Dark Room and Other Scary Stories - Reillustrated Edition (I Can Read Level 2)

My (almost) 3 year old loooooves this book! He doesn't get scared easily and loves ghosts, pirates and all things spooky. If your child gets scared easily, just look at the cover and read the title, it probably isn't a good book for them. When I first read it my first thought was "What the *heck* is this?? How is this a book for kids??" Especially about the girl named Jenny whos head falls off.. But for some reason my son thought that was funny and that's his favourite story in the book.
Anyways, a must buy for kids who love halloween and spooky things!

Like many other reviewers, I loved checking out this book at the school library when I was a child. I loved, above all, the story "The Green Ribbon", and made mt mother copy it down on legal pad so I could read it always. She didn't note the Author or book title, so for many years I wondered if it was still out there in circulation.. Then a few years ago I was in a bookstore around Halloween, and decided to look for it in the children's area. They had it out on a display table right at the front and I could barely contain my excitement! This is still a great introduction to little scary/ ghost/ horror readers. If your little one likes creepy tales, this is a good pick. I'm getting another copy for the kids of a friend that I think would enjoy this and other spooky books (but still keeping my copy). The book itself has no blood or gore or violence, but as another reviewer mentioned, the girl in The Green Ribbon's head does fall off at the end of the story. I remember as a kid being intrigued by the fact that the character kept the green ribbon a secret her whole life, and asking my mother how she could live if her head was chopped off.. I don't recall having nightmares from the stories at all, but I was also reading well beyond my level when I was at that age and already into scary ghost story books, so I wasn't damaged by the stories in this book.

Schwartz knew the power of old stories collected by our ancestors, and here they are. Seven stories to tingle your toes and enrich your soul. Sources are noted at the end of the book. Zimmer knows how to bring the macabre to munchkins. Coupled with big print for new readers, this book is perfect for kids who are tired of puppies licking ice cream cones. You even get the more modern ghost hitchiker tale. Listen, folktales are tradition. Yeah, there are hidden warnings in the motifs that will scare adults, but these things go over kids' heads. Lighten up, question who you married, and untie your tight scarf. You never know what can happen. Copyright 1984.

My son is 8 and we don't let him watch scary movies so he's not had much exposure to spooky stories but he read this book at school and the green ribbon story gave him nightmares. He used to prefer to sleep in complete darkness with his door closed and now he needs a nightlight and his door open. I would not have expected that reaction from him so just a heads up to parents with sensitive kiddos.

Especially for an "I Can Read book", this was a huge disappointment. Maybe because it was published a long time ago, but I found the stories age inappropriate and unnecessary. For the age of the readers reading this book I would discourage anyone but 6th graders and up to read this and at that age, this level of reading should be too easy.

This was the first book of ghost stories that I ever owned. It made for several sleepless nights, and turned me into a lifelong lover of macabre stories. I was so happy to find this still in print, as I think my 7yo daughter will love it. She loves movies like Frankenweenie and The Nightmare Before Christmas. She shivers and says "Too scary!" and then grins and asks to watch it again. I can't wait to surprise her with this book on our camping trip this summer.

Update: Kiddo loves the book. She's been reading it to her younger sisters by flashlight, and now wants "Ghosts!" which is advertised in the back.

I love these classic stories. My 3 and 5 year old kids love them, too, and beg to tell their own Dark, Dark... stories every night. These stories are definitely not too scary for most kids. I give this version 3 stars because I find the illustrations too busy and cutesy. Seek out the edition illustrated by Dirk Zimmer instead for a 5-star buy!

I am most grateful that my wife and I read this book before I gave it to my 5 year old grandson. The illustrations are very good but several stories are totally inappropriate for young children. "In a Graveyard" has a "very short and very fat" woman being told by corpses in their unburied coffins that "you will be like us when you are dead". I find this very troubling in that young children are already unclear with their understanding of death. Talking corpses and "scaring a very short and very fat woman" presents a very distorted lesson and is in exceedingly poor taste. "The Ghost of John" is a 1 page poem discussing how chilly John is with his long white bones and flesh all gone and no skin on. Again, this distorts the concept of death and in my mind would be very disturbing to young children. Finally, "The Green Ribbon" presents the story of a young girl throughout her life who always wore a green ribbon around her neck and never removed it. Near the end of her life, she allows her husband to untie the ribbon and her head falls off.
Although the author tries to justify the stories in this book by stating that they are based on older stories and folktales, I find absolutely NO value to these stories for young children and in fact they may well be frightening and disturbing. My grandson will NEVER see this book. If I can't return it, it will be recycled. Parents and grandparents, there is so much quality material for young children that is a little spooky and enjoyable for children. This book has no redeeming value in my opinion and should never be given to or read to young children.

