Some children will not touch a book but will absolutely read a scary one — and a spooky story is often the hook that finally gets them turning pages. They're lined up from mildly spooky to scary so you can dial the fright to your own child, and each is graded honestly so you know exactly how much of a chill you're handing over. None of them tips into nightmare territory. This is scary, but just scary enough.
You're picking the single one that fits your child tonight. They run from mildest to scariest: Welcome to Dead House is the friendliest place to start, the familiar, fast, bloodless Goosebumps chill everyone knows, and The Spiderwick Chronicles is gentler still in its raw scares but wraps you in a whole creepy world for a bit longer. From there the dread deepens through Small Spaces and City of Ghosts, real atmospheric middle-grade horror with grief and a life-stealing ghost under the frights, then Doll Bones, a haunted doll made from a dead girl's bones. Nightbooks sits at the far end, the most sustained fright of the lot, a boy held captive by a witch. Not one of them tips into true nightmare, which is the whole point. Read the honest heads-up on each and pick the fright that fits.