Today, Scare School Diaries: The Un-Hauntable House is officially out! This is the third and long-awaited (judging by the Scare School Diaries fans I meet on the road, at least, who’ve been asking me about THIS book’s release date since before the SECOND even came out) installment of my series of highly illustrated chapter books. This, of course, is worth celebrating in and of itself. But there’s a reason to celebrate EXTRA hard today, and that’s because The Un-Hauntable House is my 30th published book! Cue the party hat-wearing, noisemaker-blowing emojis.
But back to The Un-Hauntable House specifically — I really think fans of Welcome to Scare School and Forest Frights (the first two books in the series) are going to love it. As with all my ongoing series, I never want to give fans only more of the same. I strive to develop each and every one of my characters from one book to the next, and while I DO want to give fans plenty of what they loved about the stories in the previous books in a series, I also always want to push things forward and give them something NEW too. As such, there are a lot of FIRSTS in The Un-Hauntable House. For instance, the book marks the first time we see HUMAN characters, and the first time we hear about and see Bash and his pals try to scare them. The book also marks the first time we see Mr. Crane show something resembling DELIGHT. (For those of you who are already familiar with the books, you’ll know that’s a VERY BIG DEAL.)
I hope my readers DO find a lot to love about this next story out of the Scare School Diaries universe, and I hope it leaves them hungry for even more. Because I’ve got more coming. Basement Baddies, the fourth book in the series, will be out on March 2nd, 2027. And in case you missed the recent announcement on social media, Scare School Diaries has been extended to include a fifth and sixth (highly illustrated) chapter book AND a trio of early readers as part of a new series called Tales from Scare School.
More on all of THIS fun stuff soon. For now, though — and to finish off my talking about The Un-Hauntable House — here’s my publisher’s writeup about the book:
Bash must haunt a hardy household right out of their home to pass his exam in this third book in the sweet and spooky chapter book series by acclaimed author Jarrett Lerner.
It’s time for the annual Excursion Exam at Scare School, and for Bash, his assignment is a doozy: he must spook every member of the Jones family badly enough that they flee their home! That’s nine humans, a dog, and a cat—a tall order for a young ghost. Even worse, when Bash arrives at the house for the big event, nothing he tries frightens the Joneses! Can he muster up a good enough scare to pass his test?
If you want signed, doodled-in, and personalized copies of The Un-Hauntable House (and/or any of my other books), you can, as always, order them from my incredible local independent bookstore, The Silver Unicorn. Click HERE to do so. Thanks! And also: BOO!
~ Jarrett
