SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Fusenews
  • Reviews
  • Librarian Previews
  • Best Books
    • Top 100
    • Best Books of 2022
    • Best Books of 2021
    • Best Books of 2020
    • Best Books of 2019
    • Best Books of 2018
    • Best Books of 2017
    • Best Books of 2016
    • Best Books of 2015
    • Best Books of 2014
    • Best Books of 2013
  • Fuse 8 n’ Kate
  • Videos
  • Press Release Fun

October 29, 2007 by Betsy Bird

Review of the Day: The Scary States of America

October 29, 2007 by Betsy Bird   3 comments


With Halloween nigh, I hereby dedicate this week to Halloween-related postings.  Reviews, news items, the whole kerschmozzle.  It’s a spooky time of year, so let’s get a couple good spooky books on the shelves.  Here’s today’s contribution.

The Scary States of America
By Michael Teitelbaum
Delacorte Books (Random House imprint)
$7.99
ISBN: 978-0385733311
Ages 10 and up
On shelves now

I bet you could have a lot of fun if you gathered a group of children’s librarians together and asked them which requests they get the most from kids. You’d have the standard boring answers like, "mysteries" or "books like ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’ ". There would also be the weird answers like, "samurais" and "anything that takes place in Barbados". I’d bet good money that some of the answers would be a mix of both, though. For example, it couldn’t have been a month ago when a kid came up to me asking for a book involving aliens. "Do you want real aliens or stories about them?" I asked. The kid wavered a bit, and that was when I knew what book I could have recommended right then and there (had it been on my shelf and available). "The Scary States of America" by Michael Teitelbaum is the title to hand to any kid who wonders where on earth they can find some good old-fashioned scary stories. There’s only so many times you can hand someone a copy of "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" before they start getting bored. Teitelbaum’s book is certainly bereft of creepy pictures, but the images that pop up in this bit of kiddie horror will undoubtedly stay in your mind much longer than you initially anticipated. Hand this out to kids looking for tales of the strange, wild, and weird, but be sure they can handle the spooks (not to mention gore). There’s something for everyone in this book.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Here’s the concept: There are fifty states in America and for each one our hero, Jason Specter, has collected a spooky tale. Jason is the creator of a very popular blog chronicling every possible supernatural event he can get his hands on. Jason used to be just your average kid, until a close encounter with someone sad and incredibly dead brought the wider weirder world out there to his personal attention. Thanks to his friends in all fifty states, this is a compilation of one story per state. Sometimes these stories involve creatures native only to certain areas. The Skunk Ape of Florida or the Jersey Devil of… well, New Jersey. For other states you’ll just hear about ghosts, alien encounters, and other paranormal phenomena of varying levels of danger. Some stories end happily. Some most definitely do not. In the end, Jason encourages his readers to contribute their own scary tales to his website. In the meantime, he asks that people keep their eyes and minds wide open.

First of all, Mr. Teitelbaum has done his research. I was unaware of the existence of such fiends as that moth creature some people believe in or the shadow people. That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been stories about them before, of course. I just hadn’t been aware of some of the regional rumors out there. Of the creatures I acutally had heard of, Teitelbaum knows the rules. For example, when you come across a night marcher in Oahu, it is best to close your eyes and never look at them. That’s a given. Having to find 50 regional creepy critters for each and every state can be a bit daunting though, so the author dips into alien abduction tales as well as other mysterious goings on. Basically everything from your classic ghosts, werewolves, and witches meld with the less common bleeding houses and lizard men.

Each section begins with a real world fact under the heading, "What I learned in history class". Following that is a piece of information on the state being discussed. Things like, "The rocket used by Apollo 13 was designed, built, and tested at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama." I was disappointed to find that the scary story following this fact under the heading "A story you won’t find in your textbook" didn’t relate to this fact in the least. If the Alabama fact was about space travel, I figured the story would be about aliens or interplanetary connections. Instead it was that old Hitchhiker urban legend. It would have been neat to link the two together, I think. Ditto the Massachusetts history mention of the Salem Witch Trials. No witches to be seen in that little section and this is a pity. It would have made for a nice tie-in.

