80 books like The Children of Green Knowe Collection

By Lucy M. Boston,

Here are 80 books that The Children of Green Knowe Collection fans have personally recommended if you like The Children of Green Knowe Collection. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Alexandria Blaelock Author Of The Ghost and Ms Cox

From my list on ghosty best friends.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was five when we moved to Australia, and soon after I discovered two things: I am the seventh child of a seventh child, with magic powers including the ability to see ghosts. My mother’s brother Dennis drowned when he was six. Naturally I started talking to him. Mind you, Mum also told me if the wind changed my face would stay like that, so the ghost thing probably wasn’t true either. Technically she only brought two of us to term. Dennis and I still talk, but we don’t have much in common anymore. With that in mind, please enjoy my ghosty best friends book recommendations.

Alexandria's book list on ghosty best friends

Alexandria Blaelock Why did Alexandria love this book?

I found this one in a charity shop and read it in a day. It was a while after that I saw the tv series, and a while after that the movie. And it’s another one I still have in my bookshelves.

It’s another story about finding your place in the world, but at the same time, it’s about a timid widow, mother of two, finding herself through the mentorship of the ghost of a well travelled sailor. One who’s there waiting for her at the end of her life, not her bloody husband! 

By R.A. Dick,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Ghost and Mrs. Muir as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The basis for Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s cinematic romance starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison.
 
Burdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg. Through the struggles of supporting her children, seeking out romance from the wrong places, and working to publish the captain's story as a book, Blood and Swash,…


Book cover of The Amazing Mr. Blunden (Puffin books)

Andrew Norriss Author Of Friends for Life

From my list on ghosts help solve a problem rather than cause one.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been a big fan of ghost stories where, for some reason, the ghosts reveal that they are stuck here. Something happened to them during their earthly life so that, instead of going to wherever you’re supposed to go when you die, this means they can’t. Not until they have ‘undone’ or put right something they did or had done to them. In these stories, we meet spirits who, usually with the help of some human, are doing exactly that. I find such stories deeply satisfying. Which is probably why I try and write them as well…

Andrew's book list on ghosts help solve a problem rather than cause one

Andrew Norriss Why did Andrew love this book?

It’s not quite clear at first whether the two children who appear one day out of the mist asking for help are ghosts, or whether the word is better used to describe the children who go back in time, as requested, to help them. Either way, this is a cracking story with a very satisfactory solution for all of them. And the amazing Mr. Blunden? For me, he is the best and the most moving part of the story. An old gentleman who made a terrible mistake in the past, but who has now been given a chance to put it right, and earn forgiveness and peace.

By Antonia Barber,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Amazing Mr. Blunden (Puffin books) as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

A CHRISTMAS SKY ORIGINAL FILM, STARRING MARK GATISS, SIMON CALLOW AND TAMSIN GREIG

AN ENTHRALLING GHOST STORY WITH A TIME-TRAVELLING TWIST

'When you come to the house, you will hear strange tales. They will tell you in the village that it is haunted, but you must not be afraid. When the time comes ... you will know what to do.'

Mr Blunden's words echoed through Lucy's ears as she explored the house. It was such an old house that it seemed to Lucy as if all the past was gathered up inside it as if in a great box; as…


Book cover of The Canterville Ghost

Lauren Owen Author Of Small Angels

From my list on books to read in a haunted house.

Why am I passionate about this?

My interest in ghosts is partly due to growing up in York, which is one of the most haunted cities in the UK. In that city, I think that pretty much every pub has its own ghost, and if you’re unlucky (or lucky) enough, you stand a good chance of spotting long-dead Roman soldiers, plague victims, or ghostly dogs as you walk the streets. This atmosphere has seeped into my fiction; I have written two novels of the supernatural and am currently working on a third. I’ve also made a study of the grim and gothic in fiction; my Ph.D. thesis was largely about vampires (especially Dracula) but also strayed into other monsters and uncanny stories over the past two centuries. 

Lauren's book list on books to read in a haunted house

Lauren Owen Why did Lauren love this book?

Oscar Wilde gave us a genuinely chilling gothic tale in The Picture of Dorian Gray, but in this short story, the supernatural is a source of fun.

