It’s that time again guys!
Here comes another special Throwback Book Thursday!! I had to reach way back in the archives for
this one but since Halloween is around the corner it’s VERY appropriate.
So, when you think back on Halloween as you grew up in
school, there might be one particular book series that comes to mind. One that elicits memories of sitting around
while the teacher read aloud really creepy stories from this specific book, or
if you were lucky, you got to listen to an audio version of the book with sound
effects and everything. I always knew
that Halloween was around the bend when this particular book series was pulled
out. Of course I’m talking about the
ever popular, ever immortalized book series of….
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz and
Illustrated by Stephen Gammell
If you’ve never heard of this series, you’ve been living
under a rock somewhere. These were the
type of books with illustrations that as a kid, gave you nightmares. Heck, even as an adult you might find these
scary tales creeping into your dreams.
This particular series came in three books, each with
creepier stories than the last. In the
first installment of the series you had tales like: The Big Toe, The Hearse Song, and the ever
creepy Wait til Martin Comes.
The second installment, aptly entitled More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, held stories like The
Little Black Dog, The Bride, and Cemetery Soup.
For the final installment titled, Scary Stories 3: More Tales to
Chill Your Bones, you had stories that the author really outdid himself
on. Stories such as Just Delicious, You
May Be Next…and one of the creepiest stories I think I’ve EVER read…Harold. This particular story has stayed with me ever
since I read it as a child. I can’t ever
shake the illustrations or the creepy idea of a scarecrow coming to life,
killing you, and spreading your flesh out to dry on the roof. Yeah…creepy.
I think that one of the biggest draws to this particular series
is not held in just the stories themselves.
No I think the biggest draw for most readers were the
illustrations. You could just take one
look at them and have nightmares for months, regardless of what the story held. In fact, recently the books have celebrated
their 30th anniversary and in doing so, brought about new life to
the stories with brand new, never before seen illustrations. The books have also been under scrutiny because
of such illustrations, making them few and far between in school libraries.
If you’ve never checked these wonderfully gruesome and scary
tales out, I suggest you run out and find the bind up of all three stories and
read them all. I promise that you will
never look at a car with “High Beams” the same way again. Nor will you hear strange “Thumpity-Thump”
noises and not have visions of something coming after you.
Thanks guys for reading this review and, as always, “Spread
the joy of reading! Lives can change
with the turn of a page!”
Pleasant dreams!! J
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