Summer Scares 2025

 

Summer Scares is a great program, designed to help promote horror in libraries during the summer. Everyone has their own idea about what a beach read is and those who love scary, thrilling, or suspenseful books should not be neglected!

From the press release: 

Summer Scares is proud to announce the 2025 spokesperson, #1 New York Times Bestselling author Kendare Blake:

"As a proud member of the club of people who read Stephen King too young, I am both honored and absolutely psyched to be this years' Summer Scares Spokesperson. Long ago, in elementary school, I had a beloved librarian with hair as black as night and teeth like Nosferatu. On dreary, wintry afternoons she would gather the children near and read to us from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, her eyes brightening with our every small whimper. She was, in short, THE BEST. I hope to meet many more librarians this year with her same, spooky spirit. So come along, folks of all ages, and let's read the scary stuff all summer long! It's not just for October anymore."

There are three books chosen for an adult audience, young adult, and middle grade. The books are written by a wide variety of authors and have included graphic novels. The titles for 2025 will be announced in February. 

A programming guide has been created by the HWA Library Committee Co-Chair Konrad Stump and the Springfield-Greene County Library,. Konrad is a programming superstar and the Oh The Horrors! program he organizes for his library every year is amazing and should inspire your own programming. 

Information about Summer Reads is compiled by Becky Spratford on RA for All Horror: here.

Summer Scares 2024

 I will recap PLA 2024 at the end but there has been a lot of good talk about upcoming horror novels at the convention. I wanted to remind everyone that Summer Scares, a partnership between the Horror Writers of America, BookList and NoveList, is a great opportunity to promote horror outside of October. 

I can guarantee that your patrons don't only think that beach reads are cheery and light. Living near the beach, I see people check out plenty of thrillers, suspense, and horror novels to take with them. Don't prejudge what your patrons are interested in and seasonally limit what portions of your collection that you market to them.

There are adult, YA, and middle grade titles selected each year. They are always back list titles that are in print. An author is selected as spokesperson and this year it is Clay McLeod Chapman who is an excellent author to suggest to patrons who think they don't read horror. You can find out more about his books here. 

There are free webinars with the authors available courtesy of BookList. The Springfield-Greene Co Library (MO) creates a programming guide each year that has ideas for how you can include Summer Scares in your summer programming. 

Becky Spratford, Readers Advisory expert and secretary of the Horror Writers, maintains a regularly updated list of resources on her blog, RA For All: Horror. Her blog includes information about the 9 books selected for this year, a link to the programming guide, webinars, and other information to help you shake up summer reading by adding some horror to your programming, displays, and book suggestions.