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Cindy: Can an author really scare me in 30 seconds or less? The answer is yes when it is Margaret Atwood or Jack Gantos or M. T. Anderson or Art Slade. Yikes! Each story, poem, or graphic story in this slim volume can be read in less than half a minute. Lynn brought Half-Minute Horrors (Harper, 2009) in to show me last week and the clamoring from the students who glimpsed the creepy fun cover and heard her talk about the book was deafening! I had to immediately order two copies for each middle school and it won’t be enough. Good thing these are quick reads! Some of the stories are REALLY short, like this one called “Soup” from Jenny Nimmo:

I wish someone had warned me about Alice’s soup.
I’ll never get rid of these horns now.
Baaa!

R. L. Stine is no stranger to horror and he provides a great riff on the “monster in my closet” theme with a story that has an O. Henry ending. Most of the stories, even though they are short, contain a full story arc with setting and characters. Last week I loaned Lynn’s copy to an 8th grade teacher who needed a one day writing activity. She was going to read some of these samples and then have her students try their hand at writing their own scary tales. I’m eager to read what they wrote.

Oh, and here’s my display tip for the fall: We have a poster of a skeleton holding a sign that says RIP (Read in Peace). The scary story display circulates more books than any other display we do all year.

Lynn: Face it – we all love to be scared. Well, we love to be scared in the safety of our own homes. If I had even a penny for every time a student asked me for a book with scary stories, I’d be chartering my own private plane to ALA conferences. (I’m still holding a grudge for the whole paying for checked bags outrage!) Anyway this is a perfect book for kids grades 4-7 who want to be scared (older “kids” will like this too). The stories are quick to read and they are REALLY scary. They are also completely addictive. I’m warning you right now that reading just one simply isn’t possible. You’ll think, “Oh, they’re short – just one more.” Before you know it you are halfway through the book and dinner is burning.

I don’t think I can pick a favorite but don’t miss “Death Rides a Pink Bicycle” or “The Rash” or…well, they’re all wonderful. The cover is irresistible too. I had set the book on the circulation desk at school one day when I was in helping and every student checking out wanted it. I confess to giving in to my grandsons who begged for a story when the book arrived. I read them Allan Stratton’s “There’s Something Under the Bed” before sending them home to their father, heh heh!

Those of you on RSS feeds for Bookends might have seen the start of this post pop up yesterday. I wish I could say it was just a test to see if you were paying attention One of us (who shall remain anonymous) hit publish a tad early. Well we learn by doing and now we know how to retrieve a post that goes out too soon. Wait – maybe something ghostly and unseen made it happen! OOOOOH!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 7:53 am and is filed under Gr. 4-7, Horror, Short Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.