The Illustrations in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Sorry to put a jump scare in your timeline by showing you the cover of this book of mostly innocuous stories that is written explicitly for young readers. That said, the far-too-intense illustrations are the whole point.

In 2011, reasonable people at the publisher updated the illustrations on a new edition to be less terrifying. This is now clearly understood to have been a mistake and current editions feature Stephen Gammell’s original nightmarish ink paintings.

As a child these books were exactly the right amount of scary. Share them with kids at exactly the right time and they will be a source of deeply unsettled joy and fun.