Clownophobes, beware: your students may never set foot in an amusement park or county fair again after reading Something Wicked This Way Comes. The creepy carnival that drives the plot of this fantasy novel might just take the fun out of the funhouse and the merriment out of the merry-go-round for teens (or even adults, frankly) who scare easily.

You might ask what could possibly be so spooky about a traveling sideshow that sets up shop in a small Midwestern town in the 1950s? For starters, there's the evil carnival proprietor Mr. Dark (a.k.a. The Illustrated Man) who is covered in tattoos bearing the likeness of those he tricks into buying one-way tickets to the fair. Then there's his sidekick, the Dust Witch, who can "see" into your soul and hear your heart race despite her "stitch-wrinkled eyes" and "mummy-linen ears."