Mary Downing Hahn

Author Information
Mary Downing Hahn's Latest Book

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  • Bibliography:
    46 Books (2 Series)
  • First Book:
    October 1979
  • Latest Book:
    September 2024
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Full Series List in Order

Anna

Anna All Year Round (Apr-1999)
Anna on the Farm (Mar-2001)

A Ghost Story

1 - Wait Till Helen Comes (Sep-1986)
2 - The Doll in the Garden (Apr-1989)
3 - Time for Andrew (Mar-1994)
4 - The Old Willis Place (Sep-2004)
5 - Deep and Dark and Dangerous (Jun-2007)

Book List in Order: 46 titles

  • Sara Summer

  • The Time of the Witch

    Laura tells an old woman of her wish that her parents were back together again, without realizing that she is speaking to a real witch....

  • Daphne's Book

    The Secret Everybody in Jessica's English class makes fun of Daphne. She never says a word to anyone -- just walks around with her nose in a book, with her long straggly hair hanging over her face. Now the worst thing has happened. The teacher has a...

  • Jellyfish Season

    Summer of Dreams I thought becoming a teenager was going to be fun. Instead., the summer I turned thirteen my life turned upside-down. Dad lost his job and we moved into my aunt and uncle's beach house. Sounded great-but not When I had to share a ro...

  • Wait Till Helen Comes

    A Ghost Story - 1

    Twelve-year-old Molly and her ten-year-old brother, Michael, have never liked their seven-year-old stepsister, Heather. Ever since their parents got married, she's made Molly and Michael's life miserable. Now their parents have moved them all to the ...

  • Tallahassee Higgins

    Tallahassee was about as miserable as a twelve-year-old could be. She’d always lived with her beautiful, free-spirited mother, Liz, and she could do anything she pleased -- pig-out on junk food, veg-out on TV, forget about homework. Now Liz was off...

  • December Stillness

    QUESTIONS

    Sensitive and idealistic fifteen-year-old Kelly McAllisterfeels at odds with everyone around her. Her best friendhas suddenly turned boy crazy. Her talented mothercreates greeting card designs instead of real art, an...

  • The Doll in the Garden

    A Ghost Story - 2

    SHE HAD BEEN WARNED NEVER TO GO THERE... But as ten-year-old Ashley followed the beautiful white cat through a small opening in the hedge, she stepped into an enchanted place... A PLACE WHERE SHE MIGHT FIND THE ANSWERS... Who is the little girl...

  • Following the Mystery Man

    The Stranger

    He was busy reading the drugstore bulletin board when Madigan first saw him. He sure was good looking! His hair was dark and he had a full beard with a mustache that curled up on the ends and hid...



  • The Dead Man in Indian Creek

    When Parker Pettengill and Matt Armentrout find a dead man at the edge of Indian Creek, their camping trip comes to a close -- and a detective hunt begins. Evans, the creepy new boyfriend of Parker's mom, Pam, was seen at the place of the crime -- bu...

  • The Spanish Kidnapping Disaster

    Twelve-year-old Felix is fascinated. She has never met a woman like Grace -- beautiful, mysterious, and a citizen of the world. If it weren't for Grace, the family's trip to Spain might have been pretty dull. The trouble started when Felix and her...

  • Stepping on the Cracks

    In 1944, when her brother is overseas fighting in World War II, eleven-year-old Margaret changes her mind about the school bully, Gordy, after she discovers he is hiding his own brother, a deserter....

  • The Wind Blows Backward

    Lauren and Spencer were best friends in junior high, but good-looking Spencer quickly becomes a popular jock in high school with no time for quiet, bookish jock Lauren. Now they're in senior year, and suddenly Spencer is back in her life, sharing ...

  • Time for Andrew

    A Ghost Story - 3

    When he goes to spend the summer with his great-aunt in the family's old house, eleven-year-old Drew is drawn eighty years into the past to trade places with his great-great-uncle who is dying of diphtheria....

  • Give a Puppet a Hand

    in Bruce Coville's Book of Nightmares

    A collection of spine-chilling and unexplainable adventures that truly qualify as nightmares includes "There's Nothing Under the Bed," by Bruce Coville, and other tales of terror by Jane Yolen, Mark Garland, Mary Downing Hahn, and Michael Markiewicz....

  • Look for Me by Moonlight

    When sixteen-year-old Cynda goes to stay with her father and his second wife, Susan, at their remote bed-and-breakfast inn in Maine, everything starts off well despite legends about ghosts and a murder at the inn. But Cynda feels like a visitor in Da...

  • The Gentleman Outlaw and Me -- Eli

    Desperate to escape cruel relatives who've made her a servant and a scapegoat since her mother died, twelve-year-old Eliza Yates goes on the run. Disguised as a boy named Eli, she comes across a young man named Calvin Featherbone -- a charming con-ma...

