where trick-or-treat becomes life-or-death In a ruined house at the end of Yellow Street, an angry outcast hatches a scheme to take revenge for all the wrongs he has suffered. With the help of three alienated kids, he plans to hide razor blades, poison, and broken glass in Halloween candy, maiming or killing dozens of innocent children. But as the clock ticks closer to sundown, will one of his helpers—an innocent himself, in his own streetwise way—carry out or defeat the plan? Told from the child’s point of view, in a voice as unforgettable as A Clockwork Orange, Kraus’ novel is at once frightening and emotional, thought-provoking and laugh-out-loud funny. It’ll make you rethink your concepts of family, loyalty, and justice—and will leave you double-checking the wrappers on your Halloween candy for the rest of your days. “A Stephen King tale told by a pidgin Artful Dodger, it’s a twisted little miracle with a sneaking, beating heart.” —Megan Abbott, New York Times–bestselling author of Give Me Your Hand

New York Times bestselling author Daniel Kraus completes George A. Romero''s brand-new masterpiece of zombie horror, the massive novel left unfinished at Romero''s death! Download a FREE sneak peek today! George A. Romero invented the modem zombie with Night of the Living Dead, creating a monster that has become a key part of pop culture. Romero often felt hemmed in by the constraints of film-making. To tell the story of the rise of the zombies and the fall of the humanity the way it should be told, Romero turned to fiction. Unfortunately, when he died, the story was incomplete. Enter Daniel Kraus, co-author, with Guillermo del Toro, of the New York Times bestseller The Shape of Water (based on the Academy Award-winning movie) and Trollhunters (which became an Emmy Award-winning series), and author of The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch (an Entertainment Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year). A lifelong Romero fan, Kraus was honored to be asked, by Romero''s wido, to complete The Living Dead. Set in the present day, The Living Dead is an entirely new tale, the story of the zombie plague as George A. Romero wanted to tell it. It begins with one body. A pair of medical examiners find themselves battling a dead man who won''t stay dead. It spreads quickly. In a Midwestern trailer park, a Black teenage girl and a Muslim immigrant battle newly-risen friends and family. On a US aircraft carrier, living sailors hide from dead ones while a fanatic makes a new religion out of death. At a cable news station, a surviving anchor keeps broadcasting while his undead colleagues try to devour him. In DC, an autistic federal employee charts the outbreak, preserving data for a future that may never come. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Graveyard Girls navigate an evil smart home, public humiliation, and turbulent middle school friendships in this consuming fourth installment by New York Times bestselling authors Lisi Harrison and Daniel Kraus. The Graveyard Girls are back together but they’ve never felt further apart. The excitement of finding Silas Hoke’s bones quickly fades as tension between the five friends threatens the future of their beloved club. Frannie secretly struggles with life-changing news and unexpected Internet fame. Sophie betrays her bestie to get ahead. Gemma’s plan to win Zuzu’s love backfires. Whisper can’t balance her new friendship with Paisley, her old one with the Graveyard Girls, and her latest crush. And Zuzu’s Spirit Squad summons her to find out what—or who—has possessed Frannie''s new “smart” house. Can the fighting friends put their differences aside and banish the evil force threatening Frannie’s home? Or will their club—and lives—be gone for good? Fans of author Lisi Harrison’s Monster High books and Daniel Kraus’s Trollhunters will devour this clownishly creepy installment in the Graveyard Girls series. Young readers looking for scary stories for kids ages 8 to 12 will delight in this frightfully fun mystery series.

The heart-pounding sequel to They Threw Us Away, about a group of teddy bears looking for a place to call home...and answers to life’s biggest questions. The teddies—clever Buddy, brave Sunny, sweet Sugar, and wise Reginald—have managed to find a child. Life with Darling is far better than any they’ve known. But something''s not right—the promised bliss of Forever Sleep hasn’t come. And they are kept a secret from Darling’s mother, hidden underneath the child’s bed in the dusty darkness. Then the inevitable happens: Mama discovers the teddies. And like all adults they’ve met thus far, she responds with fear and anger. The teddies must watch as one of their friends is destroyed. The remaining trio barely escape, thrust back into a world that does not want them. Disillusioned and lost, the teddies embark on a journey back to the factory where they were created. En route, they find a civilization of discarded teddy bears. The comfort of a town of teddies has its allure...but the need for answers weighs heavy. And there’s something definitely off about these new teddies. Will our heroes accept their strange rules? Or must they dig deep for one more grand adventure to finally learn why they were thrown away?