The Otis family, pleasant, sensible, and up-to-date Americans, move into a haunted English manor and immediately antagonize Sir Simon de Canterville, the house’s resident spectre. Sir Simon has a theatrical flair for haunting, pulling out all the stops to terrify his victims into gibbering wrecks, but it’s all wasted on the Otis family, who are hilariously unbothered by the spookiness.

If you’re staying in a haunted house, I highly recommend channeling your inner Otis.

By Oscar Wilde,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Canterville Ghost as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 13, 14, 15, and 16.

What is this book about?

Despite warnings from Lord Canterville that their new home is haunted and that several family have fled form it in the middle of the night the Otis family chooses to go forward with their relocation. Almost immediately the Otis Family discovers that the stories are true and that their house is haunted by the ghost of Sir Simon. It is Sir Simon's intent not to share the house with anyone, but the Otis family is not like previous families that Sir Simon has scared off in the past. Narrated by the ghost himself, this Gothic ghost story takes the reader…


Book cover of The Ghost of Thomas Kempe

Griselda Heppel Author Of The Fall of a Sparrow

From my list on ghost stories.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write adventure and mystery stories for children aged 9 - 13, involving battles with mythical creatures, dangerous pacts with demons, and other supernatural chills. My first book, Ante’s Inferno, won the People’s Book Prize and a Silver Wishing Shelf Award. For The Fall of a Sparrow, I drew on my love of ghost stories, not just for their scariness but also for their emotional complexity: ghosts don’t haunt just for the sake of it. They need something only the main character can give. Friendship, perhaps, a companion in their loneliness… or something much darker. Here’s my choice of classic stories in which ghosts pursue a wide – and sometimes terrifying – variety of agendas.

Griselda's book list on ghost stories

Griselda Heppel Why did Griselda love this book?

What I love about the ghost story genre is how it can lend itself to comedy as well as spookiness. Here the plight of poor James, moving to a new house only to find himself seized on as Apprentice to ghostly 17th century apothecary Thomas Kempe, is irresistibly funny. No one will believe it’s not him scrawling advertisements for ‘Sorcerie, Astrologie, Geomancie, Alchemie, Recoverie of Goodes Loste and Physicke’ on notice boards outside his house and all over the village. Lively’s accurate use of 17th century English heightens both the humour and historical realism in this beautifully written book. 

By Penelope Lively,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Ghost of Thomas Kempe as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

The classic ghost story from Penelope Lively, one of the modern greats of British fiction for adults and children alike.

James is fed up. His family has moved to a new cottage - with grounds that are great for excavations, and trees that are perfect for climbing - and stuff is happening. Stuff that is normally the kind of thing he does. And he's getting blamed for it. But it's not him who's writing strange things on shopping lists and fences. It's not him who smashes bottles and pours tea in the Vicar's lap. It's a ghost - honestly. Thomas…


Book cover of City of Ghosts

Taylor Tyng Author Of Clara Poole and the Long Way Round

From my list on middle grade series to laugh out-loud.

Why am I passionate about this?

While one-off stories are fantastic, I love that children's series lets readers return to trusted characters. Series allow children to see a wider arc of character development and decision-making—often imperfect and in transition—when they are trying to figure out how to identify and connect with the world themselves. That shared experience over time is why I only write series myself—to let kids evolve alongside their favorite characters.

Taylor's book list on middle grade series to laugh out-loud

Taylor Tyng Why did Taylor love this book?

Most know VE Schwab for her YA Series, though she's also written some exemplary middle-grade books.

Her City of Ghosts series is one of my favorites, mainly because of the relationship between Cassidy and Jacob. I find there are few books for kids with great boy-girl friendships, and this one is made even better by the fact that poor Jacob is dead—or caught into the veil between life and death—or something.

Readers of the three books will learn why and travel deep into the spooky shadows of the most haunted cities in the world. 

By Victoria Schwab,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked City of Ghosts as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

Ever since Cass almost drowned (okay, she did drown, but she doesn't
like to think about it), she can pull back the Veil that separates
the living from the dead . . . and enter the world of spirits.
Her best friend is even a ghost.

So things are already pretty strange. But they're about to get much
stranger.

