Still More Tales for the Midnight Hour

To be effective, horror stories for children need to involve children in situations that they can relate to. That precondition applies in this case, these thirteen stories all involve plot lines that young teens will understand and can consider a part of their lives. Some of the stories involve the usual "I dare you to do it", involving the entry into a graveyard at night, walking into a haunted house and moving out into the forest at night. My favorite story is "The Wax Museum", where two boys named Andrew and Robbie visit a wax museum on a school field trip. The figures look very real and Andrew cannot keep his hands off of the figures. In a bit of bravado, Andrew hides out in the museum so he is locked in for the evening. As he awakens, he suddenly realizes that the figures have come alive and they are angry with him for disturbing them. The next day, Robbie goes back to the museum and sees that Andrew has been turned into wax and his head is on the chopping block. These tales do not involve any depth of character development. However, they are effective in generating some chills in thrills as they explore circumstances of thrills and chills.

This collection of scary stories appeals mostly to the very young reader. Each story is quite short and simple. The typical story has a short build-up with a simple shock ending like "there was a skeleton at the door." Stories lack the resolutions older or more accomplished readers will want but for the style they are really rather entertaining. The stories range widely in their focus. The reader meets monsters, vampires, witches, bad fortunes and all manner of scary thing. This is the third in a series. It has also been collected with the fourth volume (EVEN MORE TALES FOR THE MIDNIGHT HOUR) in another book called TALES FOR THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, VOLUME TWO (ISBN 0-7607-6776-9).

"Still More Tales for the Midnight Hours" is ideal for reluctant young horror readers since the stories are easy to read, relatively bloodless, and short (approximately 9 pages each). If you like Alvin Schwartz's "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" series, then you'll probably like this one as well--the other books being "Tales for the Midnight Hour," "More Tales for the Midnight Hour," and "Even More Tales for the Midnight Hour." Listed below are the short stories in this book:1) "Cemetery Road" -- A new girl living next to a cemetery is dared to remove a collar from a ghost-cat that supposedly haunts the cemetery.2) "The Wax Museum" -- Two boys on a class trip to a wax museum discover that the mannequins are real.3) "Tailypo" -- A retelling of a classic American folk story about a creature who comes back for the tail a man has eaten.4) "Words of Warning" -- A boy is warned not to visit a certain haunted house, but, giving in to temptation, he does.5) "The Ghost's Revenge" -- Set during the Civil War, a young woman engaged to a soldier vows to never marry if her fiancee dies.6) "A Special Treat" -- A wife fixes a surprise beef dinner for her husband, even though her husband must "never eat red meat."7) "The Magic Vanishing Box" -- A boy buys a magic vanishing box with one simple warning on it: "Don't catch your hand inside this lid..."8) "Wait Till Max Comes" -- Another folk story retelling of a man who seeks shelter in a house occupied by four cats. (There's another version of this folk story in Schwartz's "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.")9) "The Old Beggar Woman" -- A rich snob is cursed after she ignores the pleads of a starving, old woman.10) "The Masked Ball" -- While at a masked Halloween ball, a young woman is haunted by the images of a vampire.11) "Skin-and-Bones" -- Set in the 19th century, a traveler is warned of a skeletal hitchhiker who kills those who give her a ride.12) "The Snake Charmer" -- A young woman is tormented by a snake charmer's incessant music until she gives him what he wants: a lock of her hair.13) "The Snipe Hunt" -- During a camping trip initiation, four boys must capture a snipe and make it back to camp alive.

This was actually my first JB Stamper book I ever read. It immediately sucked me in and I soon bought all the Tales for the midnight Hour series. In a few years Stamper released the Night Fright series and I bought all those too. This book is a perfect read for all those kids who like the RL stine goosebump books, and the Alvin Schwarz folklore scary stories. Some stories in this book include: Tailypo(one of my personal JB STamper favorites) it's a version of an old appalachian mountain folktale about a man who lives deep in the woods by himself and his 3 dogs and one night encounters an extremely strange creature- I have since heard other versions of this folktale but Stampers tale is in my opinion the best. Wait till Max comes:Also a classic american folktale- this one about a man caught out in a storm who gradually starts to notice that the stray cats in this lonesome cottage aren't ordinary cats. These are not the best stories in the book, although in my opinion they are a couple of the best ones, but all of JB Stampers scary collections (Tales for the midnight hour series, and Night fright series) are well worth a read especially if you are a kid who is a fan of scary stories!