Books like 'Past Perfect, Present Tense'
Readers who enjoyed Past Perfect, Present Tense by Richard Peck also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical horror action / adventure humor historical-fiction ghosts children high-school
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Serafina and the Seven Stars by Robert Beatty
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSerafina and Braeden make an epic return in the hotly anticipated fourth installment of Robert Beatty's #1 New York Times best-selling Serafina series. Serafina, the Guardian of Biltmore Estate, has won battle after battle against the dark forces encroaching on her home. Now, tranquility has returned to Biltmore. Serafina doesn't trust it...Categorized as:
children historical-fiction action-adventure animals audiobook book fiction historical -
Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Boxed Set (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #1-3) by Ransom Riggs
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThe New York Times #1 best selling series Includes 3 hardcover novels by Ransom Riggs and 12 collectible peculiar photographs. The movie adaptation of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is in theaters December 2016... -
The Lost Twin by Sophie Cleverly
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIvy, I pray that it's you reading this. And if you are, well, I suppose you're the new me...When shy Ivy's troublemaking twin Scarlet vanishes from Rookwood boarding school, Ivy is invited to "take her place." But when Ivy arrives, she discovers the school's true intention; she has to pretend to be Scarlet. She must think like Scarlet, act like Scarlet, become Scarlet... -
King Stakh’s Wild Hunt by Uladzimir Karatkevich
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsKing Stakh's Wild Hunt tells the tale of Andrey Belaretsky, a young folklorist who finds himself stranded by a storm in the castle of Marsh Firs, the seat of the fading aristocratic Yanovsky family. Offered refuge by Nadzeya, the last in the Yanovskys’ line, he learns of the family curse and terrible apparitions that portend her early death and trap her in permanent, maddening fear... -
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The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsWhen the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in . . .For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction humor action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book -
Haunting the Deep by Adriana Mather
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Titanic meets the delicious horror of Ransom Riggs and the sass of Mean Girls in this follow-up to the #1 New York Times bestseller How to Hang a Witch, in which a contemporary teen finds herself a passenger on the famous “ship of dreams”—a story made all the more fascinating because the author’s own relatives survived the doomed voyage... -
The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud, Simon Jones
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsIt is 950 B.C.E., and King Solomon rules Jerusalem with a steely hand; a hand on which gleams a magic ring of immense and unforgiving power. Solomon has just begun work on his marvelous temple, charging Khaba, a formidable magician in his royal court, to oversee its construction. The workforce is an ill-behaved bunch of demons, a particularly unruly djinni named Bartimaeus among them... -
Callie by Bill Thompson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDeep in the bayous of southern Louisiana, an ancient mansion called Beau Rivage sits empty and abandoned. Arceneaux family members built the house and lived there for two hundred years. The house is inherited by Callie Pilantro, a down-on-her-luck granddaughter of Juliet Arceneaux, its most recent owner who died there a few months ago... -
What Was I Scared Of?: A Glow-in-the Dark Encounter by Dr. Seuss
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDr. Seuss in a glowing new format!What were we waiting for? We’ve taken the classic Dr... -
Somebody Stop Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAre you ready for Ivy Pocket? The wickedly funny, completely unreliable maid of no importance returns—this time as a coffin maker’s daughter—in this action-packed sequel to Anyone but Ivy Pocket. School Library Journal says, “Fans of . . . Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events will love Ivy Pocket’s zany adventures...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction humor action-adventure book children-books comedy -
The Sun Rises Over Seven Sisters by M.L. Bullock
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe revelation that a significant, active curse rests on the Cottonwood family puts a damper on Carrie Jo’s excitement about her new baby. Worried about protecting the child and Ashland, she does all she can to help Ashland break the curse and keep their family safe from danger. When Hurricane Jasmine bears down on Mobile, everything goes wrong... -
Nostrum by Roberto Calas
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe journey north ended with The Scourge.The journey for a cure has just begun . . .S ir Edward Dallingridge survived his journey through the anarchy that is now England, leaving in his wake the bodies of mad lords, foul invaders, friends, and the risen dead. There was nothing on earth that could keep him from the woman he loves...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book epic -
Copper Coins [铜钱龛世 ] by Mu Su Li, 木苏里
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt was the twenty-third year of Tianxi. Rumours traversed the streets that the all-knowing Imperial Advisor suffered a great calamity and could not help but enter seclusion to focus on cultivation. However, the commoners secretly clapped their hands and rejoiced. In the winter of the same year, a young monk appeared in the Hui Zhou Fu’s Ningyang District... -
