I write mild (very mild) spooky. Campfire ghost stories are the spook level you can expect. Indeed, if I can't read my own book because it's too creepy, I won't put it out for children!
Thanks for reading!
There's a particular face parents make when their eight-year-old asks for a scary book. You know the one. The slight frown. The scan of the back cover for warning signs. The mental calculation of how many nights of interrupted sleep this purchase might cost you.
On the surface, The Smiling Students of Salem School is about a girl who starts at a new school and discovers that something is very wrong with the other students. They all smile the same smile. They all say the same things. There's a bell in the clock tower that rings at strange times and makes your ears tingle. There's a portrait gallery stretching back 150 years where every student in every photograph is wearing the exact same expression.
The Smiling Students of Salem School is short enough to read aloud over three or four sessions, accessible enough for independent readers at Grade 3–4 level, and thematically rich enough to anchor a week of discussion and writing activities. This guide will walk you through how to get the most out of it.
That depends on what you mean by happy. Emma escapes — so yes, she gets out. But the story ends on a genuinely unsettling note: she's standing outside, safe, and realizes she can barely remember what her own smile used to look like. The belonging she turned down is already fading from her memory like a dream.
If your child needs tidy resolutions, this one might spark a good conversation. If they love that delicious creepy-but-not-traumatizing feeling — they'll adore it.
We rate it 2 out of 5 on the Spooky Scare Scale: Mildly Spooky. There are no monsters, no gore, and no jump scares. The horror is atmospheric — creepy smiles, a mysterious bell, the eerie sameness of everyone around Emma. Think Goosebumps level, not The Shining.
That said, the themes (fear of not belonging, losing your sense of self) hit harder for some kids than others. If your child is sensitive about fitting in at school, this one might land close to home — It's up to you and your child to decide if this book what this book will stimulate - imagination (how to escape the weird) or not.
The book is written for ages 8–10, targeting a Grade 3–4 reading level. Confident readers as young as 7 will handle it fine. The themes — belonging, identity, resisting peer pressure — are most resonant around ages 8–11, when social dynamics at school start to feel very real and very high-stakes.
She thinks about it. She almost does. But Emma is afraid that if she tells an adult, they won't believe her — or worse, that they already know. It's one of the truest moments in the book: kids often don't ask for help, not because they're foolish, but because they're afraid of not being believed, or of looking babyish in front of their peers.
Emma's stubbornness is both her flaw and her superpower. It's what keeps her from fitting in — and what saves her.
Salem, Massachusetts is famous for the witch trials of 1692, when nineteen people were executed following mass accusations of witchcraft. The book borrows the name and the atmosphere — that sense of something old and strange lurking underneath ordinary life — but the story itself is fictional. The "Smile Spell" is original to the SpookyCraft universe.
Salem is one of the most recognizable names in American spooky history, which makes it perfect shorthand for "something here is not quite right." Setting a story about mysterious group behavior in Salem also lets the book carry that history quietly in the background — readers who know the story of the witch trials will feel the weight of it.
The book includes a Word Detective activity at the back with five words: eerie, ominous, silhouette, hypnotic, and mysterious. All five appear naturally in the story, so by the time kids reach the activity, they've already encountered each word in context — the best possible way to absorb new vocabulary.
Absolutely — it's designed for it. See our full classroom guide post for read-aloud tips, discussion questions, and how to use the book's activities.
Yes. The Smiling Students of Salem School is the first in the SpookyCraft series. More titles are coming. If you want to be the first to know, sign up for the Ashe Abbey newsletter. Or keep an eye on the blog!
The seed was a simple question: what if the scariest thing wasn't a monster that wanted to hurt you — but a spell that wanted to make you happy? A curse that felt like belonging? The witch trials backdrop gave it historical roots. Emma's nail-biting, pebble-collecting stubbornness gave it a heart.
