Scary Stories We Love

In the days leading up to Halloween, during conversations about costumes, candy, and celebrations for the coming spooky holiday, I asked authors, friends, and teen readers alike:

What was your favorite scary book as a kid?

Here are some of their responses.

"Well, I was always a fan of Where the Wild Things Are...that was one of my favorites year round. As I got older, I sorta skipped kids' books and went right into the old Doc Savage pulp reprints. After my pulp phase, I discovered Richard Matheson's I Am Legend and there was no going back. I found my love in horror and there was no looking back. That book scared the crap out of me. From there I discovered Stephen King, devouring Carrie and Salem's Lot, but it was The Shining that again reduced me to a quivering mass...but I loved every second!" - Tom Sniegoski

"I LOVED Baby-sitters Beware, The Baby-Sitters Club Super Mystery #2 by Ann M. Martin. The girls were stalked by a creepy dude. So unsettling for a BSC book!!!" - Courtney Summers

"As a kid: Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn. As a teen, I read memoirs about tragedy, which scared me plenty!" - Courtney Sheinmel

"Ghost Cat by Beverly Butler changed how I felt about ghosts, cats, and Wisconsin farms. Spooky and a little quirky, which is my favorite flavor of spooky. Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn was suggested to me by my bookish friend in grade school. What I remember most about this book are the fires, the liars, and the skeletons. I'm sure I'm making it sound less chilling than it was for me at the time. It scared me. Also, Carrie was scary. I was the first Stephen King book I ever read. I was in high school and I think it's the only frightening novel I read at that age. I metabolize horror very slowly and read it sparingly. My husband is the scary writer. I'm the funny one." - Kristen Tracy

"Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. It gave me nightmares." - 15-year-old reader

"There was this book about a kid who was visited by monsters every night and the monsters broke his toys. Every night. Until one night when he asked them not to do it anymore, and then they fixed his toys. I can't remember the title." - another 15-year-old reader (If anyone is familiar with this book and knows the title/author, please share the info in the comments below!)

"By far, the scariest book I remember as a young reader was James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. After all, what could be more horrifying than rolling around the countryside embedded deep in the dark, cloying, moist tunnels of an enormous piece of fruit while surrounded by huge insects? If you don't suffocate in there, you run the risk of a tunnel collapse or that the enormous spider might decide to sting you and wrap you in its web. And even if all else goes well, what if the peach stops rolling with the opening facing down? Buried alive. I still shudder at the thought of that book... I was also frightened by Shel Silverstein's foot." - Eric Luper