Six Scary Stories

I have a book recommendation for you guys! Six Scary Stories is just what it sounds like. Stephen King selected the stories in this book and also wrote the introduction. King judged a scary story competition and out of the over 800 entries, he especially liked these six. The first story in this book was the winner of the competition, but he thought that another five were also so great that they should be published along with the winning story in one book. And they are all great! I'm actually still haunted by a few of these weeks after reading them.

I found this book while wandering around the library. I was hoping something fun and spooky would pop out. I happened to look up to the top of a shelf and there was Six Scary Stories. The Frankenstein sticker was a good sign.

What little sticker does your library use to identify the Horror books? We used to have a skull, but evidently we have Frankenstein now. I think he looks pretty good with this cover.

What a bunch of fancy scrolly stuff going on there! And I see the book was put out by "Cemetery Dance Publications". 

Here are the six story titles:

I'll give you a quick overview of each, without spoiling much of anything.

1) Wild Swimming: Stephen King's favorite. This one is told entirely through printed emails. I don't believe I've ever read a story in that form. The email format added some urgency to the story. I also wasn't familiar with "wild swimming" as an activity before reading this. Turns out it's a thing! (A thing I will never be doing, but I'm sure it's quite the experience)

2) Eau-de-Eric: This story is creepy in so many ways. There are some familiar themes in the plot that usually scare people, but when those themes are put together the story is new. It might be up for debate what some of those themes even are. But loosely I'd say, kids, toys, and possession for sure. Possibly some form of sorcery and a haunting. A not so familiar theme is the power of scent memory. I might be thinking about cologne differently after reading this.

3) The Spots: I think it's fair to say this one is a little political, definitely in a historical way. This is one of those deep thinkers. You'll think about dictators, delusion, and brainwashing. It's still traditional Horror, though.

4) The Unpicking: This one is hands down the most disturbing. Just yikes. I had to stop reading this a few times and just say "What!? No." It's like Toy Story, but with no sentimentality! That's putting it lightly, but I don't want to give away the plot.

5) La Mort de L'Amant: This is a clever one. If you're into true crime, you'll see it through that lens. I was kept on edge while reading it. It's probably very true to some real life close call situations.

6) The Bear Trap: I liked this one a lot. It's probably my favorite story of the six. Very apocalyptic, but somehow there's a little humor sprinkled in. 

Three of the stories include stuffed animals. That could be a coincidence. I have a theory that people are afraid of things that are usually seen as small and harmless turning on them. Children, stuffed animals, dolls, etc. It's probably a feeling of "If even this innocent looking person or item could turn on me, nothing is safe!" 

If you're interested, the three that have kept haunting me are Eau-de-Eric, The Unpicking, and The Bear Trap. I just realized after seeing those titles typed out in a row that those are the three involving children and stuffed animals!

The woman on the cover goes with the first story, as you could probably guess!

This is one of my favorite bookmarks and the one I used while reading this. It's one of those fun freebies from the library. I picked a particularly creepy page from the book to photograph it on.

If any of you have read this book, I would love to discuss it with you! 👻

A Christmas mashup of Steiff and Dr. Seuss!

Every year for the past 46 years, a bank in downtown Milwaukee has been putting up a display for Christmas. They use a vast collection of Steiff animals and every year there's a different theme. I've taken photos every year we've gone to see the display, but I can't remember sharing any of them here. The lighting is usually kind of green and funky in the bank. But the bank now has new lighting and that made everyone and everything in there look a lot more healthy (including me). Along with the warmer, happier lights, they had maybe my favorite theme ever this year: characters from Dr. Seuss books!

Every year, we see the same giant Steiff animals dressed in costumes. After this many years, I feel like I know them. You can definitely recognize what's under there. And I'm sure it goes without saying who this bear is dressed as. I think it's so cool that they made a new coat of green fur to cover his regular fur.

This little deer is posing as the Grinch's dog, Max. It's funny since Max was playing a deer. Kind of a mind-bender, here.

Someone designed a cave for this Grinch bear and inside of it was hanging little Steiff bats. These bats are some of my favorite little critters there.

You'll notice the markings inside the cave and on some of the creatures' outfits look like the kind of line work Dr. Seuss would do. I appreciated all those details.

Remember those toys that drove The Grinch nuts on Christmas morning?

Now here's a character you're all going to recognize! The Cat in the Hat. What a perfect use for that little black cat or panther who appears every year.

I haven't read all of the inspiration books. I've read maybe three or four of them. Now I'm wanting to read them all! One I haven't read is The Sneetches. Do you guys know about The Sneetches? They seem like early Minions, since they're a bunch of little yellow things running around.

This display is from another one that's new to me: The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. Does that book ring a bell with anyone? The hats:

And I'm assuming Bartholomew as a rabbit:

I thought this was one of the cuter animals.

These next pics are from Horton Hears a Who. Here's Horton with those cool drawn on ears. And check out his eyelashes!

I loved the Seussy trees they created. I think the kind of 2D drawn looking trees paired well with those bright, flocked ones.

Yertle the Turtle:

A sweet face:

This one is from Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? He looks like a missing Marx Brother, which I know has nothing to do with this theme.

There's a Bugs Bunny joke in here...

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish:

I just learned that this character's name is Nook and he's in the fish book.

I think this "Nook" is so funny because they chose a grumpy looking bear.

The Street of the Lifted Lorax:

This tiger is one of my favorite animals, year after year.

The Lorax, himself:

I think this is something from Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!

Gertrude McFuzz:

And to Think That I saw it on Mulberry Street:

Green Eggs and Ham:

That sign has more to do with the bank than this display. :)

These characters went with a favorite Dr. Seuss book of mine Oh, The Places You'll Go:

Every once in a while, I'd see a wrapped present in the snow. Some of them were wrapped in cool Dr. Seuss wrapping paper. I didn't even know there was Dr. Seuss wrapping paper. Now that I know about it, I'd like to have some!

I think I'd especially enjoy wrapping presents in this paper:

I hope you all enjoyed this Christmas Steiff tour through the Dr. Seuss books! I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🎄

P.S. ~ I just learned tonight that those are real trees under all that colorful flocking!