CCBC-Net Archives

Finding the Scary for Younger Readers

From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 16:34:16 -0500

Rob mentioned Alvin Schwartz in his post, but most of the books we've mentioned so far are for older children and teens.

I'm wondering what people working with elementary-age children have observed about the appeal of scary stories--what are kids areading, and why?

Obviously scary isn't for everyone regardless of age. Something I always appreciated about Dave McKean's cover for Neil Gaiman's "Coraline," such a wonderfully scary book, is that the cover image was so perfect. I wouldn't have gone near that book when I was a kid (had it been around) because I wasn't drawn to scary. But if I'd liked scary, I would have been drawn right in.

Tundra has wonderful ghost story out this year called "The Swallow." The cover looks slightly unnerving--two girls in a graveyard. There is a truly scary ghost in the novel, and the book completely suceeds as a ghost story, but it also suceeds as a moving story of what it means to find a friend.

Megan

-- 
Megan Schliesman, Librarian
Cooperative Children's Book Center
School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Room 401 Teacher Education
225 N. Mills Street
Madison, WI  53706
608/262-9503
schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
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Received on Thu 09 Oct 2014 04:34:43 PM CDT