And of course, the difficulty that comes with taking regional mysteries is that they can sometimes sound familiar. In chronicling an escape from a Skunk Ape in Florida, it’s difficult not to see parallels with someone else’s encounter with Bigfoot in Alaska. Or how one ghost story mirrors another, in spite of changes in place and name. Almost all the stories are compelling in some way, though. Considering how short they are (rarely longer than ten pages), it’s impressive that Teitelbaum is able to work in as much as he can within such limited space.

Urban legends never die. They just morph into children’s books. Consider pairing this book with the compelling title "Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures That May or May Not Exist". Both books deal with otherworldly creatures. One just has the benefits of fiction on its side. Plus, with the sheer length of this book on hand, you can bet that this will keep any kid satisfied and terrified for many long car rides to come. A book that fulfills a need.

Misc: Go here to see Jason Specter’s blog.

Filed under: Reviews

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments

About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

March 2023

Review of the Day - Trees: Haiku from Roots to Leaves by Sally M. Walker, ill. Angela McKay

by Betsy Bird

March 2023

Review of the Day: Hands by Torrey Maldonado

by Betsy Bird

February 2023

Review of the Day: Afterward, Everything Was Different by Rafael Yockteng, ill. Jairo Buitrago

by Betsy Bird

February 2023

Review of the Day: Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself created by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge

by Betsy Bird

February 2023

Review of the Day: The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri, ill. Daniel Miyares

by Betsy Bird

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

One Star Review, Guess Who? (#184)

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Review of the Day – Trees: Haiku from Roots to Leaves by Sally M. Walker, ill. Angela McKay

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Review: Nat the Cat Takes a Nap

by Esther Keller

Heavy Medal

March suggestions: early Mock Newbery possibilities

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Here Be Monsters: On Horror, Catharsis, and Uneasy Truces with Yourself, a guest post by author Rebecca Mahoney

by Karen Jensen, MLS

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Newbery Medalist Amina Luqman-Dawson visits The Yarn

by Colby Sharp

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

Hopeful Titles for Hard Times | Pondering Printz

SLJ’s Reviews of the 2022 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Longlisters

Presenting the NCTE 2021 Notable Poetry Books and Verse Novels

SLJ Reviews of the 2021 Youth Media Awards

Bank Street Announces 2020 Cook Prize and Irma Black Award Winner

About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. jocelyn says

    November 2, 2008 at 1:35 pm

    hello i love how people can see what other people can’t see because i am a paranormal and i can communicate with ghost and i have this strange powers and some say that i am so crazy so i love your work.
    love
    jocelyn gomez CA

  2. curtis says

    March 3, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    i love your book but what about the other storie in texas “the texas chainsaw massacare” in texas

  3. curtis says

    March 3, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    i love your book but what about the other storie in texas “the texas chainsaw massacare” in texas

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

  • External Links

    • A Fuse #8 Production Reviews
  • Follow This Blog

    Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    Primary Sidebar

    • News & Features
    • Reviews+
    • Technology
    • School Libraries
    • Public Libraries
    • Age Level
    • Ideas
    • Blogs
    • Classroom
    • Diversity
    • People
    • Job Zone

    Reviews+

    • Book Lists
    • Best Books
    • Media
    • Reference
    • Series Made Simple
    • Tech
    • Review for SLJ
    • Review Submissions

    SLJ Blog Network

    • 100 Scope Notes
    • A Fuse #8 Production
    • Good Comics for Kids
    • Heavy Medal
    • Neverending Search
    • Teen Librarian Toolbox
    • The Classroom Bookshelf
    • The Yarn

    Resources

    • 2022 Youth Media Awards
    • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
    • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
    • Summer Reading 2021
    • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
    • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
    • Summer Programming Survey
    • Research
    • White Papers / Case Studies
    • School Librarian of the Year
    • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
    • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

    Events & PD

    • In-Person Events
    • Online Courses
    • Virtual Events
    • Webcasts
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Media Inquiries
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Content Submissions
    • Data Privacy
    • Terms of Use
    • Terms of Sale
    • FAQs
    • Diversity Policy
    • Careers at MSI


    COPYRIGHT © 2023


    COPYRIGHT © 2023