Scary Stories 3 wraps up the Scary Stories trilogy. Like the others, it contains a collection of scary folklores/legends collected by Alvin Schwartz. Following are just a few of my favorites:
Just Delicious: a woman takes her love of liver a bit too far and faces the consquences!
Bess: a farmer receives a fortune involving his favorite mare, Bess. He’s warned that Bess will cause his death. The farmer is in denial, how can a sweet, kind mare be harmful? He learns the hard way that it’s not good to tempt one’s fate.
Harold: a scarecrow created to resemble Harold, a farmer despised by two young men. Unfortunately, the resemblance to this farmer is uncanny….and the scarecrow comes to life.
Maybe You Will Remember: A woman and her sixteen-year-old daughter are visiting Paris. The woman becomes deathly ill, and a local doctor offers to give her some medicine if the daughter comes to his home. She hops in a taxi, which seems to take her in circles. Hours later, after obtaining the medicine for her mother, she returns back to her hotel. Once again, it appears as though she is traveling in circles. She finally arrives at the hotel only to discover their room was given to another guest and the hotel clerk has no record of their stay. All evidence of their existence was erased…all to prevent the residents of Paris from learning about the woman’s true demise.
As with the two other Scary Stories books, notes & sources detailing the origins of the stories is included. This version seems to go into a bit more detail, something I really appreciated.
I thouroughly enjoyed rereading this books from my childhood. The first Scary Stories is probably my favorite, closely followed by the third. Ranking them in terms of “scare factor”, the first is most definitely the scariest, followed by the third, and finally the second.
I highly recommend this series to middle graders on the hunt for a classic scary read!
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