ghosts

I grew up loving these books, and have many a fond memory of reading them by flashlight at sleepovers and scaring my friends. I even had a scary-story themed birthdy party once, where we sat in the dark and my mom read some of the stories by flashlight and then passed around bowls of peeled grapes (eyeballs) and pasta (guts), even jell-o (brains). We had a lot of good screams that night!

I would reccomend these stories to any kid, or to any parent to buy for their kid. They're terrifying, the illustrations are gruesome, but they fuel the imagination unlike any other kid-themed horror story I've ever read, and I read 'em all in my day. I found that the story "Harold" disturbed me the most, and every now and then my mind will wander to it and I'll shudder. There's something to be said for a story that still has the power to unsettle ten years after it's been read.

As a kid I loved sitting around reading these, sometimes by myself tucked away in a dark, musty corner, or better yet, on Halloween with friends. OK, so the stories weren't really all that scary, but they are a lot of fun. The illustrations are morbid and occasionally gruesome, and really lend to the atmosphere of "terror." There are tons of other, scarier books on the market, sure, but these are a lot of fun for parents and kids alike. No murdered cheerleaders à la R.L. Stine. Some of my favourite moments include the voice moaning out "Bloody fingers...." and the hippie is just, like, "Get a band-aid, man!" and the Viper ("I'm here to vash and vipe the vindows").

These stories were collected from folklore and retold by Alvin Swartz. And you'll find all types of timeless, classic tales in here. Ghost stories, graverobber stories, tales of people raised by wild animals, zombie stories, humourous stories, even modern tales based on urban legends. Each book is prefaced with some history, and their are annoted sources and extensive bibliographies.

There are loads of creepy, morbid, and yes, scary illustrations throughout the book in ink and grey watercolour...very gravelike. Some of them still creep me out today years later. Some of them might give you nightmares and resurface in front of you when you're all alone in the dark.

To make a scary atmosphere try reading these on a dark, rainy, preferably stormy night by flashlight. Put on Danny Elfman's creepy, creepy soundtrack to "Sleepy Hollow." Listen for unexplained crashes, creaks, and moans in between crashes of thunder...read some more...you will end up scared in the end.

I had this once and I got rid of it!!!!!! I still regret it and I'm going to order a new one. DON'T pass this up! It's a great book. Has the old stories and some new ones(well, new twists from when it was made). It was a sad, sad day when I got rid of the box set I had. My brother was sad too. I think he may have hated me for a brief second.;)