Valiska Gregory
Emmis Publishing / 2003

"Everybody knew the Grindlecat was the scariest creature in the whole haunted house—everybody except the Grindlecat. But it was no secret that all the kids in the school wanted to see it, scary or not." When John, Hannah, and Emily brave the ghosts and goblins to reach the very last room of the haunted house, they see the Grindlecat. "It's fur was scraggly, its nose was black. Its eyes were fierce, its tooth was sharp!" But there's something familiar about that Grindlecat, and what the children decide to do next is both a Halloween trick and treat.