Summer Scares 2027 Is Coming: Meet This Year’s Spokesperson and Timeline

The Horror Writers Association (HWA), in partnership with Booklist, Book Riot, iREAD, and NoveList®, a division of EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO), is proud to announce the ninth annual Summer Scares, a reading program that provides libraries and schools with an annual list of recommended horror titles for adult, young adult (teen), and middle grade readers. Summer Scares is proud to announce the 2027 spokesperson, USA Today Bestselling middle grade author, Ally Russell: As a wee ghoul, my best friend and I would trade scary books like currency. We didn’t get to see each other often, but I lived for those weekend sleepovers, because I knew we would spend a lot of our time together talking about scary books. The last book I remember trading was Give Yourself Goosebumps: Night in Werewolf Woods by R.L. Stine. I don’t remember why we stopped trading; I suspect we simply outgrew the practice. Sharing scares with a friend and fellow reader at that young and pivotal age turned me into a lifelong reader. Reading doesn’t have to be a solitary act, and the Summer Scares program understands that. As a young aspiring author, books were my creative writing teachers. Books taught me how to s...