The Bellwoods Game -- Celia Krampien, Hardcover

Perfect for fans of Small Spaces and Doll Bones, this spooky, 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.

Author: Celia Krampien
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 07/18/2023
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.60w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9781665912501
Audience: Ages 9-12

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2023
Booklist 07/01/2023 pg. 68