I remember when the scholastic book store would come to my school. I am a mother in my early thirties yet I can actually remember buying this book (among others) with my very own money from the grade school book sale way back in the eighties.

I LOVED this book! It was fun and funny and just scary enough. Now that I have a daughter of my own, I encourage her to read and I do so in part by recalling books I loved and buying them for her in hopes she may like them too. With Halloween just around the corner and the fact that she is a fearless seven-year old, this book had to make the purchase list.

I bought it for her a couple of years ago BEFORE she learned to appreciate books. Now that she is closer to eight, she gets it; I don't mind replacing this particular book since it also comes with audio.

My daughters (ages 5 & 7) love this book! The first time we sat down to read the book, we ended up reading it 3 times. They then looked through the book examining the wonderful illustrations closely. It's a lot of fun to read for the whole family.

Nice big letters, repetition, familiar expressions, and rhymes will help beginning readers sound out new words. Dirk Zimmer’s illustrations are large and full of color. A thoughtful foreword explains that it is sometimes fun to read scary stories when we know they are not real. I think this is a great concept to introduce to children. And this book is a nice vehicle to use to talk to children about how things like ghosts and skeletons that are not real can be funny instead of scary.

I just read this book to my 6 and 8 year old boys.
I remember telling the green ribbon story to all my friends when I was a child. Though, I don't know where I heard the story. I had actually forgotten that story and it was fun to remember it thanks to this book and share it with my kids. I especially like the teeth story too.

I was wondering if my kids, especially my 6 year old would be scared. The stories are a bit creepy, but fun in a creepy way. My kids were intrigued and questioning, but not scared. They understand these stories are not real and are meant to be scary in a fictional way. I have a feeling I'll be reading the book until Halloween.
Not sure if a four year old may be a little young for these stories. I definitely would want my children to understand real vs. pretend before reading this book.

When I was young I loved all things scary. No book with a weird or spooky premise was safe at my school library; 'World's Greatest Monsters' still lays on a shelf somewhere in my house with my school's stamp on it. I hope no angry librarians find this review. This love of the macabre and strange follows me to this day, and I don't think any one man helped to foster that more Alwin Schwartz. This little tome, along with 'Bony Legs' and the 'Scary Stories' series, not only encouraged me to read but helped me confront fear. I think the reason a lot of us read scary stories when we're young is to confront fear. Its really the same reson we watch horror movies or read Peter Straub when we get older. I said all of that in order to adress some of the reviews I've seen on this product.

I know there is a compulsion from parents to kind of shield scary images. But at some point people have to be introduced to this kind of thing. It's good for you! Television is ten times worse than what is in this book. This book introduces the reader to folk tails from other cultures, hauntingly simple illustrations, and great little scary tales. These are the types of stories kids heard around the fire side 100 years ago.

That being said, this book stands the test of time for me. And hey, remember, sometimes a little dose of fear is good =)

I had this book when I was a kid and loved it so I got it for my 8 year old . It's a little below her reading level but the stories are short and simple enough for her to memorize. She loves to tell them when she has sleepovers so it works out.

I just ordered this for my three GROWN children! I read this book to all three of them: my oldest probably 14, middle 9 and youngest 5. My oldest got so scared from the The Green Ribbon story, he fell off the bed screaming! LOL, one of our best memories! This book is great!

