The Bellwoods Game

by Celia Krampien Narrated by Caitlin Kelly

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Not every game should be played — journey through the dark forest with this story of friendship and bullying, frights and delights.

Perfect for fans of Doll Bones and Hocus Pocus, this “beautifully creepy” (Kirkus Reviews), highly illustrated middle grade novel follows a girl who hopes to fix her outcast status through a game in the haunted woods, only to discover that some legends shouldn't be played with.

Everyone knows Fall Hollow is haunted. It has been ever since Abigail Snook went into the woods many years ago, never to be seen again. Since then, it's tradition for the sixth graders at Beckett Elementary to play the Bellwoods Game on Halloween night. Three kids are chosen to go into the woods. Whoever rings the bell there wins the game and saves the town for another year, but if Abigail's ghost captures the players first, the spirit is let loose to wreak havoc on Fall Hollow-or so the story goes.

Now that it's Bailee's year to play, she can finally find out what really happens. And legend has it the game's winner gets a wish. Maybe, just maybe, if Bailee wins, she can go back to the way things used to be before her grandma got sick and everyone at school started hating her. But when the night begins, everything the kids thought they knew about the game-and each other-is challenged. One thing's for sure: something sinister is at play...waiting for them all in the woods.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

"This gorgeously illustrated, atmospheric, and evocative debut captures the fun of being scared and the hard truths of middle school. . . Beautifully creepy."

From the Publisher

*An Indigo Kids September Staff Pick*

*A July/August 2023 Indie Next Pick*

*A Junior Library Guild Selection*

Booklist

"Krampien’s eerie story cleverly focuses on themes such as bullying . . . This supernatural tale will chill readers while reminding them that real friendship can brave any situation."

Publishers Weekly

"Krampien intersperses atmospherically eerie b&w art throughout a tense friendship novel steeped in local lore."

Booklist

"Krampien’s eerie story cleverly focuses on themes such as bullying . . . This supernatural tale will chill readers while reminding them that real friendship can brave any situation."

Kirkus Reviews

2023-04-24
Sixth grader Bailee Heron must win a ghostly game to keep her town, her family, and herself from losing everything.

On Halloween in 1982, sixth grader Abigail Snook disappeared in the Bellwoods forest behind Beckett Elementary. Now, every Halloween, Beckett’s sixth graders have to play the Bellwoods Game, or her ghost will terrorize the town for the next year. If she catches you, and you don’t have a gift to sacrifice, the ghost will take something else—like your tongue. But if you manage to ring the old bell in the woods first, you’ll banish her for another year, and she’ll give you anything you want. Bailee, lover of all things horror, just wants things to go back to normal. Ever since the factory closed two years ago, her parents have worked long hours to make ends meet, often leaving Nan and Bailee alone. Then Nan got sick at the same time a vicious rumor ostracized Bailee from the rest of the class. Winning the game is Bailee’s only chance to set things right, but she soon learns everything is not as it seems in the town of Fall Hollow, where stories are weapons, friends come from strange places, and Abigail Snook isn’t the scariest thing hiding among the trees. This gorgeously illustrated, atmospheric, and evocative debut captures the fun of being scared and the hard truths of middle school. Bailee presents White; names and illustrations point to some racial diversity in secondary characters.

Beautifully creepy. (Supernatural. 9-13)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178304259
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	07/18/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1: Halloween, Some Time Later

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