Judith Bauer Stamper

Snow is steadily building up outside as I write this review. Since we couldn't go anywhere today (the South shuts down when it snows), I was in the mood to read. Snow days always remind me of my kids. I still have one at home...but I tend to fondly remember the days when all my kids were still in school. One is in Japan with the Navy and the other is in Missouri (Army). For some reason, I got to thinking about those Scholastic book order forms that used to come home with them (my youngest still brought them home about 3 times a year up until he started middle school this year) periodically. In elementary school in the 90s and early 2000s, my oldest son was heavily into Goosebumps and kiddo horror stories. For whatever reason today, in honor of all the snow days spent making him cocoa while he read about haunted amusement parks, ghosts at school, and other kiddo frights, I decided to find some cheesy Scholastic horror to read. I'm glad I did -- it made for some fun reading!

I remember my son having this book (and the original Night Frights). The stories are short. The horror isn't too gruesome. It's definitely middle grade friendly, but still creepy. Several of the stories are based on folklore and urban legend. A bit cheesy, but fun to read. The stories are well-written and between 5 and 8 pages long each. Perfect snow day reading! I still miss my son wayyyy off in Japan on the other side of the world.....but I felt closer to him today as I sipped cocoa and read a Scholastic book. I have several more lined up to read tomorrow. :) My middle schooler has a snow day again.....so I will have some time to read a couple more kids books. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for nostalgia reads or children's stories. Why not? :) I had a great time remembering when my adult kids were still little....and enjoyed some fun stories! It really did make my afternoon brighter, even though the tales are dark and spooky!

More Night Frights includes 13 stories (of course). All of them are short, and the print is large and easy to read. For kids who like a bit of Things-That-Go-Bump-In-The-Night and parents who prefer those bumps to be a bit benign, this will keep everyone happy. Bit of scary....but not too scary. None of them will cause "Mom, I'm scared. Can I sleep with you?'' incidents. For me, it was nice to revisit memories, and this was a perfect quick read for a day when we are all stuck indoors.

Let it snow! I have more books to read! :)
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Night Frights: 13 Scary Stories, by JP Stamper, was published by Scholastic in 1993. It was the first collection of scary stories my oldest son ever read. When I asked him for a list of books that I could review for Throw-Back Thursdays, this one was in his top 10. He said he remembered us reading these stories out loud, and that they were creepy-scary-cool to him when he was in grade school.

The stories are all short -- perfect length for younger readers. They range in subject from old classics like Bloody Mary and a headless specter looking for its missing body part to more original scary tales. The stories are scary, but nothing is age inappropriate for middle grade age children. The stories are short enough to make them great to read outloud, or for grade school students to read by themselves.

I can see why my son remembers this book. I enjoyed re-reading the stories. They are truly creepy and fun to read, even for an adult. My favorite is the sixth story, The Corpse's Revenge, a taleabout grave robbers who get a big surprise.

J.B. Stamper has written several books for middle grade readers, including five Magic School Bus stories and three Tales for the Midnight Hour story collections.
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