This book played a big part of my childhood, so much so that it still sits on my bookshelf today. I found it in the school library when I was six and I checked it out religiously, so much so that at the end of the year, the librarian gave it to me as a moving-away gift. It scared me, definitely, but I loved hiding under my blankets with a flashlight and flipping the book open to read and reread stories. I guess it's the kind of book that's not appropriate for ALL children (it depends on the child, as my little nephew loved it and my niece was really scared) so exercise caution, but if your kid likes scary stories and interesting narratives, then this is a MUST READ. Honestly, I don't understand the people giving this one star because it's scary. It says right on the cover that it's full of scary stories. One flip through will give you a good idea of what you're looking at; gauge how your child will respond based on that, and don't take it out on the book that told you it was going to be scary.

My daughter, almost five now, is just learning to read, but has loved this book for years. It is great for sight words, and the shortness of the stories and abundance of pictures keeps her attention. I remember reading it myself when I was about her age, and was so happy she liked it as much as I did. Can't wait now to make the jump to Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark-- the next level is so much more traumatizing.

I remember when I got this book. It was near Halloween and I had to go to Burlington coat factory with my grandma. I saw this book and asked her if I could get it. She said okay. I was eight years old. I took it back to her house and read it that night. My favorite story was 'The Green Ribbon'. I took it to school with me the following Monday so that my teacher would read it to us and she got excited when she saw 'The Green Ribbon' because it was a story she was looking for that was told to her when she was a child. I love this book and I recommend it to you, but I do think that if you're a parent, you might want to see if your child can handle some of these stories. Aside from that, this is a fine bit of literature and will be cherished by many people for years to come.

I'm nineteen years old, and I still remember the day I found this book in my school library when I was six. I was enamoured, and checked it out numerous times before another student lost it. I was a bookworm as a child, having read hundreds of books in a matter of years, and this book still stands as one of the truly unforgettable books I read in my youth. I believe it is the powerful imagery of the book that has stuck with me all these years, and made it impossible for me to forget.

Granted, it is not for everyone, and some children might benefit from reading it at an older age. I remember being slightly perturbed by some of the ideas and nuances presented in the book. However, I doubt highly that it would truly disturb any child that was mature enough to approach the book thoughtfully.

An initial parental reading might be something to consider.

This is a wonderful piece of children's liturature and imyself constantly checked it out when i was no more than six. We, asa society, need to learn that just because one person may not agree with something, does not mean that everyone (or anyone) feels the same way. And further, i'd like to say that people need to realize that kids can handle a lot more than we give them credit for. Please understand that the macabre and the spooky are wonderful, emotion enducing tools that are terribly misunderstood. If you want sick and twisted, i suggest you take a closer look at your precious disney movies. Or perhaps we should inspect the overbearing need to "normalize" children today, not only by parents, but by the schools and society at large. Just because something isn't all smiles and sunshine (which, i might add, i found particularly frightening as a child and still do) doesn't mean that it is bad for children. So, please, stop deciding what children can and cannot handle, and what they do and do not like. As for this book, i find it a wonderfly macabre and creative piece of classic poetry for children of ALL AGES, and if any of you parents need some age suggestions, here are mine, LIVING TO DECEASED (and perhaps beyond) Thank you. END

This book is a collection of short scary stories for children, perfect for Halloween season. I remember reading these stories when I was younger and think that they where they scariest things. If you read the stories to the children, you could then have them come up with their own scary stories. Plus it is a great way to introduce the genre of mystery and suspense and teach the children what qualities a book must have to actually be a mystery. Most of all these short stories are fun to read and they are not so scary that a child would be left with nightmares, and they are short enough that they keep the child's attention long enough

I'm 35 now, so that means it's been 30 years since I last laid eyes on this book...and yet here I am looking for it in the store, out of curiosity! I still remember a girl's head falling off when a ribbon holding on her severed head came off. Pretty scary for little ones!

I wouldn't read most of these these stories to a large group of kids, but I remember loving the book for the very fact that it wasn't afraid to be scary. Time after time I'd read a halloween book where the ghost turned out to be "cute" or "silly," and it would disappoint me tremendously. I thought the Green Ribbon was actually sort of funny (it never says her head was CUT off, it just needed the green ribbon to keep from FALLING off). I don't think it could actually "desensitize" kids - learning to deal, emotionally, with things that scare them (especially imaginary thins) is something they're going to have to do sooner or later, anyway. That said, the book is not afraid to be a bit morbid or scary (despite a couple of stories that are meant to be jokes), and probably TOO scary for a lot of younger kids to handle. Read it yourself before you read it to kids (it'll only take a minute) and use your better judgement.

