Name: The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight
ISBN: 9780439568432

R. L. Stine

Jodie is staying with her grandparents on their farm and sees the scarecrows "come alive!"

The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight

Maggie Gordon

Scarecrows are creepy. Suuuuper creepy. And that's without being evil or magical like the one in this book. The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight is about a family being terrorised by a supernatural golem. When our 12 year old protagonists arrive at their grandparents' house that summer, they notice that things aren't exactly the same. And slowly they come to realise what is going on, and just how dangerous their grandparents' employee actually is... 

There is one rather significantly unfortunate part in this book: the villain has an intellectual disability. Authors don't have to cast marginalised people in "good" roles, but when Stanley is literally the only representation for this type of disability in the series, one that is already often demonised, the scares that Stine invokes are just not worth it.