Forgotten Men by Bill Thompson
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe once-famous Hotel Iberia was where society's finest gathered in the days before 1859 when Victory, Louisiana became a ghost town. A building where people had laughed, dined and passed the time among friends became something dark, sinister and evil. The town was dead, so no one complained when the Victory Institution for the Criminally Insane opened in the old hotel... -
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The Amazing Mr Blunden by Antonia Barber
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt was such an old house it sometimes seemed to Lucy that all the past was gathered up inside it as if in a great box; as though it had a life of its own that continued to exist just beyond the reach of her eyes and ears...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure book children-books classics -
The Ghost of Midnight Lake by Lucy Strange
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom award winning author Lucy Strange comes a thrilling ghost story about a strong willed heroine who will follow even the most restless spirit in order to untangles the dark mystery of her own past.It's 1899. The Earl of Gosswater has died, and twelve-year-old Agatha has been cast out of her ancestral home - the only home she has ever known - by her cruel cousin, Clarence...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction abuse action-adventure audiobook book children-books -
The Complete Short Stories by Ambrose Bierce, Jerome Hopkins
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBefore he trailed off into the wilds of Mexico, never to be heard from again, Ambrose Bierce achieved a public persona as "bitter Bierce" and "the devil's lexicographer." He left behind a nasty reputation and more than ninety short stories that are perfect expressions of his sardonic genius... -
Time Windows by Kathryn Reiss
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Miranda moves with her family to a new house in a small Massachusetts town, she discovers a mysterious antique--a dollhouse. Through the windows, she is shocked to find what seem to be living people in the tiny rooms, and gradually she realizes that scenes from the lives of the big house’s past inhabitants are being replayed there...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction abuse action-adventure book children-books fiction -
A Coven of Witches by Joseph Delaney
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsBeware a girl in pointy shoesA girl wearing pointy shoes might be a witch. And the first thing a spook's apprentice learns is never, ever to trust a witch.In this bone-chilling collection of tales, you will learn exactly why that is, as you encounter:a fair and beautiful woman with green scales running down her spine . . . (John Gregory, set before book 1, book 0...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction action-adventure anthologies children-books dark dark-fantasy -
The Boy from Tomorrow by Camille DeAngelis
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDiscover the middle-grade debut Kirkus Reviews calls “spellbinding” by an award-winning author Booklist says “has crafted a definite winner.” Josie and Alec both live at 444 Sparrow Street. They sleep in the same room, but they’ve never laid eyes on each other. They are twelve years old and a hundred years apart...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction abuse action-adventure book children-books coming-of-age -
Archibald Finch and the Lost Witches (Archibald Finch #1) by Michel Guyon
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat happened 500 years ago was never supposed to resurface.Exploring his Grandma’s scary manor, Archibald stumbles upon a dark family secret, linked to a time of great fears and superstitions. Key to that mystery: an ancient terrestrial globe, populated by the most fantastic creatures...Categorized as:
children historical-fiction humor action-adventure audiobook book children-books exploration -
The Secret of Midway by Steve Watkins
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the basement of his family's junkshop, Anderson and his friends Greg and Julie discover a trunk full of old military stuff. Including a battered navy peacoat from World War II, and when Anderson puts it on he finds a mysterious letter in the pocket. Curious, he takes the coat and letter home. But that's not all he brings home..Categorized as:
ghosts historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure book children-books fiction historical -
The Unicorn’s Tale by R.L. LaFevers, Kelly Murphy
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIs there no rest for the travel worn and weary? Not if you're Nathaniel Fludd, the world's youngest beastologist-in-training! All Nate really wants is to track down his missing parents, but when a unicorn falls mysteriously ill, Nate's Aunt Phil makes it clear where a beastologist's duty lies: to the beasts...Categorized as:
children historical-fiction humor action-adventure animals book children-books dragons -
The Stars We Walked Upon by M.L. Bullock
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCarrie Jo Stuart's dream catching has gotten out of control and threatens to wreck her happy home. She decides to tell her husband a secret that changes everything, but Ashland has ghosts of his own. Ashland's childhood friend Detra Ann Dowd battles a frightening supernatural being but travels across time to receive help from an unexpected ally... -
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The Stars That Fell by M.L. Bullock, Emily Lawrence
