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Everyone has fond memories of those delightful children's books that shaped our young psyches and proved that reading truly is fun!-damental. But not all of those stories are quite as innocent as they seemed at first glance. From God-fearing vegetables and defecation to lion attacks and Hiroshima destruction, the literature of little ones is full of inadvertent horror and old-fashioned creepiness. In honor of National Children's Book Day, we've pulled together our favorite creepy children's titles guaranteed to haunt your kids for life.
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Thursday 02 April
By Drea_Manon
Have you ever heard of the classic german children's tale, Struvvelpeter? Now that's an effing scary book
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Thursday 02 April
By Moonchild0703
Children shouldn't read these books because they are scary---yet we send them to public schools????
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Thursday 02 April
By andjant969
Creepy websites kids probably shouldn't surf:
1. AOL
2. Asylum
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Thursday 02 April
By Greenstorm33
Polar Express? Where the Wild Things Are?? Dr. Seuss?!?!
Okay, seriously, who compiled this list? I can understand a few of these, like the one on Hiroshima, but others are actually good stories. Just the other day my friend was talking about how much he used to love Where the Wild Things Are. I personally have fond memories of reading Dr. Seuss books back in early elementary school. Did the person who wrote this list even look at the books?
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Thursday 02 April
By TxLibrarian
This list is compiled according to whom? What qualifies anyone to determine "weirdness" of a book? Personally, I would find "Lord of the Rings" far more "weird" than "Where the Wild Things Are?" Of course, my "weird" kids (at toddler/preschool age) loved "Everyone Poops" because --- well, everyone does. And, while many of these titles seem "weird" to adults, most of them are quite sweet and appealing to children.
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Friday 03 April
By Adam
Of course what makes stories "weird" to these people are things that don't consist of the latest escapades of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears. AOL is just like every other "media" outlet on the internet--they want our kids to turn out to be slobbering mindless drones.
Thursday 02 April
By Kara
I don't know about the book, but the movie Coraline was pretty creepy.
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Thursday 02 April
By Michelle
My 9 year old and I read the book (she read it first). It was great, Neil Gaiman is an awesome writer...he also did stardust. If you haven't read anything by him you guys are missing out!!!
Thursday 02 April
By Teach
I do believe someone hit the sarcasm juice pretty hard before writing this.
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Friday 03 April
By Fern
We really are raising a generation of soft, weak children. It has gone from the ridiculous to the absurd!
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Thursday 02 April
By Bonnie
You think the movie 'Coraline' was creepy? Try the book. One of the weirdest, most disturbing tales I've read in a while. And this is for 8 and up?
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Thursday 02 April
By RMM65
DID THEY PUT HARRY POTTER ON THE LIST?? THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT DEVILS, WITHCHES, EVIL AND THE OCCULT, AND YET THEY PUT VEGGIE TALES ON THE BAD LIST. IT DOES TALK ABOUT GOD, HIS GOODNESS, AND YET IT'S CONDEMMMED. DID THE AUTHOR OF HARRY POTTER PAY AOL TO PUT THIS CRAP ON???? OR THE TEACHERS UNION, THE COMMUNIST TEACHING UNION. ONCE I HEARD OF A REAL WITCH TELL KIDS AT A BOOK STORE THEY WERE PLAYING WITH MAGIC THEY SHOULDN'T BE PLAYING WITH. SHE SAID SHE WOULDN'T EVEN LET HER TEEN AGE DAUGHTER, A WITCH, EVEN LOOK AT THOSE BOOKS UNTIL SHE UNDERSTOON WHAT THE SPELLS MEANT.
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Thursday 02 April
By Teach
Good grief, lighten UP!!! There is no possible way the author of this article could have been serious. It was dripping with sarcasm. And even if it is serious - the guy obviously knows very little about either kids or children's literature. But he sure did manage to get some hackles up, didn't he?
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Friday 03 April
By Lin
This is ridiculous. I read Grimm's Fairy Tales when I was a young child and I was entranced. I knew at an early age the stories were not real. I never had nightmares and I did not grow up traumatized. I read ghost stories, vampire stories, right along with light-hearted childrens' stories. I never had nightmares either! If someone has problems from a book like this, it is because of their PARENTS making a big deal out of it.
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Friday 03 April
By Adam
Make your kids read any of Neil Gaiman's works. It will "creep" them out--and make them smarter than AOL's "columnists".
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Friday 03 April
By Kt
"Where The Wild Things Are"?
Really.
You find THAT creepy.
Probably out of all the books I grew up on I never found myself having 'nightmares' over that book.
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Friday 03 April
By mo
absolutely ridiculous list!!!
and struvvelpeter is awesome btw, my brother and i grew up reading it. :)
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Friday 03 April
By heather
Dr. Seuss? Get real!!
I was raised on the Dr., as were my kids, and now my grandkids. Dr. Seuss stories are silly, some have an important moral to tell, but above all, the books were written to encourage kids to enjoy to read, to love words, to be creative and make up new words. I have NEVER met a kid who has been traumatized by his work (and I am an elementary school teacher, so I see LOTS of kids).
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Friday 03 April
By D'ouglie
My mother still often calls me "Douglie," a reminiscence of low self esteem and thinking of myself as ugly throughout my early childhood. I'm an Aspie, with IQ of 170~~ I speak 14 languages, and Harvard paid quite handsomely to educate me at their college.
When I was six, my mother gave me two books, one entitled "I Hate you, I Hate You," and the other entitled "They Didn't Use Their Heads." Both were amusing when read from an adult perspective; for any clumsy child facing total isolation from his peers, there could be no greater detriment.
I completed the first two years of the Calvert home schooling system in a period of 3 weeks, motivated by bank loads of silver quarters shortly after graduating from Kindergarten. My father was an MD, and in Kindergarten, I learned all the bones and major organ systems of the human body~~ by 3rd grade I was reading electrocardiograms, and before high school I had mastered French and German, and was equally fluent in sequencing DNA.
Not to be blowing my horn; life just isn't going my way these days. A few weeks ago, I was hospitalized following a close brush with suicide.
As for the presently imploding economy, and impending insolvency of the Federal Reserve itself, visit my website:-- www.ficovictims.com. All feedback, even if negative, is welcome.
Thank you
Reply
Friday 03 April
By D'ouglie
My mother still often calls me "Douglie," a reminiscence of low self esteem and thinking of myself as ugly throughout my early childhood. I'm an Aspie, with IQ of 170~~ I speak 14 languages, and Harvard paid quite handsomely to educate me at their college.
When I was six, my mother gave me two books, one entitled "I Hate you, I Hate You," and the other entitled "They Didn't Use Their Heads." Both were amusing when read from an adult perspective; for any clumsy child facing total isolation from his peers, there could be no greater detriment.
I completed the first two years of the Calvert home schooling system in a period of 3 weeks, motivated by bank loads of silver quarters shortly after graduating from Kindergarten. My father was an MD, and in Kindergarten, I learned all the bones and major organ systems of the human body~~ by 3rd grade I was reading electrocardiograms, and before high school I had mastered French and German, and was equally fluent in sequencing DNA.
Not to be blowing my horn; life just isn't going my way these days. A few weeks ago, I was hospitalized following a close brush with suicide.
As for the presently imploding economy, and impending insolvency of the Federal Reserve itself, visit my website:-- www.ficovictims.com. All feedback, even if negative, is welcome.
Thank you
Reply