Doll Bones by Holly Black is middle-grade fiction that seems to defy classification.  It is many genres all rolled into one book!  It is a friendship tale, a coming of age story, an adventure, a bit of a mystery, and a dash of a ghost story too.  These elements mesh together to create an engaging tale of three friends on the edge of adolescence (with all its complications and confusions) who band together on a quest to bring peace to an uneasy spirit inhabiting a china doll.  The characters are realistic, the adventure is exciting, and the atmosphere is eerie and creepy without crossing over into the land of nightmares.

NLS annotation: Preteens Zach, Alice, and Poppy act out adventures with action figures and a china doll long after their classmates have stopped such play.  But when Poppy is haunted by dreams about the eerie doll, the friends begin a real-life exploit. For grades 5-8 and older readers.  2013.  DB 76559.

Can’t get enough of creepy dolls?  Try Coraline by Neil Gaiman.  DB   54845  DLD