Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz and Illustrated by Stephen Gammell

This book is exactly what the title suggests, "Scary Stories". Although maybe they should also add the words "Graphic," and "Gruesome" to the title. My literature group chose this book for the Banned Book Rational, and you can see from page one why the book was banned. The first story is about a boy who finds a toe, then takes it home where his mother cooks it for the family to eat. Don't get me wrong, this book was awesome! I had a blast reading it, but that doesn't mean I would read it to any children. One reason it was banned was because of the very detailed and graphic illustrations provided by Stephen Gammell. Although these ink wash drawings are amazing in composition and detail of tone variation, they are not appropriate for some readers. I understand that the book is intended for the 9-12 age range, but even that seems a bit low. In one case the book was banned after it was read to first graders. This is more the fault of that particular teacher rather than the creators of the books, but it does prove the point that this book is scary! I'm not sure who to suggest it to this time, because I am still not entirely convinced that the age range it is intended for is right, but regardless, if you want an easy, but gruesomely fun read, I highly suggest this book.