When my little sisters were around six and eight years old, they used to beg me for scary stories. I would check out books from my school library—Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (back when the art was actually scary!), Never Say Boo to a Ghost by John Foster—and read them aloud to the girls. We were eventually able to find and buy the books themselves, which was nice because we could read them anytime.
Their favorite among these books was JB Stamper’s Night Frights. A certain story in the book, “Coming to Get You,” was their absolute favorite. They called the story “Scritch, Scritch,” because that’s what was repeated as the—well, I won’t give it away, but it’s only a few pages long. In fact, I just purchased a copy to read with Wood Sprite and was shocked to see how thin it was. Today’s books have to be doorstop-sized to sell well, so it’s no wonder I remember reading three or four books a day as a teenager. They weren’t nearly as long.
Anyhow, Wood Sprite is still scared of the book; I read the first page of the story and she said, “OK, that’s enough!” She was definitely creeped out. But when I called both my sisters to read the first line to them, both of them screeched, “Oh my God! What is that? Where did you get it?” My middle sister quoted the whole first paragraph with me and my younger sister asked for a copy, too.
Revisiting these scary stories is so much fun, but remembering how we crammed into their twin bed together, with me always in the middle with the book so they both could cran their heads around the book, is the sweetest part. Create some book traditions and rituals today and I promise you’ll remember them in years to come.
Photo courtesy of Sara S.
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