The 2018 Academy Award''s Best Picture of the Year and New York Times-bestselling novel, The Shape of Water. From visionary storyteller Guillermo del Toro and celebrated author Daniel Kraus comes this haunting, heartbreaking love story. "[A] phenomenally enrapturing and reverberating work of art in its own right...[that] vividly illuminates the minds of the characters, greatly enhancing our understanding of their temperaments and predicaments and providing more expansive and involving story lines." — Booklist It is 1962, and Elisa Esposito—mute her whole life, orphaned as a child—is struggling with her humdrum existence as a janitor working the graveyard shift at Baltimore''s Occam Aerospace Research Center. Were it not for Zelda, a protective coworker, and Giles, her loving neighbor, she doesn''t know how she''d make it through the day. Then, one fateful night, she sees something she was never meant to see, the Center''s most sensitive asset ever: an amphibious man, captured in the Amazon, to be studied for Cold War advancements. The creature is terrifying but also magnificent, capable of language and of understanding emotions...and Elisa can''t keep away. Using sign language, the two learn to communicate. Soon, affection turns into love, and the creature becomes Elisa''s sole reason to live. But outside forces are pressing in. Richard Strickland, the obsessed soldier who tracked the asset through the Amazon, wants nothing more than to dissect it before the Russians get a chance to steal it. Elisa has no choice but to risk everything to save her beloved. With the help of Zelda and Giles, Elisa hatches a plan to break out the creature. But Strickland is on to them. And the Russians are, indeed, coming. Developed from the ground up as a bold two-tiered release—one story interpreted by two artists in the independent mediums of literature and film— The Shape of Water is unlike anything you''ve ever read or seen. "Most movie novelizations do little more than write down what audiences see on the screen. But the novel that''s accompanying Guillermo del Toro''s new movie The Shape of Water is no mere adaptation. Co-author Daniel Kraus'' book and the film tell the same story, of a mute woman who falls in love with an imprisoned and equally mute creature, in two very different ways." —io9 Praise for The Shape of Water directed by Guillermo del Toro Winner of the 2018 Academy Award for Best Picture Winner of the 2018 Academy Award for Best Director Winner of the 2018 Academy Award for Music (Original Score) Winner of the 2018 Academy Award for Production Design Winner of the 2018 Golden Globe Award for Best Director of a Motion Picture "With encouragement from critics and awards voters, discerning viewers should make Fox Searchlight''s December release the season''s classiest date movie—for perhaps the greatest of The Shape of Water''s many surprises is how extravagantly romantic it is." — Variety "A visually and emotionally ravishing fantasy that should find a welcome embrace from audiences starved for imaginative escape." — The Hollywood Reporter Awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film at the 74th Annual Venice International Film Festival

The second entry in the slightly scary, extremely addictive contemporary middle-grade series from New York Times bestselling authors Lisi Harrison and Daniel Kraus—perfect for fans of scary stories for kids, like R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps, or books for preteens, like Ann M. Martin’s The Babysitters Club. It’s been a month since the events of 1-2-3-4, I Declare a Thumb War, when the Graveyard Girls—Gemma, Whisper, Sophie, Frannie, and Zuzu—discovered Silas Hoke’s empty grave. A month, and no answers. That changes when messages from the other side start to creep up on the Graveyard Girls. Gemma’s good-luck charm. The skull in Whisper’s spilled milk. Sophie’s vanishing phone. Frannie’s theater curse. And Zuzu’s possessed Jōurnal. Who is trying to reach them . . . and why? The good news: There might be one person with some answers. The bad news: She’s a mortician . . . with a deadly secret. Speaking of bad news, straight-A Sophie is quickly sliding down the scale to becoming a B-flat friend. She is spending way more time hanging out with “Danger Me” and way less time with the Graveyard Girls and her schoolwork. Will her scary story be enough to win back her pals, or will her picture-perfect life become the ultimate photo bomb? Fans of author Lisi Harrison’s Monster High books will enjoy this new entry in the Graveyard Girls series of mystery books for kids. Anyone looking for scary books for 10-year-old girls will find exactly what they need in this thrilling sequel to 1-2-3-4, I Declare a Thumb War.

The Graveyard Girls navigate celebrity psychics, messages from beyond the grave, and the continued mystery of Silas Hoke’s missing bones in this devouring third installment by New York Times bestselling authors Lisi Harrison and Daniel Kraus. It’s the holiday season, but the Graveyard Girls are feeling the wrong kind of spirit . . . Gemma is struggling to save the Spirit Sanctuary, while Whisper is reeling from her father’s recent engagement announcement to Paisley’s mother. Zuzu has taken on the assignment of town ghost whisperer, Frannie is looking for drama in her drama-less life, and Sophie is being haunted by a possessed doll. And through it all, the girls are getting electrifying messages from beyond the grave that may lead them to Silas Hoke’s missing bones. For a not-so-merry fright, Gemma tells a deliciously creepy tale that takes the lesson of "be careful what you wish for” to a whole new level. Fans of author Lisi Harrison’s Monster High books will enjoy this new entry in the Graveyard Girls series of mystery books for kids. Anyone looking for scary books for 8–12-year-old-girls will find exactly what they need in this thrilling next chapter in the Graveyard Girls series.

This fast-paced read will keep readers on the edge of their seats! Someone is killing boys in a small town. The murder weapon is a truck, and the only protection is a curfew enacted to keep kids off the streets. But it’s summer—and that alone is worth the risk of staying out late for James, Willie, and Reggie. Willie, who lost his arm in the first hit-and-run attack, finds it hard to keep up with his two best friends as they leave childhood behind. All of them are changing, hounded by their parents, hunted by the killer, and haunted by the “monster,” a dead thing that guards the dangerous gateway between youth and manhood. But that’s not all: shadowing the boys everywhere is Mel Herman, the mysterious and brilliant bully whose dark secrets may hold the key to their survival. As the summer burns away, these forces collide, and it will take compassion, brains, and guts for the boys to overcome their demons—and not become monsters themselves. In this chilling and poignant debut novel, Daniel Kraus deftly explores the choices boys grapple with and the revelations that occur as they become men.

#1 New York Times bestselling authors Lisi Harrison and Daniel Kraus deliver a slightly scary, extremely addictive, contemporary middle-grade book series. This first installment of Graveyard Girls is part mystery book and part friendship story, centered around five young teen girls in for the fright of their lives. Meet Whisper, Frannie, Sophie, Gemma, and Zuzu, five friends who tell eerie tales by night and navigate middle school drama by day. In Misery Falls, Oregon, it is the 100th anniversary of the electrocution of the town’s most infamous killer, Silas Hoke, and the town is abuzz. 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. Book one in a five-book series, Graveyard Girls blends popular scary books for kids (think: Goosebumps) with strong teen girl characters into a fresh, genre-blending middle-grade series. For kids ages 9u00adu00ad–12 in search of girl friendship stories and mystery books, you’ll find horror and heartfelt relationships in 1-2-3-4, I Declare a Thumb War.