Craven House Horrors

I stumbled upon this sinister little number as a third-grader, and it made an immediate and indelible impression. Light years creepier than the underpowered "Choose Your Own Adventure" series, with bizarre, disturbing and suberbly-drawn illustrations by Paul Frame, the "Plot Your Own Horror" books were serious business, and this one was always my favorite.

Honestly, David Greenblat - grow up a bit. The whole point of this book is to scare - it's a horror book about a haunted house, for goodness sake! The fact that it left such an impression on you means it did its job!! Parents, if you don't want your children reading books about haunted houses, then don't buy it, but if you don't mind that kind of fun then this is a wonderful book with many well-written and memorable adventures that I plan to buy for my own children for Christmas this year. I too have strong memories and images from reading this book as a pre-teen, and several of the adventures described were indeed terrifying, but not unjustly or overtly so. Something kept me coming back again and again to read and re-read this wonderful book. Don't let prudish David Greenblat mislead you -- this book is quality and well-crafted.