If your bigger kids like "Scary Stories to tell in the dark" by Alvin Schwartz (with illustrations by Stephen Gammel!), then this is the book for little brother or sister. Kindergarteners like to be a LITTLE scared, but not as intensely scared. This is perfect. Read it with them, so they aren't too freaked out.

And moms and dads, you know your child. If they can't handle it, wait a year or two.

OMG!!! I had this book as a kid and that was over 15 years ago and I knew I loved the story about the girl with the ribbon around her neck. It terrified me and my friends every time we'd read it at Girl Scout Camp. I knew I had to get it for myself because I've been thinking about the past alot and I couldn't remember the name of it, so I typed in scary stories and who knew I'd find it. I remember the book cover, I can't believe I found it; I never thought I'd find my favorite childhood book. That includes another book called Frog and Toad All Year; these two books were ultimately my favorite books as a child. I'm so happy... because now, I'm going to buy it.

Bought this for my son who is in Kindergarten. His homework is to read 30 minutes every day and it's hard to find him stories to keep him interested for that long. This book worked great. He loves the silly stories and it's easy for him to read along. The pictures are funny to so that helps too.

I was read this book as a child in Kindergarten. I simply fell in love with these stories. The one that sticks out most in my mind is "The Green Ribbon".

At the time, I cannot remember ever being scared by these stories, just loving them and wanting to hear them more and more. But, I can understand that these stories aren't for every child in the listed agre group. I feel that these stories have just enough maturity to them that it's better if the parent reads them first(check it out from a library) and then determines if it's okay for his/her children.

But a good rule of thumb would be this, if your child can handle movies like "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and similar things then I'm sure they'll do just fine with these stories.

And heck, if you remember these from your childhood, buy the book for yourself!

I first read this book when I was eight years old. I still remember the day that I checked it out of the school library. I couldn't wait to get home from school to read it.

I'm twenty-one now and this very book was one of the reasons I wanted/became a writer. My personal favorite of the stories is, The Green Ribbon. And to anyone that is considering buying this for their children or just to relive childhood memories, like me, then I suggest that you buy it. Each story is great in their own way and I highly recommend this book.

Now, for those parents out there that believe that these stories will scare their child or give them nightmares, I say, please let your children experience things in life. Or at the very least know your children enough to know if they have the mentality to read these stories.

Every child is different and I have come to find out that children are great judges of things. They'll tell you when something is a little too intense for them or not. Although, my wife and I do not have children yet. She and I will defintely allow them read this book and all the other books that we read as children.

Working in elementary schools, I see lots of students who love this book. Spooky folktales are found in every culture and this collection for beginning readers is especially delightful. Children who enjoy this book will also like the beginning reader I DARE YOU! STORIES TO SCARE YOU! by Kathleen Keeler (Scholastic, 1999). The three stories in this newer collection aren't supernatural but they are pleasingly spooky.

Listen, kids who like scary stories are going to have nightmares. It's part of the weird appeal that scary things have to kids. I remember quite well in elementary school, especially 1-3 grades, this was my all time favorite Halloween book. I would read it all the time, not just at Halloween. It was my favorite so much so, that in recent years I've been recalling the stories from it, and decided to look it up today. I know for sure that when I have kids I will be reading this to them, if they get into scary stuff. The illustrations go great alongside the text, which in my opinion, is definitely written for the ages recommended. If I gave it to my 9 year old niece, she probably wouldn't get into as much, but a little bit younger and she'd love it. I definitely recommend this book, it's impacted me after all these years.

This book, and the other books by Alvin Schwartz, are some of the most if not THE most memorable books of my entire life. Theres something special about a book if you read it over and over and remember the stories well into your adult life. The way the stories are told is magical, I mean here's this intensly horrifying situation, but the way its worded so simply and easily has a sort of strange feeling to the whole story. this is what keeps me reading this book. i remember in our library in grade school, i would just go straight to these books and just read them right there on the spot and go back to class. I cant really describe the way THE GREEN RIBBON makes me feel, its a very strange, scary, tingly, wondering, warm feeling. not many stories told so simply can do that. MAGICAL.