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSecrets Never Stay Hidden Just Ask Any Ghost When Carrie Jo and Ashland Stuart uncovered the truth about the ghosts of Seven Sisters, they were sure that the supernatural activity would end. When they return home to Mobile after their honeymoon, they soon realize they were wrong”"not everyone is at rest. Something or someone is reaching out to the dream catcher... -
Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAunt Blythe's house gives Andrew the creeps -- full of dark rooms, creaky noises, and the sound of a woman sobbing somewhere in the shadows. Then, in the middle of the night, Andrew awakens to find a boy standing in his room...a boy who is Andrew's double, except he looks as if he's come from the grave. He wants to follow him -- to a place where he will meet the spirits of long-dead ancestors..Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction action-adventure book children-books coming-of-age family -
The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNewly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family's ancestral estate. Her eccentric uncle Enos drives away her only new acquaintance, Pat, a handsome British scholar, then leaves Peggy to fend for herself. But she is not alone. The house is full of mysteries and ghosts...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure book classics -
A Good Night for Ghosts by Mary Pope Osborne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJack and Annie are on their second mission to find—and inspire—artists to bring happiness to millions...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction action-adventure audiobook book children-books exploration -
The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJohnny Dixon doesn't believe that the ghost of mad Father Baart haunts the town church. But then he takes an old scroll and a seemingly harmless figurine from the church basement, accepts a magic ring from a mysterious stranger--and is plunged into a terrifying adventure that may cost him his life...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure book children-books classics -
A Twist of Fate by Kelley Armstrong
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsFour years ago, Rosalind Courtenay stumbled from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first, where she has been trapped ever since, leaving her husband and infant son behind. Now she’s found her way back.The problem, of course, is how to explain her absence to her husband... -
The Ghost Belonged to Me by Richard Peck
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"More death! More, if you do not stop it. Others lost, like me in the black water. Save them!"When Alexander first sees the eerie glow in the dormer window of the barn, it sets his heart pounding. And when he ventures into the barn in the dark of night, his breath catches in his throat. Suddenly Blossom Culp's words come back to him: "You can make contact with the Unseen...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure book children-books -
Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsUpon discovering that she has the gift of Second Sight, Blossom also learns that whether glimpsing the future or traveling into the past, one is powerless to alter history...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure alpha-mc book -
Moonlight Falls on Seven Sisters by M.L. Bullock
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen a young, wealthy heiress, Calpurnia Cottonwood, disappears from Seven Sisters in 1850, rumors swirl. But no trace of the girl had ever been found--until now. Historian Carrie Jo Jardine and her handsome employer, Ashland Stuart, find clues to the heiress' whereabouts and even more mysteries are revealed. With Carrie Jo's ability to dream about the past, she watches a sinister plot unfold... -
Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve by Mary Pope Osborne
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe intrepid Jack and Annie are summoned once again to the fantasy realm of Camelot. There, Merlin the Magician tells them that the Stone of Destiny has been stolen. The answer to its disappearance lies within a haunted castle...Categorized as:
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Snakes and Ladders by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsThere's nothing that little girls love more on Halloween than going trick or treating with their mother, a sackful of talking pantheistic mice, and their dead babysitter. All right, maybe there are a lot of things that little girls love more, but for Alice Healy, a nice out with her beloved mama and her favorite ghost is just about perfect...Categorized as:
ghosts historical-fiction action-adventure adult afterlife alternate-universe anti-hero book -
The Ghost of Sir Herbert Dungeonstone by Kate McMullan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat are those strange noises coming from the dungeon at DSA? Wiglaf and his stalwart cohorts Angus and Erica decide to investigate and inadvertently free the long-imprisoned ghost of the school founder?Sir Herbert Dungeonstone. Overjoyed to be on the loose again, Sir Herbert wreaks havoc, threatening to spoil the greedy headmaster?s plan to turn DSA coed...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction humor action-adventure book children-books dragons -
The House of War and Witness by Mike Carey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings1740. With the whole of Europe balanced on the brink of war, an Austrian regiment is sent to the furthest frontier of the empire to hold the border against the might of Prussia. Their garrison, the ancient house called Pokoj.But Pokoj is already inhabited, by a company of ghosts from every age of the house’s history... -
