ghosts

This book, and its two sequels, were the hottest books around when I was in elementary school. Scary stories with even scarier illustrations that are still haunting (I'm 20 at this writing) today. The stories, retold by a masterful Alvin Schwartz in a kid friendly format provided me with more than one nightmare as a child. And I loved every terror filled second! The 29 macabre stories, poems, and songs are a great introduction to the Horror genre for young readers that will have them literally screaming for more! The incredibly dark and startling illustrations by Stephen Gammell are just as, if not more memorable than the stories themselves. Especially for "The Thing", "The Haunted House", "Wait Till Martin Comes", and "The Ghost With the Bloody Fingers". So if your kid needs a reason to read instead of vegging in front of the tv or video games look no further than this wonderfully scary series!

First off, let me state that I am so glad I am in far into college now. Luckily, I was in 4th grade at the right time I bought this from one of those Scholastic order sheets (remember those?), almost ten years ago before special interest groups got on the "ban everything we deem offensive or intelligent to children" bandwagon.

Anyways, I recently found this book in a box of old books and, looking through it, it was just as chilling to the spine now as it was around 8 or so years ago when I was a wee lad. Of course, now I'm 19 and the stories seem sort of not so scary, but that's just my picky-eating with dark literature (being more accustomed to Lovecraft and more sophisticated horror and all that).

However, the charcoal drawings are what make this book what it is. Stephen Gammell (does he have an online gallery or a book full of illustrations like this? i'm soon checking!) has done an excellent job at creating immensly subtly-disturbing visuals with his illustration skills that seems to amplify the effect of the otherwise cheesy (but still fun) bonfire horror stories.

If the stories don't scare the bejesus out of you, the ghostly apparitions and deformed nightmarish landscapes portrayed within the illustrations will definately make you want to buy several halogen lamps and keep them turned on at night with perhaps a garlic necklace around you when you go to sleep.

If I recall, the scariest illustration was a full-page charcoal drawing next to a story called "Oh, Suzannah!", almost like something weird going on in a parallel supernatural dimension from some mental patient's hallucinatory nightmare.

Either way, this book has redeeming qualities for both folk/urban literature enthusiasts as well as dark-fantasy-art enthusiasts. I heavily recommend it!

So ten or fifteen years ago, when I was in elementary school, this was definitely the NUMBER ONE MOST FREQUENTLY CHECKED-OUT LIBRARY BOOK, EVER. If you wanted this book in your hot little hand for just two days, you had to stand at the counter and wait for someone to turn it back in, just so you could snatch it up before the librarian got it back onto the shelf. No joke.

America's a young country, of course, so our idea of "American folklore" often falls into the sphere of Urban Legend. That doesn't mean this book is any less literary, of course: children will learn what REAL short story pacing is, thanks to Alvin Schwartz's suspenseful collection of concise, tense, and often outright nightmarish stories.

But the real thing that will haunt kids a decade or two later will be Stephen Gammell's illustrations. Yipes! I've asked my peers, and not one of us has forgotten those awful, macabre, dripping-flesh-decay illustrations. Ick! Just remembering this book gives me the creeps!

But parents, don't worry: this book is a must-have for any well-rounded childhood, so long as you don't mind sharing your bed with your kid for a week or two.