{"id":2178,"date":"2012-11-30T13:24:41","date_gmt":"2012-11-30T17:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=2178"},"modified":"2012-11-30T13:25:35","modified_gmt":"2012-11-30T17:25:35","slug":"in-a-dark-dark-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/in-a-dark-dark-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"What Was I Scared Of? and Other Dreadful Tales"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve come to see that there is often a difference between what is marketed as children’s horror and what they find truly unsettling. Horror is an atmospheric medium, so illustrations and artwork(even those you might not expect) can terrify on their own or interact with language to create a sense of dread. Following R.L. Stine’s philosophy, it can be written to be so fantastical that it’s a thrilling scare, easily separated from the real, with a billboard on it letting kids know “Hey, this is scary!” Or, it can tap into real fears, but in unreal ways (some, I am sure, that the author never imagined), as this article<\/a> suggests. The comments are surprising (or maybe not). What’s even more interesting is the adult perspective on reading these books not just as children but to them. The Story of Babar, for instance, is mentioned multiple times in the comments as scary and unsettling to both children and adults reading to children because of the scene in which Babar’s mother is killed, but I don’t remember that at all. From looking at the comments, it’s clear that what inspires dread or fear is often very individual… but certain authors and books do stick out. The Velveteen Rabbit, Love You Forever, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Der Struwwelpeter, The Giving Tree, Curious George, The Five Chinese Brothers, and The Runaway Bunny top the list, and it seems that the works of Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, and Hans Christian Andersen should be handled with care. <\/p>\n

Here are some of the titles (not specifically listed above) that people mentioned. Did, or do, any of these disturb you or your child? <\/p>\n

The Little Match Girl, The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, and The Robber Bridegroom by Hans Christian Andersen
\nMadeleine by Ludwig Bemelmans
\nThe Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
\nOlivia by Ian Falconer
\nAre You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
\nThe Duel by Eugene Field
\nOnly One Woof by James Herriott
\nThe Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
\nI Stink! by Kate McMullan
\nWinnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
\nAmelia Bedelia by Peggy Parrish
\nWe’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Helen Oxenbury
\nThe Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Roly Poly Pudding by Beatrix Potter
\nGoodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
\nThe Cat in the Hat, I Had Trouble Getting to Solla Sollew, and What Was I Scared Of? from The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss
\nWhere the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, Kenny’s Window and Higgelty, Piggelty, Pop! There Must be More to Life! by Maurice Sendak
\nA Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
\nThe Starry Messenger by Peter Sis
\nSylvester and the Magic Pebble and The Amazing Bone by William Steig
\nGoosebumps books by R.L. Stine
\nThe Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
\nJumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
\nThe Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
\nMama? by Jeanette Winter
\nThe Lonely Doll by Dare Wright<\/p>\n

If none of these fit the bill for you or the kids you know, which ones did, and why? Comment below and let me know!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve come to see that there is often a difference between what is marketed as children’s horror and what they find truly unsettling. Horror is an atmospheric medium, so illustrations and artwork(even those you might not expect) can terrify on their own or interact with language to create a sense of dread. Following R.L. Stine’s<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,1326,1325,1324,181,979,1198,124,130,1217,799,1327,1323],"class_list":["post-2178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-childrens-books","tag-dr-seuss","tag-fairy-tales","tag-hans-christian-andersen","tag-horror-genre","tag-maurice-sendak","tag-outside-over-there","tag-r-l-stine","tag-reading","tag-scary-books-for-kids","tag-scary-stories-for-kids","tag-the-cat-in-the-hat","tag-the-story-of-babar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2178"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2180,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions\/2180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}