CCBC-Net Archives
[CCBC-Net] Scary stories
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Linnea Hendrickson <Lhendr>
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 12:23:20 -0600
Most of my elementary school students love scary stories. I have multiple copies of the various Alvin Schwartz scary story collections, and there is almost never one on the shelf. These kids still read Goosebumps, too, although not as voraciously as they used to. I'm always searching for scary or slightly scary picture books and easy readers, trying to find alternatives to these books for the younger kids.. There are some in the series Eek! Stories to Make you Shriek, but they are not all very scary. I like Lucy Dove very much. Also Mem Fox's Guess What? (which is not really scary, just a bit shivery, creepy, humorous, and surprising.
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of anything makes a good read aloud for the youngest kids.
The all-time favorite scary story in the Southwest is almost any version of La Llorona -- the weeping woman. Joe Hayes tells it very well, in books and on tape. It was first told to me me as a "true story" when I lived in Tucson in the 1970s -- and the setting was the local rivers. Then, I moved to Albuquerque, and soon was hearing stories about La Llorona that took place along the local acequias and in the Rio Grande bosque. Apparently the story has been traced back to Spain. Here, and probably everywhere that it is known, it is used as a warning to keep children away from dangerious ditches and riverbanks.
The late Lilian Moore wrote a wonderful book of poems, See My Lovely Poison Ivy.
Other perennial favorites are the two collections by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Arnold Lobel, Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep and The Headless Horseman Rides Again. And Witch Poems collected by Daisy Wallace and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.
There are also some great scary pop-up books, including Jan Pienkowski's Haunted House, and Dracula's Tomb by Colin McNaughton.
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 12:23:20 -0600
Most of my elementary school students love scary stories. I have multiple copies of the various Alvin Schwartz scary story collections, and there is almost never one on the shelf. These kids still read Goosebumps, too, although not as voraciously as they used to. I'm always searching for scary or slightly scary picture books and easy readers, trying to find alternatives to these books for the younger kids.. There are some in the series Eek! Stories to Make you Shriek, but they are not all very scary. I like Lucy Dove very much. Also Mem Fox's Guess What? (which is not really scary, just a bit shivery, creepy, humorous, and surprising.
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of anything makes a good read aloud for the youngest kids.
The all-time favorite scary story in the Southwest is almost any version of La Llorona -- the weeping woman. Joe Hayes tells it very well, in books and on tape. It was first told to me me as a "true story" when I lived in Tucson in the 1970s -- and the setting was the local rivers. Then, I moved to Albuquerque, and soon was hearing stories about La Llorona that took place along the local acequias and in the Rio Grande bosque. Apparently the story has been traced back to Spain. Here, and probably everywhere that it is known, it is used as a warning to keep children away from dangerious ditches and riverbanks.
The late Lilian Moore wrote a wonderful book of poems, See My Lovely Poison Ivy.
Other perennial favorites are the two collections by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Arnold Lobel, Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep and The Headless Horseman Rides Again. And Witch Poems collected by Daisy Wallace and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.
There are also some great scary pop-up books, including Jan Pienkowski's Haunted House, and Dracula's Tomb by Colin McNaughton.
-- Linnea Linnea Hendrickson Albuquerque, NM Lhendr at unm.edu http://www.unm.edu/~lhendrReceived on Fri 21 Oct 2005 01:23:20 PM CDT
