In a dark, dark room...
We all know Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series, right? Creepy folktales and urban legends, some creepy, some funny, geared towards kids and with the most awesome, horrifying illustrations ever.
About those illustrations...
What I'm gathering, and about twenty minutes of googling and looking at various book sellers online seems to back up this claim, is that for the 30th anniversary edition, Harper Collins swapped out the Gammell illustrations for Brett Helquist, who did the Series of Unfortunate Events books, and is taking the Schwartz editions out of print. Except that much as I love Alvin Schwartz, who also did some amusing books on folktales and one in particular called Kickle Sniffers and Other Fearsome Critters that got me really interested in cryptids... the stories were kind of forgettable. They were every urban legend I'd ever heard. The illustrations made them worth remembering, and they were what creeped me out, and why I had to leave the books in the car when I checked them out from the library. (I had this thing when I was younger where I loved scary books but had an irrational fear of actually bringing them inside the house. I think I thought they'd kill me in my sleep or something. But I still loved them.) And after Scott and I picked up the treasury edition of Scary Stories, I still have to have it hidden in a safe place where I can't accidentally stumble over it and have it kill me in my sleep.
Anyway, it's irritating.
About those illustrations...
What I'm gathering, and about twenty minutes of googling and looking at various book sellers online seems to back up this claim, is that for the 30th anniversary edition, Harper Collins swapped out the Gammell illustrations for Brett Helquist, who did the Series of Unfortunate Events books, and is taking the Schwartz editions out of print. Except that much as I love Alvin Schwartz, who also did some amusing books on folktales and one in particular called Kickle Sniffers and Other Fearsome Critters that got me really interested in cryptids... the stories were kind of forgettable. They were every urban legend I'd ever heard. The illustrations made them worth remembering, and they were what creeped me out, and why I had to leave the books in the car when I checked them out from the library. (I had this thing when I was younger where I loved scary books but had an irrational fear of actually bringing them inside the house. I think I thought they'd kill me in my sleep or something. But I still loved them.) And after Scott and I picked up the treasury edition of Scary Stories, I still have to have it hidden in a safe place where I can't accidentally stumble over it and have it kill me in my sleep.
Anyway, it's irritating.