Beware! This is the most hair-raising, spine-tingling, blood-curdling newsletter ever! You may need some candy corn to calm your nerves while you read.

KIDS' Q&A: KATE DICAMILLO
Kate DiCamillo is unnervingly acquainted with wickedness. In her Newbery Award-winning novel, The Tale of Despereaux, the gentle mouse Despereaux finds himself thrown into a dark dungeon to be devoured by evil rats! In her latest, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, the china bunny Edward must endure the icy depths of the salty ocean, the smelly indignity of a garbage heap, and more maltreatment too beastly to relate here. However, the presentation of the book is anything but ghastly, with a lovely large format and beautiful color illustrations, and you can save 30% on it here. Oh, and don't forget to read our spooky Q&A with Kate DiCamillo.

KIDS' Q&A: MO WILLEMS
Read this mysterious Q&A with the frightful Mo Willems, author of such chilling works as Knuffle Bunny (the harrowing tale of a lost stuffed animal and the father who is unable to comprehend the uncanny half-human speech of his child's lament) and the Pigeon books (including the dark tale Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late, in which the valiant Pigeon struggles mightily against the grim injustice of going to bed). Now he vexes us with Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct, a terrifying tale of an enormous dinosaur who carries a purse and the dastardly young boy who insists she is extinct — save 30% on this newest Mo Willems creation, if you dare.

VOCABULARY INTERMISSION
eidolon: n. a phantom or apparition.

KIDS' Q&A: KAREN KARBO
Minerva Clark isn't your average teenage girl, but most teenage girls probably wouldn't mind being more like her. After she loses all of her adolescent insecurities in a freak accident, she becomes a fearless girl detective. Funnier than Nancy Drew, quirkier than Harriet the Spy, and humbler than that smug Encyclopedia Brown, Minerva will win every mystery-lovers' heart. The second installment of this addictive mystery series (write faster, Karen Karbo!) finds Minerva in search of a missing diamond. Read our Q&A with the Portland writer, and get Minerva Clark Goes to the Dogs at 30% off.

BUY TWO, GET ONE FREE
You know how it is, when you go shopping for one book and you end up buying three? Don't get us wrong, we find this eerie cosmic phenomena perfectly wonderful, but we'd still like to extend to you this offer: buy any two new copies of the fantastic titles listed here, and you'll receive a third absolutely free. Yes, free. Free of charge, free of karmic debt, free to be you and me. Buy two, get one free. Right here, right now.

VOCABULARY INTERMISSION
selcouth: adj. strange, uncanny.

BOOKS FOR AUTUMN
Indeed, it is our favorite time of year — and it's not just because of the ghosts and witches. The yellow and red leaves are swirling down, the rain mizzles, the soft white sky is soothing after months of harsh sunlight. It's time to rest after a busy summer. Time to curl up and read. There are so many great books about autumn and all the bounty it brings. Check out our autumn list for books on Thanksgiving and El Dia de los Muertos, as well.

WIN OUR NEW STAFF PICKS!
Time is running out! You only have until October 31, All Hallows' Eve, to enter the scariest (and by "scariest" we actually mean, "not scary at all") contest on the web. One lucky trick-or-treater will win all of our new kids' staff picks — that's over twenty books, ladies and germs, hand-picked by the friendly zombies of the Burnside Kids' Team. So get out your glow sticks and enter today!

HALLOWEEN BOOKS
You may already have surmised that Halloween is one of our favorite holidays here at Powell's. Especially here in the Kids' Section, where the very best Halloween books reside. Here is a list of some of our favorite books for the spookiest of days.

ORIGINAL ESSAY: LAURA STACK
Raising children may well be the most terrifying thing any of us will ever do in our lives. Fortunately, gurus like Laura Stack are here to guide us through the dark moments. In this essay, written exclusively for Powells.com, Ms. Stack walks parents through some of the more daunting organizational aspects of child-rearing, covering bed time, getting ready for school, and a time she beguilingly refers to as "the witching hour" (no, it's not the sugar-addled hour after trick-or-treating). Read more about helping your family cope with day-to-day organization, and check out Laura Stack's Find More Time, now 30% off.

VOCABULARY INTERMISSION
eldritch adj. ghostly, spooky, eerie.

NEW ARRIVALS
Yes, fearful children, The End has skulked into our stores. Lemony Snicket has once again plagued all the land with his wicked tales of the Baudelaire orphans. We may take scant comfort in its being the last of its kind destined to scourge the earth. What? You want more unfortunate books about scary things? Then try Everlost by Neal Shusterman about the lost land between life and death. Or, Forest in the Hallway by Gordon Smith, in which Beatriz goes on a magical journey in a forest to find her missing parents. Need something more demonic? You're in luck: the third installment of The Demonata, Slawter, by Darren Shan, is sure to haunt you.

ALEXIS'S CREEPY HALLOWEEN COLUMN
When I was six years old my family took the requisite trip to Disneyland, and while there, visited the Haunted House. I spent the entire time weeping deliriously into my dad's shirt. A few years later, I decided to conquer my fear of ghosts by checking some books out of the school library. Alvin Schwartz's classic Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark became my self-help manual. I read these stories over and over until my dread turned to thrill. After that I became one of those weird kids who only reads dark, scary books. John Bellairs's mysteries, especially (The House with a Clock in Its Walls) were late-night, under-the-blankets-with-a-flashlight reads. So was Zilpha Keatley Snyder's The Headless Cupid (a Newbery Award winner). As a teenager I loved Lois Duncan, a master of both angst and suspense (Daughters of Eve, I dramatically claimed, had changed my life). Lately I've been a fan of an English writer name Chris Wooding, whose The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, is delightfully reminiscent of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Great Expectations.

KIDS' BESTSELLERS

1. The Talking Earth by Jean Craighead George 2. The End: A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 13 by Lemony Snicket 3. The Thief of Always by Clive Barker 4. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli 5. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton 6. Grasshopper on the Road by Arnold Lobel 7. Donavan's Word Jar by Monalisa DeGross 8. 26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie DePaola 9. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry 10. The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

Smell you later.