My 6 year old was in tears over the green ribbon story. She had been begging for the book since seeing it in the back of several of her I can read books. She is quite the accomplished reader for her age group so I was slightly surprised. Be aware some of the stories may be a bit too scary for the reading level your child may be at!

Our elementary aged students love __In a Dark,Dark Room__by Alvin Schwartz. Shelved in our easy chapter book section of the library it affords children a choice of several stories that they love to tell me are really scary. We had four copies and over five years they have had hundreds of loans. In fact I am purchasing another copy because of strong demand.

This was one of the first books that I can vividly remember reading. I was 7 or 8 when I was given this book and I've been in love with it ever since. I recently purchased it for myself after not having read in years. I'm 20 now, and it's still just as amazing as it was then. The stories that always stick out in my mind are "The night it rained" and "The Green Ribbon". They're very moving&beautiful...yet horrifyingly sad. Anyway, this is a must buy for any child 7&up or for anyone who is looking to recapture a little bit of their childhood. :-)

One of the stories in this book, The Green Ribbon, had such an impact on my daughter (when it was read to her in preschool) that she had it recited at her wedding.

My daughter wore a green ribbon around her neck which the groom untied to symbolize that they weren't hiding anything from each other.

The Green Ribbon is such a romantic story--until the very last line.

this book used to scair the hell out of me as a kid!!
It still spooks me when I see this book online or in stores.
It is sooooo not a light hearted spooky book for kids.
It would freak out an adult let alone a kid.

teachers & parents use to read the "scary storys" books & they were creepy but didn't freak me out like this one.

loved this book as a child, I remember reading it in like first or second grade. actually pretty dark stuff. i'm surprised it was in an elementary school library... really good. I would only read to some children as it might scare some.

I remember when I was about 4-6 I would read this book endlessly, and it would always scare the crap out of me, especially THE GREEN RIBBON. I couldn't go to sleep at night because of that story, and as a result, it sticks out the most in my mind. And now, looking back on the stories, they still seem scary! I'm 13 now, and don't scare very easily, but these stories scare me, and I love them! A few years ago my parents shelved this book, and I'm searching through many rooms (not dark, thankfully) to find it. I like the book that much, and I recommend this to everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY! HAIL ALVIN SCHWARTZ!!

I read this book when I was a kid in about first or second grade. I loved it. I still remover the stories, and I've thought about them for years. I just bought it for my kids. It's perfect for Halloween. WARNING: not recommend for wimpy parents. The book is designed to scare kids. Don't buy it if you don't want to scare your kids.

I'm 20 now, and I have no idea why, but for some reason this book just popped into my head the other day, especially the Green Ribbon story.
This was one of my favourite stories as a kid, this coming from a 20 year old who can't handle horror movies *at all*. My ex-girlfriend made me go see Saw III with her a couple of years ago and I spent 80% of the movie staring at my lap. People saying this book is horrible etc are just being overprotective parents trying to wrap their children in bubble wrap. Perhaps not for 4 year olds, but great for maybe 8-10 year olds.

I beseech you, my friends. Heed not the reckless screechings of that random stranger. He knew not of what he spoke. In truth, this lost soul was truly petrified by the delightfully cherishable stories given to us by Mr. Schwartz in this small book with its bright and fanciful decor. The stories will stay with you for years. Whether it is read on a sunned porch, reclined toward the open sea with the sun glaring down lustfully upon your browning skin, or whether you're huddled in the corner of a dark and dank cabin shack that quivers and shakes with the roaring, rainy gale that all but engulfs you and all that surrounds you. I recommend this book to all who can appreciate a pleasant chill now and again. Indeed it is appropriate for ALL ages. ALL, says I. I had first read it long ago and will read it evermore... and even after that...

I thought it was a good book but I don't think it should be for little kids in pre-school because it was a little too scarey for them. I especially liked the story about the little kid who has a ribbon around her neck and when alfred untied it her head fell off.

I checked this book out of my school's library (in 1st and 2nd grade) so many times that the librarian stopped letting me because she wanted me to read other ones. I actually memorized the tale of the green ribbon because it was my favorite. It didn't scare me at all at that age (6 or 7). That was back when the Real Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books were popular, too. I would recommend parents judge for themselves though first, before allowing their young children to read it.