Deathscent by Robin Jarvis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRobin Jarvis’s latest creation is a world set in an alternate past. This strangely familiar Britain consists of ninety-three individual ‘blessed isles’ floating in the deep darkness and the story begins in December in the Gloriana Kalendar, when Elizabeth Tudor has reigned for one hundred and seventy-eight years... -
Never Trust a Troll! by Kate McMullan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter spending the summer at spooky Camp Dragononka, Wiglaf and his pals are back at DSA. They're no longer the youngest lads and lasses—now they're in Class II, and they are expected to show new students the ropes...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor action-adventure animals book children-books dragons family -
The Riddle of Penncroft Farm by Dorothea Jensen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLars Olafson's move to a farm near Valley Forge brings him friendship with the ghost of an eighteenth-century ancestor who recounts his adventures during the American Revolution...Categorized as:
children historical-fiction action-adventure book children-books coming-of-age fiction historical -
The Last Man Alive by A.S. Neill
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe adventures of a group who survived a poisonous cloud that turned everyone else into stone... -
The Ghost Road by Charis Cotter
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGhosts, a family curse, buried secrets -- and two girls who have to figure it all out. A new book from an acclaimed author, for fans of Coraline, Doll Bones and The Night Gardener.For the first time, Ruth is heading to Newfoundland to stay with family she's never met instead of spending the summer traveling with her dad...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction action-adventure book children-books death family -
The Fiery Ring: 1928 by Gilbert Morris
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJoy Winslow is convinced her inheritance has been stolen by the greedy couple who took her and her brother, Travis, in after their parents' death. When Travis leaves to find work, Joy endures without him for only a short time before she runs away. Joy meets Chase Gallagher when he rescues her from a dangerous situation. Chase helps her find work in a circus, performing with the big cats... -
How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsTold in the words of Isaac, a Choctaw boy who does not survive the Trail of Tears, HOW I BECAME A GHOST is a tale of innocence and resilience in the face of tragedy. From the book's opening line, "Maybe you have never read a book written by a ghost before," the reader is put on notice that this is no normal book...Categorized as:
children ghosts high-school historical-fiction 21st-century action-adventure animals book -
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Anyone but Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIvy Pocket is a twelve-year-old maid of no importance, with a very lofty opinion of herself. Dumped in Paris by the Countess Carbunkle, who would rather run away to South America than continue in Ivy's companionship, our young heroine (of sorts) finds herself with no money and no home to go to ... until she is summoned to the bedside of the dying Duchess of Trinity...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction humor action-adventure book children-books comedy -
The Eyeball Collector by F.E. Higgins
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen his butterfly-collector father is swindled to within an inch of his life, a vengeful Hector leaves the city of Urbs Umida in pursuit of a fiendish villain with a glass eye. The trail leads to Withypitts Hall, a forbidding Gothic mansion as warped as its inhabitants and their secret schemes...Categorized as:
children historical-fiction action-adventure audiobook book children-books dark fiction -
The Eyes of the Amaryllis by Natalie Babbitt
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen the brig Amaryllis was swallowed in a hurricane, the captain and all the crew were swallowed, too. For thirty years the captain's widow, Geneva Reade, has waited, certain that her husband will send her a message from the bottom of the sea. But someone else is waiting, too, and watching her, a man called Seward. Into this haunted situation comes Jenny, the widow's granddaughter...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction action-adventure book children-books family fiction -
Escape from Witchwood Hollow by Jordan Elizabeth
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEveryone in Arnn - a small farming town with more legends than residents - knows the story of Witchwood Hollow: if you venture into the whispering forest, the witch will trap your soul among the shadowed trees.After losing her parents in a horrific terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, fifteen-year-old Honoria and her older brother escape New York City to Arnn... -
Promises to the Dead by Mary Downing Hahn
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA promise made to the dead is a promise kept....All Jesse Sherman seeks in the Maryland woods is a big turtle for his uncle Philemon's dinner. Instead, he finds the slave boy Perry and his mother, Lydia -- a young woman nearly ready to give birth...Categorized as:
children ghosts historical-fiction 19th-century action-adventure book children-books civil-war -
Broken Paper Hearts by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsValentine's Day has come to Buckley Township. For Alice, that means cupcakes and paper hearts. For Jonathan, it means sleepless nights and fear, because Fran hasn't come home.Everything ends eventually. No matter how much you hope that it won't.Everything ends...
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