Rich, Susan. Half-Minute Horrors. Harper, 2009. Grades 4-8

America’s leading children’s authors and illustrators come together to share their own thirty second horror stories in just 3 pages or less. Authors and illustrators such as Erin Hunter, James Patterson, Neil Gaiman, Brian Selznick, and Dan Gutman provide eerie tales through a variety of means, including comics, scary art, haikus, short vivid stories, and more. These bone-chilling episodes are depicted through original illustrations and rich descriptive language but often end in the middle of hair-raising action, leaving a lot to the imagination of the reader. In one bewildering comic by R Sala, a boy is kidnapped by an unnerving man in a painting at the doctor’s office: “…That’s when he noticed the old man’s hands. They were bony and scaly and had long pointed nails.” Illustrations paired with this text show the long fingers reaching out from the painting grabbing the wide-eyed boy and end with the mother screaming: “And her screams could be heard all the way down the street.” Although most stories are all written or illustrated in a page or two, each author has their own unique style. Jon Klassen, for example, slyly tells a disturbing tale of a murdered girl’s body being buried in multiple places, but does so in a one page black and white illustration of a house with a numbered list of what's in the ground, leaving the reader to figure out the creepy synopsis by analyzing the text and drawing. Although each of these stories are not equally spooky, the diverse mix is sure to interest elementary and middle school children, especially reluctant readers who don’t like long chapter books. Readers unacquainted with horror stories may also find that the blend of illustration and text are the perfect vehicle to explore the macabre sides of their favorite authors. Ultimately, through a variety of sinister drawings, descriptive imagery, and clever comics, Half Minute Horrors contains a collection of artfully crafted horror stories for children that also work as the perfect Halloween read aloud (by campfire or flashlight, of course).


Also, in keeping with the spooky nature of this children's book, check out this zomibie-fied photo of me! With the help of Michelle Bober, Marketing Associate at Naperville Public Library, I was turned into a Zombie who loves to read! This was created to promote the teen Summer Reading Program in 2014.

Book Review: Thirteen Chairs

Shelton, Dave. Thirteen Chairs. New York: Scholastic, 2015. Print. Grades 6-12. 

Jack is a curious boy who decides that he has to know what is inside a nearby house which is rumored to be haunted. Upon finally entering the supposedly haunted house he has walked past for several years of his childhood, he encounters a room filled with unusual characters telling ghost stories by candlelight: “The only light comes from the candles on the table, one for each of those seated there, casting shifting, looming shadows onto the crumbling plaster of the walls.” Stories are told from the perspectives of each unique character sitting in the room, bringing readers a very diverse mix of paranormal stories. Jack takes notice of one peculiar man in particular: “[Piotr] is enormous. He looks as if he might have been carved from a mountain. From within his extravagant rust-and-ashes beard there appears a wide and welcoming grin of crooked teeth”. Piotr shares his own tale, The Red Tree, in which a woodcutter is strangled to death by the limbs of a tree. Shelton writes the story as though it is really being told aloud by a non-native speaker: “And woodcutter feel blood is all spilling out, running down his body, running down onto tree…. [blood] is making red tree.” Thirteen Chairs seamlessly intertwines thirteen distinct stories into a single narrative reinforced by the author’s mysterious black and white ink drawings shown at the beginning of each story, giving a glimpse into the terror contained in the consecutive pages. Ultimately, Shelton brings us a creatively organized collection of short tales to chill the bones of middle and high school readers. Fans of Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark will likely be thrilled by the horror contained in this book and the short story format may delight reluctant readers. Thirteen Chairs will also be the perfect recommendation for those who are constantly pestering the Youth Services Librarian for “something truly spooky."