Author: Alvin Schwartz
Artist: Stephen Gammell
Genre: Horror / Short Story
Year Published: 1984
Year Read: 2012
Series: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark #2
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Purchased
Content Rating: Ages 8+ (Scary Situations and Frightening Imagery)
Buy or Add on: Amazon // Goodreads
SCARY STORIES PART
TWO!
After reading the first book “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” I just had to read up on the
sequel, “More Scary Stories to Tell in
the Dark,” which is also written by Alvin
Schwartz along with illustrations by Stephen
Gammell. “More Scary Stories to Tell
in the Dark” is a continuation of the first book and we are introduced to
more spine-tingling tales from this fantastic series as you will definitely be
sitting on the edge of your seats after you read this collection of scary
stories!
Just like the first book, this book basically contains a
collection of scary stories to tell in the dark and they include:
One Sunday Morning
A young woman named Ida decided to go to church on Sunday
morning and when she made it to the church, she started to realize that the
people at the church were not normal as she saw one of her friends, Josephine
Kerr, attend the service, even though she died a month ago…
The Little Black
Dog
Billy Mansfield was fighting a man named Silas Burton, who
was an enemy of his family and when Billy knocked Silas off his horse, he ended
up killing Silas along with his black dog when the dog started barking at
Billy. Unfortunately after that incident,
Billy starts noticing a strange black dog following him around…
The Bride
A minister’s daughter just got married and after the wedding
ceremony, she decided to play hide and seek and she hid inside a trunk in the
attic. Unfortunately, the lid of the
trunk dropped on the daughter and locked her inside the trunk and everyone at
the wedding ceremony did not even know that she is missing!
Once again, I was blown away by this collection of scary
stories from the creative retellings of Alvin
Schwartz! Alvin Schwartz has done a
brilliant job at retelling these ancient scary folktales as each story is just
as creepy and intense as the last story and the twist endings are enough to
make you scream! I loved the way that Alvin Schwartz provided an eerie
atmosphere to each story as it makes the audience feel scare for the characters
and the supernatural activities that surround them and it really brought out
the creativity of this book. I also
loved the fact that Alvin Schwartz
took the time to research the various folktales dealing with horror and I loved
the fact that Alvin Schwartz
provided a bibliography section at the end of the book so that way you would be
able to go back and check the original sources of these tales! I enjoyed most of the stories in this
collection, but my most favorite stories would have to be “The Bride,” “The Little
Black Dog,” “One Sunday Morning,” “Wonderful Sausage” and “The Cat in a Shopping Bag.” Stephen Gammell’s illustrations are as
usual, eerily and brilliantly done as the artwork is truly frightening to look
at and the black and white colorings of the illustrations really bring out the
creepy feel to the stories. There is
much creepy imagery in this book, but probably the scariest image in this book
was of the skeletal bride in “The
Bride.”
Just like the first book, this book might be too scary for
small children since there are stories about characters being killed and
haunted by supernatural forces. Also,
what always made this series so scary for small children is the fact that the
illustrations are truly scary and small children might not be able to get
through this book because of the scary illustration. As for why I took off half a point from the
rating, I felt that this book was using the same structure that was used in the
first book such as in stories like “Cemetery
Soup” where the character always steal something from the dead and
something haunts them at the end.
Overall, “More Scary
Stories to Tell in the Dark” is just another addition to your “Horror Books
for Children” shelf that you just got to check out! I would recommend this book to children ages
eight and up since the often spooky content in this book is too scary for small
children.
REASON FOR BEING BANNED: Unsuited for age group, violence
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