I rarely write reviews, but this time I will take the time.
This book is awful and morbid and not appropriate for the recommended age group 4 - 8.
Stories about severed heads, and ghosts of children, etc....
I am very disappointed that this book was included in the I Can Read series.
We have a lot of I Can Read books, and after seeing the 5 stars, I didn't bother to read the negative reviews...
big mistake.

I remember reading this book in the 1st grade. I loved it! My favorite story was/is The Green Ribbon. The other stories are pretty spooky too! If you have a child that loves scary stories, then they'll love this!!!

My grandmother worked at an elementary school library and brought this book home for me when I was about 4 years old. I was starting to read and had memorized every Dr. Seuss and Little Golden Book in the house. She brought this home because it was something different and it was around Halloween time. I loved this book so much that I did not want to give it back, she had to take it in the middle of the night. She then got it out for me every year around Halloween time. I loved Halloween time because I knew that when I went to Grandma's I could read this book. It is amazing. None of the stories scared me. I never had nightmares, but to this day I remember the story of Jenny and Alfred and the Green Ribbon. This book is AMAZING and I recommend it to anyone, young or old.

I am almost 30 years old and can remember reading In a dark dark room and other scary stories. I can remember reading it over and over to my younger cousins and I would animate my voice to go with the story and when it would come to the end and I could say "There was a ghost!!" i would say it really loud and we would all giggle. Now it's time to introduce my children to it! So excited to be able to share a book from my childhood with them!

I am a 25 year old man, and even today I get a kick out of this book, which I first discovered in 1st grade.
Parents Beware! This stories in this book are spooky, the illustrations are slightly disturbing, and may not be for every young reader.

This book was read in my son's preschool class for halloween.and He came home and I could not figure out why he would not play in his room or go tho the bathroom by himself.That night he woke up screaming and ran into my room because of a nightmare he had just had about corpses and a dark room filled with ghots that were going to kill us. The next morning he told me he did not want to go to school if he had to be scared by that book. I don't think that is reading material for a 4 year old and I will not let my son listen to the book or tape anymore.

The stories are... Umm... Odd. These aren't just fun kid friendly ghost stories, they're very strange. You'll do a lot of eye rolling like I did, I am sure. My 9 year old read the first story, said: "What the heck??" handed it to me, I read it, had the same reaction, and we threw the book away.

As a child I loved this book. There is a rhythm to the book that keeps you interested. To all those who are afraid that their child will have nightmares, I can say that there is little that a child wouldn't be able to handle. This was the book I learned to read on, so I was quite young when I read it. Just have a sense of what your child can handle, and there should be no problem.

Just recently I thought of this book and how much I loved reading it as a child. I spent a lot of time in the library as a kid and I vividly remember the cover of this book, however, i couldn't remember the title. Luckily, the authors name popped into my head and I found it. Now I can share this book with my boys.

This is one of the first books I remember reading as a kid and it freaked me out so much! Looking back, the stories aren't anything to get even remotely scared about, but there is something great about this book when you're a kid. I must have read this book 15 times in one year. I still remember the stories, and I've even reminisced about it with my friends. A must have in any childhood.

My kids and I checked out the audio version many times from the library. I still recall the narrator's warm voice and his pronunciations. It's scary enough to keep your interest and get you thinking, but not horrifying. I love "The Green Ribbon" and how Jenny and Alfred live their whole lives on a few pages, getting older and older. Finally Jenny's head falls off when the ribbon is removed. Told You NOT to, Alfred!

This is a great book i read it when i was in elementary school and all the kids in my class read it goether and it still sticks with me today. our favorite was the girl with the green ribbon. i am now 20 and still remember this book and how much we all loved it!

My girls, ages 4 & 7 years, had this book checked out of the library for most of last summer. The author does an excellent job of explaining that it is fun to be scared when you know that you are safe, it's all pretend. It's on the birthday wish list for this year! I highly recommend the accompanying audio cassette.

This book is amazing and a great investment for kids reading. I am not a fan of scary stories but these stories remain some of my favorite. They should be a staple of childhood!!! If you think that your child can handle the stories which are pretty G rated they can spark the imagination.

