The Ankle Grabber

I loved this book my dad got it for me when I was like 6 I went from stories like this to R.L. Stine and then to Stephen King. It's a book I look foward to giving my children

Rose Impey and Moira Kemp are 'Brits' who team up to craft shivery stories for young ones. They unleash all the scariness of a child going to bed in a room alone, and this theme never fails to reach out and grab readers. Their scary stories are best read by someone who will comfort and reassure with conviction, and also share laughs over this very common dilemma of childhood . . . and for however many nights the story is demanded. Artist Kemp is in command of slimy greens and sly purples, and draws her characters knowing that all of us are 'scaredy cats' to a degree. Children seem to require an ounce or two of scariness on their reading lists - - something to give them an excuse for squealing & high drama. When Reviewer mcHaiku was growing up, someone read "Little Orphant Annie" with such hair-raising gusto that the words of Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley have never been forgotten.

Don't you think it's funny how dead wrong the School Library Journal review is, especially since they should know kids. Ah, well. This book is very scary, because it preys on a fear I haven't seen addressed anywhere else but is one of the most common (at least I have it and most kids I knew did). I will say that another book in the same series, "The Flat Man", is even scarier. It scared my daughter to death and she still remembers it fondly. I'm ordering both for my library. Every child deserves to be scared witless.

I read this book when I was younger. I remember, my mum told me not to read scary stories before I went to bed, but I just had to. And, unsurprisingly, found myself too scared to sleep in my own bed.I barely even remember the story now - but I had to sleep bang-smack in the centre of the bed for months, and take running jumps up to my bed for YEARS after reading that, no kidding. It drove my parents mad. (But then, I always was a wimp!)Don't get me wrong, I remember liking the book! If you like stories to leave an impression, then yes, this certainly does...just, don't let your kid read it before bedtime, if they're anything like me!

This book is one of four by Rose Impey known collectively as The Creepies, and that is exactly what they are. They are not intended to comfort children; where did that idea come from? Great for overnight camp-outs when your kids want to scare the bejeezus out of each other.