  • Following My Own Footsteps

    The sequel to the award-winning Stepping on the Cracks. “Sometimes heart-rending, sometimes funny, Gordy Smith will prove memorable to all who meet him.” -- Booklist (starred review)   In Following My Own Footsteps, sixth-grader Gordy Smith ...

  • Trouble Afoot

    in Bruce Coville's Book of Monsters II

    An ultimate scary tale collection for readers with monsters on the brain celebrates the creepy beasties of the forest, swamp, school bus, and vending machines, and highlights creatures that may even turn out to be a best friend. Original....



  • As Ever, Gordy

    Life wasn't fair.  As soon as you thought you were safe, someone pulled the rug out from under you.  And there you were, back on the train, going to the very place you thought you'd left for good.

    Gordy couldn't be less happy about moving ...

  • Anna All Year Round

    Anna

    Eight-year-old Anna enjoys one exciting experience after another in this charming story set in Baltimore just before World War I. She gets a new winter coat that's even better than Rosa's, rollerskates down the steepest hill in the neighborhood, and ...

  • Promises to the Dead

    Mary Downing Hahn combines powerful characters, dark secrets, and breathtaking suspense in a compelling Civil War-era story readers won't soon forget. Aiding and abetting an escaped slave is against the law, and it goes against everything Jesse Sherm...

  • Anna on the Farm

    Anna

    Anna is thrilled when she receives an invitation to leave hot, sticky Baltimore and visit her aunt and uncle on their farm, where she’ll be able to go barefoot, swim in the pond, and drink fresh-squeezed lemonade. But when she arrives, she’s gree...

  • Hear the Wind Blow

    On a cold, snowy night, Haswell Magruder makes a decision that will have a profound effect on his own life as well as the lives of all those he loves. A wounded Confederate soldier appears at the family’s Virginia farm, and Haswell convinces his mo...

  • The Old Willis Place

    A Ghost Story - 4

    Diana and her little brother, Georgie, have been living in the woods behind the old Willis place, a decaying mansion, for what seems like forever. A strict set of rules won't allow them to leave the property or even show themselves to anyone. But ...

  • Janey and the Famous Author

    Third-grader Janey is never without a Bob the Dog Detective book by her favorite author, Lily May Appleton. She sneaks reading time during school and is often scolded for letting her mind wander. Janey snaps to attention, though, when her teacher men...

  • Witch Catcher

    When her widower father inherits a castlelike estate in the mountains of West Virginia, 12-year-old Jen is thrilled. It seems like a wish come true. But she quickly realizes that not all change is positive. Her dad has a mysterious new girlfriend, Mo...

  • Deep and Dark and Dangerous

    A Ghost Story - 5

    JUST BEFORE SUMMER BEGINS, thirteen-year-old All finds an old photograph. She recognizes the two children. One's her mother, the other her aunt Dulcie . . . but who is the third person, the one who's been torn out of the picture? All will have two mo...

  • All the Lovely Bad Ones

    TRAVIS AND HIS SISTER, Corey, can’t resist a good trick. When they learn that their grandmother’s quiet Vermont inn, where they're spending the summer, has a history of ghost sightings, they decide to do a little "haunting” of their own. But th...



  • Closed for the Season

    Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Juvenile MysteryTwo friends set out to solve the years-old mystery of a murder, testing their friendship and placing them in danger, in this creepy thriller by suspense master Mary Downing Hahn.A pair of thirteen-ye...

  • The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall

    When twelve-year-old Florence boards the crowded horse-drawn coach in London, she looks forward to a new life with her great uncle and aunt at Crutchfield Hall, an old manor house in the English countryside. Anything will be better, she thinks, than ...

  • Mary Downing Hahn's Haunting Tales

    Three of Mary Downing Hahn's scariest ghost stories are in this handsome boxed set: "Wait Till Helen Comes," "All the Lovely Bad Ones," and "Deep and Dark and Dangerous." ...

  • Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls

    Based on an actual crime in 1955, this YA novel is at once a mystery and a coming-ofage story. The brutal murder of two teenage girls on the last day of Nora Cunningham's junior year in high school throws Nora into turmoil. Her certainties -- friends...

  • Where I Belong

    BRENDAN is smart, a talented artist, and yet his teachers and classmates mock him, his foster mother is cold and critical, and he has become a target for bullies. Why should he struggle at school and at home when he knows he'll never measure up? It's...

  • Took

    Folks say Old Auntie takes a girl and keeps her fifty years -- then lets her go and takes another one.”     Thirteen-year-old Daniel Anderson doesn’t believe Brody Mason’s crazy stories about the ghost witch who lives up on Brewster’s Hi...

  • One for Sorrow

    Against the ominous backdrop of the influenza epidemic of 1918, Annie, a new girl at school, is claimed as best friend by Elsie, a classmate who is a tattletale, a liar, and a thief. Soon Annie makes other friends and finds herself joining them in te...

  • A Ghostly Gathering

    A bewitched doll, a vengeful spirit, and a haunted mansion populate three haunting tales from award-winning author Mary Downing Hahn. Spine-chilling and spooky, these stories of the supernatural will thrill readers who love to be scared . . . just en...