My 6 year old son loved this book so much he couldn't put it down! It was very refreshing to find a book that is different from the usual happy-sappy children's books. It was spooky enough to keep him interested but not so scary that it frightened him.

This book is pure nightmare material. On the other hand, kids love it. At a playgroup we discovered that four of the kids in the group both obsessively read or listened to this story and had nightmares about it. One was my 5 year old daughter. She had nightmares about it last year for months after reading it at Halloween. This year she had only to glimpse it on the library shelf for the nightmares to start again. It is well written, it certainly does the job of being spooky. I am sure you could cement a lot of new sight words into your child's head with this emotionally rousing easy reader. But do you want to? They don't get to be innocent for that long. I say, stay away from it for the 4-and 5-year-olds. Use with caution with 6s and 7s. Sensitive 8s should avoid it, too. I give it 3 stars because, while very well written, it is not appropriate for its target age group.

This is a great book for young readers! A little halloween fun for your first grader. Simple short stories that they may even be able to read by themselves. A little scary, but they won't want to put it down.

You have to think twice before reading this book to small children (5 or under). It came in a box of books that we bought at a garage sale. My son (5 year old) brought it to me, and I saw that it was for 1st thru 3rd graders, so I thought it would be safe. After the first 2 stories, which were kinda corny and ended abruptly, I made my way to the next one, "the Green Scarf". The way the story ends with decapitation is way beyond what a 5 year old should have to comprehend. Now my son is scared to grow old and die, and wants to know how far heaven is,a nd alot of other "life questions" that I was not prepared to answer at bedtime. Needless to say, there is an extra lump in my bed now as my son refuses to sleep alone. Great book? Maybe...but not for the little ones.

This book is disgusting and horrible. Although it might be ok for a 13-15 year old, it is in NO WAY ok for a 4-7 year old! It starts with the first no-no-children approaching and talking to strangers-scary strangers even. Then it escalates to corpses lying and hanging out of coffins all over a graveyard, then worse yet, a story of a girl whose head is cut off and reattached with a ribbon -and the finale-a child in her bedroom at night scared that there is someone there with her trying to convince herself there isn't and then finding out there is someone there. WHAT KIND OF AWFUL GARBAGE IS THIS? Are there any parents out there who would EVER read this to their 4-7 year old? I love Halloween and spookiness just like anybody else, but this is ridiculous! The author and illustrator of this book are sick to ever think that a 4-7 year old child would be ok reading this junk. I HATE THIS BOOK and will tell everyone I know how awful it is. Just awful!

This book is marketed towards 6-8 year olds, but the stories are waaaay too troublesome for most 6-7 year olds and probably many 8 year olds as well. The cover looks cool so of course my 6yr old son chose this one from the library. It wasn't until I was reading it aloud to our 6yr old and 4yr old that I stopped mid-sentence realizing the girl's head would FALL OFF. Talk about nightmare material... no wonder so many children have nightmares and worry needlessly about things they shouldn't have to worry about. The stories themselves are good for about ages 9 and up which is why I gave this 2 stars. It certainly shouldn't be "An I Can Read Book" though.

I can't believe this book is recommended for ages 4 and up! My son had nightmares, and the graphic illustrations of severed heads and skeletons were not appreciated by myself or my family. If you seriously want to make your kids have nightmares, then this is the book for you. However, if your mild-mannered child simply wants a scary story for Halloween, there are many others better suited, such as Tell Me a Scary Story, but Not Too Scary or Scooby Doo and the Case of the Missing Donuts. For older kids maybe this book is okay, but for four to six year olds, I would never recommend it.

Are you kidding me? My child is a 6 year old avid reader and likes ghost stories. We purchased the book today as a reward for his behavior. The first 2 stories are short, rather pointless, and vaguely spooky. The third, The Green Ribbon, is a little longer. About 2 pages in, I could see where the story was going, but couldn't believe they would actually have someone's head fall off in a book listed as Level 2.

They do.

Needles to say, I spent the last hour trying to get my son to sleep and his bedroom light is still on. Spooky? I guess, but more just inappropriate. Now I have been reminded to better proof the books I buy for my children and to never waste time or money on anything by this author. I gave this book a 1 only because I didn'tfind any blatant typos or grammatical errors.