Scary: A Book of Horrible Things for Kids

When I was a kid the only publication I ever had a subscription to was "Owl Magazine". Throughout the years the details of the title have blurred in my mind, but one particular issue stands out clear-as-crystal down to the minutest of details. The issue was about gross and true facts. Things like dust mites and the tiny wriggling worms that live in the dirt underneath your fingernails. Needless to say, I loved that title and did everything in my power to compile a list of gross facts for my own use (though I've long since forgotten what that use was going to be exactly). Since this was in an era long before the Internet (gather round me children and let granny put her teeth in to tell you of that wild and ancient time) my list was never completed and there has been a hole in my life ever since. A hole that has only now, at the grand old age of twenty-seven, been filled with the publication of, "Scary: A Book of Horrible Things For Kids". Allow me to point out that this is not a book for everyone. It is a collection of the dark, the gross, the really gross, and the I-can't-believe-they-are-telling-kids-about-this type stuff. Looking at it in my old age, I am appalled. Looking at it with the knowledge that as a kid I would have adored it, I am elated. Six sordid section divide the book into different areas of awfulness. The first section, "Things That Creep and Crawl" looks at spiders, komodo dragons, and other hungry denizens of the world. "Things That Feed On You" gets into the parasites that feed off of human beings as a whole. "Things That Go Crunch In the Night" is a haphazard thrown-together section of historical figures, most of whom are mythical. "Places Where Shadows Grow" gets into those stories the Sci-Fi Channel likes to mention in ghostly documentaries around the Halloween holiday season. "The Things We've Done", is another pseudo-historical heading, but it inclines slightly more towards facts and less towards fancy. Finally, "Imagine This...If You Dare" is a series of suppositions including, amongst other things, spontaneous human combustion. It's hard to tell exactly why Herrera has decided to place some info in one section rather than another, but this isn't exactly the kind of text your kids will turn to for science papers anyway. It's just dark and silly reading. I got the wrong idea about this book when the first page I turned to while idly flipping through was the section on the candiru. Not only is this the number one MOST horrific section in the book but when you read it you're convinced that it's fiction that even the gaudiest of horror movies might eschew. It doesn't help that Herrera smudges his facts a bit. Now parents, if you want to know whether or not this book is appropriate for you little darlings, the candiru section is a pretty good litmus test of disgust. The book says that the creature is attracted to urine and enters the human body from the most disgusting orifices available. Yeah, I kn

Kids will find reading non-fiction fun when the facts are presented by an imaginary friend, Horris. Reality junkies will enjoy getting the gruesome details about scary creatures that inhabit our planet, and some scary people who once lived here, too. There were several things that even I, a grown up, didn't know! The creative illustrations help endear the reader to the kind, but kooky narrator, Horris, and are wonderful visuals to accompany the stories. The book is broken up into short chapters and stories that make this a perfect bedtime storybook for any brave, inquisitive child. Although a fun read for all ages, second through sixth grade youth will probably be the most enthralled by this book.

This book really stands out, it's not like any other book Ive seen for kids thats for sure. I bought it for a gift for my little brother but then I had to order one for myself. The pictures of horris are really great, they really stand out.

This was a really fun and scary book. I didn't know lobsters were big spiders! Yuck, I am never eating lobsters again!!! Horris is a really neat guy.