  • The Girl in the Locked Room

    Ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn unrolls the suspenseful, spine-chilling yarn of a girl imprisoned for more than a century, the terrifying events that put her there, and a friendship that crosses the boundary between past and present. A family...

  • Guest

    From the master of spookiness, Mary Downing Hahn. When malicious sprites called the Kinde Folke snatch Mollie’s baby brother and replace him with a hideous changeling, Mollie travels through eerie, perilous lands to save him. When her adorable ...



  • The Puppet's Payback and Other Chilling Tales

    The author of wildly popular ghost stories, Mary Downing Hahn has created a group of tales for fans of her "scary but not too scary" books. Even the stories without actual ghosts are spooky. Each tale turns something ordinary -- a pigeon, a w...

  • The Thirteenth Cat

    From master of middle grade horror Mary Downing Hahn, a new thriller about bravery, unexpected friendship, and sinister cats that will captivate readers with its chilling mix of mystery and magic.Zoey loves spending the summer with her Aunt Alice, an...

  • What We Saw

    A chilling murder mystery lies at the heart of this page-turning thriller about a missing teacher, small town secrets, and turbulent tween friendships from master of middle grade horror Mary Downing Hahn.When best friends Abbi and Skylar witness...

  • Wait Till Helen Comes Graphic Novel

    In this graphic novel adaptation of master horror storyteller Mary Downing Hahn's spookiest and most popular tale, two siblings must save their stepsister from the clutches of a vengeful ghost.When their mom remarries, Molly and her brother, Michael,...

  • All the Lovely Bad Ones Graphic Novel

    In this eerie full-color graphic novel adaptation of one of award-winning author Mary Downing Hahn's most popular ghost stories, mischievous siblings pretend their grandmother's Vermont inn is haunted and awaken the real spirits who dwell there.Travi...

  • The Old Willis Place Graphic Novel

    Diana and her little brother, Georgie, know every inch of the land around the old Willis place, a crumbling mansion that some people say is haunted. They climb the trees and swim in the pond. And they can do whatever they want, even stay up all night...

  • The Ghosts of Fulton Arms

    (What We Saw) A chilling and thrilling addition to a beloved author’s oeuvre. — Kirkus Reviews(The Thirteenth Cat) Horror maven Hahn conjures up another heart-pumping read for the younger set that strikes the right balance between thrills...

Award-Winning Books by Mary Downing Hahn

All the Lovely Bad Ones
2010 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award -- Grades 4-8
2010 South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award -- Children's
2011 Sequoyah Book Award -- Children's
2012 Virginia Readers Choice Award -- Elementary
Closed for the Season
2010 Edgar Allan Poe Award -- Juvenile
The Dead Man in Indian Creek
1993 Young Hoosier Book Award -- Grades 4-6
1994 Virginia Readers Choice Award -- Middle School
Deep and Dark and Dangerous
2009 Grand Canyon Reader Award -- Intermediate
2009 Land of Enchantment Book Award -- Young Adult
2009 Mark Twain Readers Award -- Grades 4-6
2009 Rhode Island Children's Book Award -- Grades 3-6
2010 Colorado Children's Book Award -- Junior Novel
2010 Georgia Children's Book Award -- Children's Book
2010 Golden Sower Award -- Intermediate
2010 Sasquatch Award -- Children/Young Adult
2011 Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award -- Grades 3-5
2011 Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award -- Grades 6-8
The Doll in the Garden
1992 Virginia Readers Choice Award -- Elementary
The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall
2012 South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award -- Children's
The Old Willis Place
2006 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award -- Children's
2006 Volunteer State Book Award -- Grades 4-6
2007 Golden Sower Award -- Intermediate
2007 Iowa Children's Choice (ICCA) Award -- Children's
2007 South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award -- Children's
Stepping on the Cracks
1992 Scott O Dell Award for Historical Fiction -- Historical Fiction
Time for Andrew
1996 Bluebonnet Award -- Children's
1996 California Young Reader Medal -- Intermediate
1996 Georgia Children's Book Award -- Children's Book
1997 Virginia Readers Choice Award -- Elementary
Wait Till Helen Comes
1989 Bluebonnet Award -- Children's
1989 Iowa Children's Choice (ICCA) Award -- Children's
1989 Virginia Readers Choice Award -- Elementary
1989 Young Hoosier Book Award -- Grades 6-8
1989 Young Reader's Choice Award -- Children's
1990 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award -- Grades 4-8
Witch Catcher
2006 Parents Choice Award (Fall) (1998-2007) -- Approved
2008 West Virginia Children's Book Award -- Children's


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Mary Downing Hahn has published 46 books.

The next book by Mary Downing Hahn, The Ghosts of Fulton Arms, will be published in September 2024.

The first book by Mary Downing Hahn, Sara Summer, was published in October 1979.

Yes. Mary Downing Hahn has 2 series.
Author Series
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