When Cass's parents start hosting a TV show about the world's most
haunted places, the family heads off to Edinburgh, Scotland. Here,
graveyards, castles, and secret passageways teem with restless
phantoms. And when Cass meets a girl who shares her "gift,"…


Book cover of The Phantom Lover

Alexandria Blaelock Author Of The Ghost and Ms Cox

From my list on ghosty best friends.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was five when we moved to Australia, and soon after I discovered two things: I am the seventh child of a seventh child, with magic powers including the ability to see ghosts. My mother’s brother Dennis drowned when he was six. Naturally I started talking to him. Mind you, Mum also told me if the wind changed my face would stay like that, so the ghost thing probably wasn’t true either. Technically she only brought two of us to term. Dennis and I still talk, but we don’t have much in common anymore. With that in mind, please enjoy my ghosty best friends book recommendations.

Alexandria's book list on ghosty best friends

Alexandria Blaelock Why did Alexandria love this book?

Okay, so this one is a cheat, because the ghost isn’t actually dead, only wishes he was dead. When I was a teenager I borrowed this one from one of my mother's friends, not long after it was published, and “forgot” to give it back I liked it so much.

Regency romances can be a little overwrought, but I read it again recently, and it holds up to the passage of time. But, it tells us, that no matter how bad things seem, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. Life is what you make it, even if it takes all your courage, you have to keep adjusting and moving forwards. 

By Elizabeth Mansfield,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Phantom Lover as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The fascinating stranger who visits a young lady in the dead of night is no ghostly spirit in this spellbinding Regency romance by award-winning author Elizabeth Mansfield

After scandalizing London with her improper behavior and jilting two suitors, Nell Belden is about to do it again. This time she rejects the very wealthy, utterly insufferable nobleman her financially strapped guardians have been pressuring her to marry. Banished to their isolated Cornwall estate, Nell is awakened one night by an unusual apparition.
 
But her midnight visitor is no phantom. He is Captain Henry Thorne, sixth Earl of Thornbury. The new Lord…


Book cover of The Paradox Hotel

Neve Maslakovic Author Of Regarding Ducks and Universes

From my list on mysteries that break the mold.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up, I devoured books from two authors, the grande dame of mystery, Agatha Christie, and the science fiction great, Isaac Asimov. Luckily for me, both were prolific. That combination explains what I write, best described as the sleuth story meets speculative fiction. As a reader, when it comes to mysteries I’m always on the lookout for the out of this world. Which doesn't necessarily mean murder on a spaceship, though it can! What breaks the mold could be an unlikely detective, an inventive premise, an unusual setting, a narrative that surprises… Here are five such tales.

Neve's book list on mysteries that break the mold

Neve Maslakovic Why did Neve love this book?

Rob Hart’s The Paradox Hotel is bursting at the seams with interesting characters. The hotel of the title serves the needs of wealthy time tourists on their way to and from the nearby Einstein port. Working security is one January Cole. Her only friend an AI drone, January is grieving a lost love and fast succumbing to a time-travel illness that has her becoming unmoored from the present. Things go from bad to worse when she stumbles on a dead body that only she can see—turns out, it’s quite tricky to solve a murder that hasn’t happened yet. Surprisingly poignant, with moments that made me laugh out loud, and some inventive time travel shenanigans.

By Rob Hart,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Paradox Hotel as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“Time travel, murder, corruption, restless baby dinosaurs, and a snarky robot named Ruby collide in this excellent, noir-inflected, humor-infused, science-fiction thriller.”—The Boston Globe
 
An impossible crime. A detective on the edge of madness. The future of time travel at stake. From the author of The Warehouse . . .

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, Kirkus Reviews

January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder.

Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing’s simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting…


Book cover of Small Vices

Adam Plantinga Author Of The Ascent

From my list on modern books on tough guys.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a 23-year city cop who spends a fair amount of time around hard cases, from veteran co-workers to repeat felons. I’ve always been fascinated by formidable fictional heroes who succeed despite overwhelming odds. It’s an art to create a protagonist who is memorably and realistically resilient. I strove for this in my debut novel. The authors above delivered and then some. 

Adam's book list on modern books on tough guys

Adam Plantinga Why did Adam love this book?

Parker’s Spenser is a reliable tough guy with a good heart. A former soldier and heavyweight boxer, he tends to make short work of anyone foolish enough to fight him. But in Small Vices, he is shot by the villainous Gray Man and left for dead. After he’s discharged from the hospital, Spenser has to readjust to a gravely weakened body as he struggles to physically and mentally recover from his wounds.

This journey brings a new level of emotional depth to the series and lends added resonance to round two with the Gray Man, during which Spenser describes himself as Lazarus, “back from the grave to tell all.”

By Robert B. Parker,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Small Vices as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

While probing the murder of coed Melissa Henderson, a crime in which Ellis Alves is the prime suspect, Spenser finds himself the target of an assassin and must play dead to find out who wants him off the case. 175,000 first printing. $125,000 ad/promo. BOMC Main. Reader's Digest Cond Bks.


Book cover of Harvest

Gary Gerlacher Author Of Last Patient of the Night: An AJ Docker Thriller

From my list on thrillers featuring a medical professional.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a pediatric emergency physician turned author, and I am passionate about sharing an insider’s view of the emergency room, as well as addressing larger health issues that should be more visible to the general public. The emergency room is a world unlike any other, filled with humor, drama, emotions, and energy twenty-four hours a day, and I like to bring that energy to my stories. I’ve worked in many different medical settings, and every day, I find a new story that is worth sharing. 

Gary's book list on thrillers featuring a medical professional

Gary Gerlacher Why did Gary love this book?

This is another story that takes me back to my medical training days. A young member of the surgical team makes an impulsive decision that leads to an ethical dilemma and a web of deception.

This story is not only a thriller but addresses important issues related to the ethics of the transplant system. It’s a great read to get a look at the inner workings of the medical system. 

By Tess Gerritsen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Harvest as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Suspense as sharp as a scalpel's edge. A page-turning, hold-your-breath read'
Tami Hoag

HEART-STOPPING TERROR

Dr Abby Di Matteo has made the best - and the worst - decision of her career. Instead of giving a donor heart to the wealthy patient it's been reserved for, she uses it to save a dying boy's life.

Luckily, a new heart appears that's perfectly suited to the original patient, and the furore dies down. But then Abby discovers that the organ has been obtained illegally. Defying the hospital's commands, she starts her own investigation...

And uncovers a murderous conspiracy that will threaten…


Book cover of The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution

Benjamin L. Carp Author Of The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution

From my list on books that get beyond the “bedtime story” of the American Revolution.

Why am I passionate about this?

I like thinking about the people who misbehaved in the 1700s. As a teenager, I was initially drawn to journalism as a medium for telling stories, but in college, I was entranced by the stories I could tell with early American sources. Years ago, Jan Lewis noted that many readers want “bedtime stories” about how great the American Revolution was, but there’s much more to the Revolution’s history. Now, I’m a history professor at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City of New York. Having lived in the Boston area and New York City, it’s been a thrill to write books about the American Revolution in both places.

Benjamin's book list on books that get beyond the “bedtime story” of the American Revolution

Benjamin L. Carp Why did Benjamin love this book?

This book made me want to dedicate my life to studying the American Revolution.

Alfred F. Young tells the story of George Robert Twelves Hewes, a poor, diminutive shoemaker who was at the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. He also touched off a riot that led to a man being tarred and feathered. Hewes spent his whole life as a poor man, but he briefly became a celebrity in his old age. Young uses this fleeting moment of fame to explore how Americans sanitized and distorted the memory of the American Revolution.

This book inspired me to study the American Revolution in the cities, and the forgotten, sometimes violent ways that radicals pushed for greater equality.

By Alfred F. Young,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Shoemaker and the Tea Party as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

George Robert Twelves Hewes, a Boston shoemaker who participated in such key events of the American Revolution as the Boston Massacre and the Tea Party, might have been lost to history if not for his longevity and the historical mood of the 1830's. When the Tea Party became a leading symbol of the Revolutionary ear fifty years after the actual event, this 'common man' in his nineties was 'discovered' and celebrated in Boston as a national hero. Young pieces together this extraordinary tale, adding new insights about the role that individual and collective memory play in shaping our understanding of…


Book cover of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Book cover of The Amazing Mr. Blunden (Puffin books)
Book cover of The Canterville Ghost

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